A Brand New Respect

[trout fanatic]

I never did quite get it. I have always heard that steelhead were among the best fighters around but in my experience they were never true brawlers. It seems that every year my trip to Ohio results in my favorite river being blown up so we are forced to fish in the tributaries. The steelhead, while fiesty, are forced to swim from one end of a 50 foot pool to the other until they tire. This year I had hoped to really experience a fresh run of fish.

Vacation started on Oct 27th and joy of joys the Grand River is fishable (unfortunately it was on the rise though). My bro, nephew and myself fished all day (me the only one using a fly rod). Nephew scored with 2 beautiful fish, while bro had one get off at his feet. Guess how I did (lol). On day 2 the river was flooded so we went to a trib that provided several fish last year. Zilch, nobody had so much as a bite. Didn't see any rolling either.

On day 3 and 4 we went to a nearby river that rises and falls in an amazing period of time (steep banks and few tribs). But we simply could not find the fish. We did see 3 caught however, so we remained positive. That night, the flow charts told us that the grand would be fishable on Saturday.

This time I took my noodle rod and an appropriate number of spinners and spoons (note to self there is no such thing as a appropriate number of spinners and spoons-bring more next year). The river has indeed fallen to fishable levels and was still slightly off color. It took a few hours or so but a nice hen struck a #3 mepps spinner and took off. Holy cow! The grin that must have been pasted on my mug was not leaving anytime soon. Five different times I got the fish right to my feet only to have her find a second wind and blast off down river again. I hooked up with 6 different fish landing 4 of them (the smallest was 23 inches and the largest was 29). Each and every one of them put on a dazzling display and converted me to a lifelong steelheader. Truly great stuff. A tip of the hat to the steelhead and the Cleveland Metro Parks who have made river access at so many points possible. I am waiting to get some pictures from my nephew and if I can figure out how to post them will do so shortly. Sorry for blabbering on, just can't help myself.