Good results today but had to work for it.

I began fishing at daybreak on the upper reaches of the sky. Even away from Reiter their were a couple dozen anglers on this cold morning. I saw no action and had nothing myself despite how much I probed.

Floating jigs through countless seams and pockets turns tedious fast when leaky waders lead to frigid feet and the fish seem to be just as frozen. Four hours later, no takes, no fish seen, and feeling very cold, I took a warm-up break and moved away from the crowds.

Many miles later, I arrived to see more pretty water and hiked into the blue. It took only two minutes of fishing to hook my first steelhead, which hit an an inopportune time and dove at my feet before I got a good hookset. One fish lost.

Nothing more for a while, and another trudge lay in front.

6 1/2 hours, one fish lost. Quite disheartening really. Keeping going, I tossed my float into a deep, slow hole. Second cast, and the float tilted sideways and then shot backwards. A very aggressive float take by all means, and resulted in a nice 6lb hen.

No more steelhead came, but the coho did. Back to back, two 10lb fish. A fat 18" bull capped the day.

9 hours later, and it took 8 of them to land a fish. But, I found a good pocket of fish and they cooperated. It pays to explore.

Tackle: 1/4 oz cleardrift, 10lb Flouro, 1/32oz jig, dropper.

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