I fished yesterday and the day before. I can get up there less now that I have to be careful of the cost of these trips. I came up empty on Tuesday but I knew there were fish around so I returned yesterday. The usual spots didn't produce so I went up river a bit where I started to throw a spoon. I was able to get it to the other side of the river and I let it fall a bit before applying tension to the line. I knew by how the spoon was wobbling and by the speed of the drift that it was both performing correctly and moving slowly enough in the zone. After a few wump, wump, wumps it felt like I hit something. And then that something started to pull back, at times taking out line. Very cool. That one was a feisty male. It was a very good fight for its 6 lb. size.




I knew there would be one more spot in that area holding promise, so again I hucked the spoon to the other side of the river. It nearly went into the brush, landing in the shallow water at the river's edge. I couldn't let this throw tumble as much so I raised my rod so that the spoon would catch the water's flow. It slowly drifted down with that rhythmic wobble when wham, another hooked fish stopped the drift and then started taking out line. This fish was much larger. I couldn't land her where I was so I climbed down from my rock and landed her a little below. She measure at 31 in., a hen full of beautiful orange eggs.



It had been since October on the Grande Ronde that I have landed a steelhead. I needed this. Getting two fish on this river does not happen that often. On top of that I had wanted to hook a fish on hardware at the beginning of the drift, from the other side of the river, since I heard that it is possible. And I did it twice. If I had only brought my float and jig rod my day would have ended much differently.