The first steelhead you ever hooked....

[IronMtn]

3 years ago at Sailor bar on the Lower American. Had just recently moved to Sacramento with no clue what a steelhead was, other than a really big fish that I could catch in that river right down the street. The only fishing gear I owned was a closet full of bass jigs, an old fishing vest, and a pair of neoprene waders that were given to me as a present that Christmas. This trip to the American was officially my 1st time ever casting a fly rod.

The rod was an 8' 5wt (a very soft 5wt I might add) that belonged to my dad and had never been used before. I guess I had a general idea of how I was supposed to cast a fly rod at the time, but looking back at it now, I really had no clue. I was using a fly that my brother-in-law (who is a seasoned northwestern steelheader) had given to me. Some big black bushy thing (although the image of the fly is very clear in my mind, I don't think that I've ever seen its likeness anywhere else).

After about 5 hours of wading, thrashing, and untying knots from my line I finally gave up. Trying to cast a fly that weighs about as much as the rod being used to cast it can be difficult for a beginner, but what did I know. Frustrated and bleeding from a hook wound to my right arm, I decided to cross back through the river and walk back to the car. Having not yet retrieved the fly from my last cast I decided to let it hang below me down river about 10-15 yards bouncing in the current as I crossed the river.

When I was about half-way across (the deepest part of the run, of course) a huge tug on that nasty black fly sent the rod (reel and all) splashing into the river. I clammered with both hands in the water to grab the rod and ended up with one hand on the reel and other about two feet up the length of the rod. I guess you could say I "ripped" the rod up out of the water (not a recommended technique) and *snap*. 30 ft of fly line came flying back and hit me in the chest. I looked up from the pile of fly line at my waist and a (I'm gonna say 10 lb, but it could have been 2 lb and it wouldn't have mattered) steelhead came flying out of the water 3 times just below me.

That night I ended up staying on the river until it was too dark to see, standing in the middle of that run dangling a fly downstream until I couldn't feel my feet anymore.

Good times.

[Bryan Morgan]

A few years ago , when the flows were up, I landed a 6lb male in the side channel at the upper American on a #14 Caddis imitation. A guy was watching from up above. It took me all the way down to the outlet. He got a pcture of it and I let it go. Too bad we dont have the flows in the river that we had then.Beautiful. Long gone.!

[Fats]

The first steelhead I ever hooked was on the flies only water on the Pere Marquette in Michigan. I was working at a Fly Shop in Southern Michigan and had lots of experience with Bass, Blue Gill and Trout. Steelhead were in the same category as Unicorns. Anyway, I was bottom bouncing nymphs in this run and hooked up with a hen. I had this fish on and was pretty excited by it. I didn't want to lose the fish and I wanted it really bad. One of the "kids" in the shop was with us and started hoping up and down in the river trying to make it "jump!" I lost the fish a couple of minutes later. I could have killed Russ, but he had no idea it was "my first." It was the start of a love/hate relationship with the metalheads that persists to this day.

I like fishing for these guys out West. It's more like fly fishing that much of the stuff that goes on in the Great Lakes. Bottom bouncing is effective and can be refined but I love "casting" flies for fish!

[huntindog]

it was an 8 lb beat up, spawned out fish I caught when I was 13 years old, caught it on a 7 1/2 foot fenwick rod with a pflueger real. i was using a little salmon alevin pattern fishing on the feather at bedrock park in oroville