Still Early For Summer Run Steelhead

Nowadays, it's become a rare occassion when I am able to fish with John, aka "The Professor," a very good friend of mine. There was a time, when he first introduced me to steelhead fishing, that we were fishing together almost every weekend. I fondly think back to those days of discovery and learning the finer points of steelhead fishing.

We would jump in his Custom Weld jet boat and scream towards Blue Creek to his favorite hole on the Cowlitz River, which I appropriately called "John's Hole." Anyone who fishes with John on a regular basis would become familiar with this hole.

On this day though, I only found smolts. Lots of them. Early in the morning, John did manage to hook into a small spawner buck and lost another. Later in the day, we boondogged the Blue Creek area and his friend hooked a "recycled" buck of about 8-9 lbs on a sandshrimp fished under a float.

We gave "John's Hole" another shot before heading in. After an unproductive hour, we finally called it quits and returned back to the launch. A few more weeks I think and this river will be full of bright summer runs and hopefully I'll get another chance to fish with "The Professor."