Steelhead are here

It’s not summer.  It’s not winter, because steelhead season hasn’t really started.  But its past fall, the leaves are mostly gone, elk season is over, the salmon are red, or pink, or black, or…worse.

The fishing is good, relaxed, and mellow.  No one is kidding them selves about catching a limit of chromers, so whats the point of hurrying.

I miss summer, I am not sure I remember a better one, despite the weather. 

Winter steelhead will be here very soon, tomorrow maybe.  It’s a milestone I watch for more closely than any other.  The day it starts and there is a fish in the net, and then its in full swing, every day, wearing a groove in the river.  The winter hatchery run is shortest of the year, the fish have a certain rareness, they are perfectly unique, and then they are gone, lost in the madness of the native season.  In a sense the least appreciated.

Jim Kerr

Rain coast guides