Steelhead 2012

After a nice stressful three days to complete a deadline, Butch and I headed down to the Clearwater to try our hand at Steelhead fishing.  We got loaded up with a lot of extra warm clothes (anticipating the nasty weather), threw our fishing gear in the truck and headed out in the eye of a nice winter weather system.  Along with some new plugs we bought to try out, we were outfitted with a secret weapon....Butch's friend Ray and the Phantom. 

Wait?  A phantom?

At the end of a cruddy day

I'll tell you what, a jetboat is the way to go!!  Well, we got into town late (remember I had been working, then played hooky on Thursday and Friday.) 



Lewiston at night

After going through introductions and checking out the boat we headed down to Bojacks for dinner.  That rapidly turned into quite a fun party.  I thoroughly confused the entire place with a riddle:

I went to the wood and got it.
Sat down on a stump and looked for it.
Couldn't find it,
so I took it home with me.

But, it made us some friends, so that was fun.  Boy, and I learned that riddle when I was just a little guy visiting the east coast when Mom took us down to the Plymouth colony.  I think it was the guy making barrels who recited it...

Anywho, the next day we were all bright eyed and bushy tailed, raring to go fishing!  It was promising to be gorgeous weather as we loaded up bright and early at 0830.  HA!  We headed to a hole that Ray knew of, oh, just a little way from the boat launch.  Right off the bat, Butch hooked up!  Here we go!!  And....we're done.  That one got off without much incident.  Thank goodness, you can't have a fish in the boat that soon can you?  Right?




Backtrolling

Now following that, either Butch hooked his other one or maybe that came after the best part of the trip...when I hooked up!!!!  (Yes, I will be selfish.  I'm STILL excited about it.)  My first steelhead in years!  After catching sight of this big critter, I started getting nervous.  Then when it got close to the boat and Ray hollered, "Tom, it's a keeper!  It's a keeper!" I got almost knee-shaking nervous.  You wouldn't believe the relief I felt when he got it in the net and it was mine.  All mine.  All gorgeous and slimy....

Biggest fish of my life!  10 pounds and long enough for me!!  (Never even measured it.)

I mean, that sh*t eating grin says it all.


A little while later we decided to head up river to another hole Ray knew about.  After navigating around some treacherous rocks, we made it and backtrolled for about an hour while eating lunch.  An hour went by without even a bump.  Ray idly says, "I have half a mind to go back down to that first hole."  And before I could even open my mouth, Butch beat me and says, "I have the other half."  Off we went.

Butch having the other half.

Captain Ray

View upriver


Almost as soon as we got our lines back in the water, Butch hooked up with a dandy fish.  And this one wasn't content with staying in the water...we all swore it was walking on it's tail more than swimming.  Boy, I did about three laps around the boat.  The net!  Get the kicker motor up!  Get the other lines in!  The net!  The motor!  I sounded like a crazy chicken clucking and running around the yard.  Luckily, I wasn't alone as Ray was doing the same thing.  Butch kept his head and got the fish in close to the boat where it quickly slammed into the underside of the boat.  "Fish off," Butch muttered.  SONOFACRAZYWHATARETHECHANCESCRAPCRAPCRAP!

We all sighed, but were now convinced that we were in the right place, so we were eager to get our lines back in the water.  While Ray played on his phone in the warm cabin, Butch manned the kicker motor.  I stepped away for ONE second to get my gloves and I heard "Oh oh oohhh!!  FishFishFish!"  Butch was able to grab Ray's pole and set the hook.  Meanwhile, after I did my first two laps around the boat (cackling all the while) I hollered at Ray, "Ray, you've got a fish on!!!" 

Butch took care of the motor while I got my line in and threw my pole in the cabin....on top of the net, where my plug took it's spare time to get snarled.  While Ray is fighting a 12 pound steelhead, I was jerking away on that plug.  WHAT IS it stuck on?  Oh, that's my thumb (I said in a mild tone while extracting it from my flesh.)  I had to calm down, ignore the excitement and pain, and sloowwwlly remove the hook from the net.  Well, all said and done we got that big guy in the boat and again, we were all grins...until we almost went in the rocks at the bottom of the hole...then we got back to reality.


DANDY fish!


Try as we might, we couldn't get another fish and after the sun went down on the obviously wonderful bluebird day, we reluctantly decided to call it a day.
The next morning we had planned to come back home.  While we were sitting around drinking coffee, Ray questioned the air...."I wonder what I'll do today?  Maybe I'll take the boat out again."  (We didn't know he had a third day off.)  While I watched Butch, he stared off with his gears turning, but nobody said anything like, "Hmmm, we should stay."  So, a while later, we hit the road and quickly made it past Moscow.  Finally, we both opened up.  Turns out, Butch was waiting for ME to say something and I was waiting for HIM to say something!  SONUFA!!

We ended up in town fairly early, so I dropped off my stuff and loaded into my truck.  Having never filleted a fish that big, Butch helped me in the warmth of his shop.  We each took half and I kept the remains for next year's crawfish bait.  I'll tell ya, we both tried it the next night with Cajun seasoning...Butch's was blackened, and Sarah and I tried just normal Cajun seasoning.  Talk about incredible!!  As Sarah and I are sitting there, she looks at the cat and says, "Dad's going to have to go get more steelhead." 

Hallelujah!!  I'm ready.

Oh, and Butch is heading back down to Ray's tonight. 

*sigh* 

Well, it happens every time....we're addicted again.

Oh yeah, and the answer is a sliver.  Boy that drove people nuts!