It has been a while since I contributed, a new job has me very busy. Here is my latest adventure:

Since my twins were born 6 years ago I have not fished the Oregon coastal rivers. I have been missing them in a big way the last couple of years so decided it was time to return. My lovely wife was kind enough to bless a quick out and back trip so I could visit my favorite, notellum creek.

This particular creek is normally blown out 90% of the time in the winter. My good friend just happened to be fishing it the day before I headed over. He called and said it was blown but dropping. With no rain in the forecast for the next 24 hours it was time to start the 4 hour drive.

When I arrived it was still blown out so I decided to head up as high as I could. It was a good decision as the water was almost perfect where I decided to start fishing. When I hiked down to the river I discovered a man and his 9yo son camping on the first hole. I said hello and asked what their plan was. I wanted to leave all of their water alone so went the opposite direction. After making a couple of scetchy crossings and traversing a cliff on a 1/2" ledge 15' above the water I dropped into the sweet stuff. On a long flat run between two rapids I hooked a fantastic 31" wild hen. She used most of the 150 yd run trying to shake me but in the end conceded the fight. She was released to continue on her journey.

Further down I found a textbook riffle dumping into the head pool of a tributary. The third cast brought another 31" wild hen to hand. Unfortunately my camera battery died before I could get a picture of her. At this point I was thrilled at having had everything come together and hooking and landing two beautiful wild hens. I packed things up, had a snack and was ready to hike out of the canyon. As I sat there looking at this beautiful head pool I couldn't help but think there had to be a nice fish in there. But this pool was huge and very, very deep with rock walls and trees overhanging the river. I couldn't help myself trying for just one more fish.

I found one rock I could get to giving me @ 3' of space from the backdrop. One step out from my perch the water was 10-15' deep so there was no rook for error on my part. I extended my leader to @ 16', added two of the biggest split shot I had and started launching my double glow bug rig upstream. Fortunately I was fishing a Beulah 7/8 switch rod and I was able to make long casts upstream and get long drifts down stream. The nature of most fishermen, myself included, is to want to fish all of the water you can't reach. I recognized that my drifts were not very efficient as I was casting long so I throttled way back. I started working the water right in front of me. On my third close in cast the indicator drifted by my boots 3' out. As it went by I high sticked it and started dropping my tip as it passed. Five feet below me the indicator stopped so I struck as hard as I could. Rock,, as I started to strait line it to break it off I realized it was coming to me. I guessed I had a branch so kept pulling to break it off. That is when I felt the first head shake. I reeled the slack up in record time and got the fish on the reel. When I came tight the fish was still swimming slowly up stream. I knew this was going to be good because this fish still had no idea he was hooked and I was really laying into it. After a long, 20', slow swim upstream he/she came to the surface and rolled. I just about shit myself when I saw the fish. It dove down to the bottom again picking up speed. I was ready but not ready enough for what happened next. The fish accelerated faster than any fish I have ever caught including bonefish and dorado. In less than a second it was across the pool and 5' in the air. My heart sank when I felt the line go limp and I discovered he it had broken off. I have hooked and landed 20lb steelhead pushing 40". This was easily the biggest I have ever hooked. What a perfect way to end my first day back on this wonderful little stream!

Here are a couple pics from the day including a short iPhone video of the water (click the first picture for the video). The ghostly picture is the first hen completely out of the water. A lucky shot that my point and shoot camera did it's best to capture.

I used to fish some rivers in WA when I lived there.

Awesome!

Sounds like a fun trip.... video isn't working for me.