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Our plan was to get up early, and have the boat launched by 6:30am, as luck would have it things went as planned, I had spent a few hours the day before getting the gear ready, sharp hooks, new leaders, fresh scent, plugs washed with Lemon Joy, how could it not be a good day.

I backed the boat into the water at a gravel/rock launch above Buffalo Eddy, Barb powered the boat off the trailer, then nudged it up to shore while I parked the Jeep and trailer. We pointed the bow upriver, put the boat on plane and headed for a nice drift a ways past Billy Creek.

Arrived at the chosen drift on the Idaho side of the river, this is one of my favorite drifts, seldom do we fish it without connecting with Steelhead. It starts in fairly deep water 14' or so, then gradually shallows up to about 5', the water is very slow moving in the deep section, and faster in the shallow part, the trick seems to be keeping the boat near the current seam.

Barb keeps the boat stable in one spot while I apply scent to the plugs, get the trolling motor started, and engage the TR-1 AutoPilot, we then put three lines out and start a very slow back troll. A pretty brisk breeze has come up, making it seem pretty cold, does not dampen our spirits though, the plugs are working good, and we are expecting a take down any minute. About fifteen minutes go by when Barbs rod slams down with line stripping out, she yells "Fish", and takes the rod out of the holder just as the Steelhead comes out of the water about eighty feet behind the boat, she says " this is a really nice fish", I agree with her after seeing it jump. The Steelhead makes several powerful runs but does not come out of the water again, She does a great job playing the fish to the point that I slide the net under it, it's absolutely beautiful, silver with a bright rainbow stripe on the side. We take picture, then release it to maybe catch again, we give a high five and head back to the start of the drift.

The lines have been put out, we are having a cup of coffee, it's a perfect day even if we don't touch another fish. We are about thirty minutes into the drift when the center rod starts making thumping noises in the holder, another Steelhead is on, I take the rod out of the holder and feel a heavy tugging, nothing like a Steelhead on the other end of your line. This one comes out of the water twice, puts up a good fight then Barb nets a beautiful wild one. We take a picture and release it.

We then nose the boat into a sandbar to have a snack, and give our little English Setter a break, she is now over 15 years old, after about forty five minutes we get back to fishing. Barb lands another nice Steelhead, and we get a couple of takedowns without landing the fish. We had decided to fish until noon and come in, it had turned out to be a beautiful day, a few clouds, and some sunshine to warms things up, best of all the wind subsided. It was a wonderful day on the Snake River in Hell's Canyon.

rusty

11/11/2014 8:43:00 PM

Thanks for sharing. I always enjoy reading your reports. I'm hoping to try and get down there and get some steelhead.

downriggeral

11/11/2014 9:11:00 PM

Hi Ken and Barb - What beautiful fish! Thanks for sharing. I too always enjoy your reports. It's easy to see why you have chosen to make Snake River Country your home. - Alan

afk

11/12/2014 7:16:00 AM

Great to see a report from you two! Thanks

hewesfisher

11/12/2014 9:03:00 AM

Beautiful fish, beautiful country, great time together, what more can you ask for? Nice to see a report from you again, always enjoy seeing your pictures and reading your report. :-)

kenbarb

11/12/2014 1:13:00 PM

Thanks for the comments guys, I also enjoy and look forward to your reports. Sorry to say that I have been a slacker by not submitting reports the past few months. I told Mike Carey that writing a report is like reliving the experience, and he agrees, he did a video of the Clearwater trip that he reported on recently, will be a lot of fun to watch.

gregsalmon

11/13/2014 12:02:00 PM

Good report! I often wonder why you net them if they are to be released?

kenbarb

11/13/2014 1:07:00 PM

Good question- The only time we keep a Steelhead is during the Lewiston Snake/Clearwater River Steelhead Derby it is required for proof of catch, other than that all of the Steelhead & Salmon we catch are released. However we do like to take pictures of our catch, and include them in the fishing logs I keep, I also include them in the reports I write. Anyone can submit a report about big fish, and great fishing, but without pictures it just a fish story. The fish are all revived, and healthy when they are released.

JRM

11/15/2014 5:28:00 PM

Thank you for the great report, enjoyed it

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