* March 2010 - Hoh River, WAM
A lifetime wish came true in March, when Ernie and I fished the Hoh River in Washington state. A BIG thank you to fellow member Troy Meyer and old friend Ron Mosher. Together, they arranged for a day for us to fish with their friend and guide, Troy Dettman. The Hoh River is known to have the biggest steelhead in the U.S. It is also one of the cleanest as it runs directly out of the Olympic Rainforest. We fished the lower 8 miles to where it enters the ocean.
The days prior to our 'fish date' were rainy and cold, typical steelhead weather and on our trip north, we encountered lots of rain. As we arrived Forks, Washington the sun was shining and we spent some time just enjoying the beauty of the area.
Early the next morning, we met our guide at the local eatery along with our friend, Ron Mosher. Ron is a rep with Ex-Officio and he had his own pontoon boat and planned to fish either ahead or behind us and meet up for lunch on the riverbank. The day was overcast, NO wind, and NO rain and water conditions perfect!
What a day - could it be true that we would have the perfect day?
As we began our float downstream, Troy set each of us up with big streamers. It was pretty quiet but Ern hooked a couple small fish, the largest maybe 5 pounds. Then, my reel started singing and as I held on, I was amazed to see, jumping 3 feet out of the water ahead of the boat, a gorgeous, fresh steelhead!! I was in for a fight; it was a big fish and when I finally landed it, a 16+ wild male!! I was still shaking and could not believe my great luck as we stopped to have lunch. Ern was so happy for me and anxious to finish lunch as Troy had told us that the water just downstream was perfect for spey casting. We were both looking forward to it because we had spent a day just two weeks before this trip with Bill Lowe on the American and the fishing was slow so we had had the complete day learning to cast with the spey rod. So, after a great lunch, we moved to the area Troy had told us about and he set me up with a 14ft 8 wt and a big fly. Ern had a 15ft 9 wt and with a little coaching from Troy we started casting. Ern hooked SOMETHING that kept coming and moving, no jumping, and as he reeled it in, it was a huge rock with a tiny crack that held his fly!
Only a few casts later, as soon as the fly hit the water he had a tremendous jolt and he knew it was a real heavy fish, and even an angler is a passing boat yelled, "what a strike! I saw that!" The way the fish was tugging we all could tell, even with the big rod, that he was in for a real workout. Well, he landed a beautiful, wild, bright fish like mine, only just a little smaller. Wow, what day!! It was a dream come true!