Olympic Peninsula Steelhead Fly Fishing Report – 3/26/11

Here is a story for you. I have seen a lot of tangles, broken rods, and other crazy situations while guiding, but this takes the top. Mike and Will were fishing with me last week and we hit some fish, but the last chromer was awesome. A total “Cluster F***” as we called it. So, Will is in the back of the raft and Mike in the front. Will hooks a nice chromer that intantly comes out of the water, then I here “My rod is going to break!” Nope, it was already broken. A slack lined loop wrapped around his tip while figting the fish. The fish is running up towards us, jumps out of the water and hit my oar and goes under the back of the boat. The line is now wrapped multiple times around the middle of Will’s rod. The fish turned and ran downstream, the line cam tight and the rod was pointed straight at the fish. It didn’t break off! I was amazed and was pushing downstream towards the steelhead. The fish turned and ran up the other side of the boat and under Mike’s line which wasn’t cleared yet. Mike is stripping in and hooks Will’s line. Then he tried what never works…….. shaking it free. Now mike’s line is rats nested around Will’s line which he is now hand lining in. I grab the net and the raft is floating sideways down the river and somehow we netted the fish. It was the craziest thing I have seen.