Trey, can you tell me about your start in steelheading?
I became aware of what steelhead was when I was in college in Southern California. I was entranced from the moment I saw pictures of Ted Trueblood holding up a steelhead; just couldn’t get the image out of my head. In college, I began research on the subject. It was years before I actually caught one on the fly. I think the first steelhead I ever caught on a fly was on the North Fork of the Stilly. It was one of those little classic Puget Sound 1-year ocean fish.
Was that a Summer-Fish? Like Deer Creek?
Yes, it was a Deer Creek summer fish. I killed it and took it home and was just “knocked-out” that I had caught it on a fly.
Do you remember what year that was?
Late sixties I would guess.
The first winter fish I caught was in the pool just above tidewater on the Hoh. I got 1-year and a 2-year ocean fish on the Hoh one day. They were not very big fish but, I still got them on flies. In those days I don’t think there was even netting on the Hoh. There was no traffic on the river then, or not much. The Upper Hoh of course has gravel bars and drifts to die for--just a beautiful river.
Down at tidewater, we would pick the water that would allow us to swing a fly. You didn’t have quite the latitude we have now. Today we can increase our scope of water because of the heads and sink tips we’ve got. Back then, we were fishing single hand rods.
After that I went a whole year fishing a gear rod and a fly rod but never hooked one fish. Then, I tried fishing the Quinnalt. Fishing a spinning rod the first day, I hooked a summer fish on the upper river that just destroyed me. Probably a 14-15lb hen-- tail walked up the entire pool and broke me off on my Mitchell 300. In disbelief I wondered, “What was that?!” From that point on I was just insane for steelhead and couldn’t get enough of it.