IN 1984 BUZZ RAMSEY HIT a string of steelhead luck while fishing the Thompson River in British Columbia . It was there that Ramsey cemented his name as one of the most recognizable steelhead fishermen in North America . While working for Luhr Jensen he traveled to Canada . On his first trip he landed a 25-pound , 13-ounce steelhead that was a lineclass world record with the International Game Fish Association .
So impressed with the fishery , and its class of steelhead , he returned that same year and caught another line-class record , this time eclipsing his previous record by nearly five pounds .
This is Buzz ’ s story in his own words .
“ As much as I steelhead fished , and I steelhead fished a lot , it seemed like catching a 20-pound fish was a little elusive for me . Although looking back I probably did catch a 20-pounder but I didn ’ t have a good scale . It was a winter fish on the Trask and it was 39 inches long . It probably weighed 20 pounds ; don ’ t know for sure . I had them on , I ’ d hook them , but I couldn ’ t ever land them , something would happen . Someone knocked it off the net , had some of those ; but then I caught a fish that I had to release , it was a hatchery fish , but it had an eroded dorsal , but I had to release it on the Deschutes , but it was 39 inches long . It was real , heavy-bodied summer run , it was probably 20 pounds . Not every fish that ’ s 39 inches long is 20 pounds , but I think that one was .
“ When I was at ( Luhr ) Jensen we went up to Canada ; this was in 1984 to meet with some of the customers , and made the rounds with the accounts and we fished the Thompson River that runs into the Fraser . Just fishing from the bank , which a lot of people did at the time . I caught a 25-pound , 13-ounce steelhead , weighed it on a certified scale . And entered into the record book , at the time it was a line-class record . I was using 17-pound Trilene which breaks just over 20 and throws you into the 30-pound line class . So it was a lineclass record on 30-pound test even though it was on 17-pound test . Like most monofilaments , Trilene breaks over what the label says .
“ I was so impressed with the fishery because all of them were kind of big . They were all 12- to 16-pounds . So I thought , ‘ Jeez I can bring by boat up here .’ We asked around about it . Very few people did it because there ’ s a lot of whitewater in that river . So I took my sled up there , we fished five days and we landed , as I recall , I think we landed 24 steelhead , three of us in five days , and we had fish break us off . We were backtrolling plugs . That ’ s what seemed to work mostly . And I remember were backtrolling on this one spot , and I hooked a fish . And it ran so hard it broke me off . I ’ m sitting there backtrolling and retying , I get a plug on , make sure it ’ s tuned right , a 25 HotShot , silver , blue top was hands down the best color ; we tried every color there was . Anyway , I was holding the boat in the current kind of steering the boat . I put that plug out there and didn ’ t wiggle a minute and my rod pounces down and this steelhead takes off and it ’ s running like crazy , and it ’ s cartwheeling out of the water , it must have jumped 10 times . I mean this fish was like , Whoa . The 25-pounder I caught , which was on a side-planer and a plug , it fought but not that great really . It was kind of a wallower . Maybe it was moving up the river that morning , and maybe it was tired . I don ’ t know . At any rate , this fish fought like a 30-pounder . It was unbelievable . It was the hardest fighting steelhead I ever hooked . And jumped like a mad man . It jumped 6-8 feet out of the water . Literally . Anyway , I finally got it up , and it would ’ ve gone out of the hole . The tailout was 300 yards away . It was down there where I was worried that it was going to go through the rapids , which looked like Colorado Rapids on the Deschutes . I didn ’ t really want to backtroll through that thing , or chase the fish through it . Anyway , I used the boat to walk it back upstream , just lead it back upstream because it was tired . It settled down .
“ I pulled into the bank , and my buddy John Thomas was with me . And an outdoor writer by the name of John Chamberlain was with us . I was going to let it go . Literally . Because I already had a 25-pound 13-ouncer at the taxidermist , and I really couldn ’ t afford to mount another one . And I didn ’ t think it weighed 30-pounds . Yeah it was big , but I figured it weighed a pound or two more than the one I had caught but so what . Anyway , my buddy John who fished steelhead a lot , like a mad man , and he used to live up in Washington where there were more big steelhead . He ’ d been around trophy fish more than I had been . John says , “ That fish weighs 30 pounds .” It was swimming around the boat . I even set the rod down , slack line everything . I said , ‘ Nah .’ He said , “ Oh yeah , that weighs 30 pounds , don ’ t let it go .” We let every fish go on that trip . But I had this one up and I was going to let it go . He kept pestering me about it so I put a tape measure on it . It was 43 ½ inches long . It might weigh 30 pounds . It was a pretty long fish , and it was real girthy . It had a 27 ½-inch girth if I recall . At this point I set the rod down to get a tape measure on it while it was in the water . And it ’ s swimming around under the boat ; it could ’ ve gotten away 10 times from the hook falling out or breaking the line on the sharp gunnel of the sled . So I thought , ‘ Well I think you ’ re right .’ So I pulled in the line put my hand in his gill and picked him up and put it in the boat . We didn ’ t have a net because we weren ’ t going to keep any . Anyway ( John ) was right . It weighed 30 pounds , 5 ounces on a certified scale . Broke my own record and held that IGFA record for nine years .
“ That was the days of newspapers , and of course magazines , but that fish I got in the Oregonian , and the Associated Press picked it up and that went national . Because every newspaper would run that AP stuff , especially something like that . So the same year I caught a 20 , a 25-pounder , broke 25 pounds and broke 30 pounds . So when it rains it pours . I haven ’ t caught a big one since .”
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