6th Time is a Charm: Steelhead nonyak

After 6 trips total, I finally got myself into some steelhead again. It seems like the steelhead gods only let me catch a fish once every 3 trips, but shoot, I'll take it as a noobie.

Both fish were hatchery fish, 24" male and a 30" female. I saw a guy land a 36" fish near me... I don't think I have personally seen one that big before. I caught both fish on the jig/bobber which was so much fun - a first for me. Seeing that bobber go down and setting the hook might be more satisfying than any type of fishing I have done before.

One thing that I noticed was the smaller fish was zippy and jumped a lot, while the bigger fish fought more like a king - long powerfull reel-burning runs but not super zippy. Is that a known thing about steelhead or was it just me?

I learned a lot of lessons over these past few trips, but the biggest was to get there early- I got back around 7am the next day to try and fish the same spot, but there were three cars and people there fishing with glowing bobbers and glowing tackle... next time if I find fishing that good I might just have to stay in the truck overnight...

OK, I will admit it, I am obsessed. I think my focus forward will be doing some barbless C and R for native fish. Until then, they sure taste good cooked teriyaki-style!

Everyone's going to have to crank their neck to look at my fish porn.. I tried rotating them all 4 directions before uploading and they still end up sideways...