We concluded the day feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the wonderful fishing we were able to experience in this special place. We couldn't have imagined a more perfect day - fishing in beautiful surroundings, the fellowship of great friends, and unforgettable surface steelhead encounters. The rises and hookups we encountered would live long in the memory and yet the pace at which we were receiving these blessings was where each and every rise from these wild steelhead required enough effort and persistence as to keep them from becoming too commonplace and taken for granted.
-Todd Hirano
pitched on the water. As a result, many fish fell to his fly early on as it swept through the pool.
It’s also worth noting that Grant rarely, if ever, struck into a salmon, rather allowing the fish to take up the tension in the line to hook itself. He strongly believed that the fly, when fished on a long line, presented slower to the fish than a shorter line, resulting in a firmer hook-hold. In the vast majority of cases, he basically allowed the salmon to hook themselves. He is reported to have said “The surest-hooked fish, all being equal, is with a long line and none of this nonsense about “Hitting a fish on the rise!”
He was also very critical about the effectiveness of greased line fishing, believing that a floating line put the fish down. He argued it was alright if only the fly came within the fish’s optical window, but in his own words “ no fish would like to see a big, black snake floating over its head as the line would look dark to a fish looking up at it against the light”