Olympic Peninsula 2010 (Video)

Over the last 30 plus years I have been chasing steelhead in Washington state, the last 15 years have been bordering on psychotic tendency, my wife of 24 years will attest to that.  About every seven years the natural cycle makes an up curve and generally peaks every 10-12 years. These peak years to a fishing guide is nothing short of a gift from GOD. This past season has seen a spike of monstrous proportions, one like I have not seen since 1985/86 in Puget Sound. I spent a few weeks on the OP that year but found ten fish days the norm on my then home water the Green and Puyallup and my measly wages and 63 VW was not in for the constant haul to the holy grounds.

Spending well over 100 days a year on steelhead water coupled with the best run in any lifetime has padded my steelhead numbers to epic levels. I feel blessed to have experienced such a season and am preparing for the norm come next October when I return to the river of my ancestors, my beloved Methow. We should all be thankful for this return of our majestic steelhead as there is one rule that a die hard angler should always heed ‘ NEVER TAKE STEELHEAD FOR GRANTED”

I say this as we should all realize what we have when we have it, I know that there are dozens of anglers out there who caught fish at first try this last year and now may think that steelhead are not so hard to catch. We forget the trials and tribulations of the down years, we forget to pay amish to those that are working hard to recover the lost salmon and steelhead runs, the conservation clubs, CCA, Wild Steelhead coalition, various river trusts and these are but a few, they all still need the help and financial support from anglers.

As I gear up for my next four months guiding trout in SW Montana I relive every new push of steehead into the rivers of my season, they gave me so much to live for, they left there prodigy in the gravels of my world hoping the same as I to return again in an endless cycle of life.