A couple of days ago I had one of the most exciting yet frustrating days in my relatively short Steelhead career. I went out for a full day and hooked four, landed zero. Just could not keep the damn hook in their mouth. All things said and done, it was the most action I've ever had. I'm wondering how many of you can top (by "top" I mean "have done worse than") my horrific batting average of 0 for 4 in one day. Can't wait to get out and give it some more swings!
It was on gear, but I once lost 6 in a couple of hours. I went full retard. Never go full retard. I did eventually limit.
I'm not sure what full retard is. But by the end of the day I swear I was hearing my dog recite scenes from Skagit Master 2. Every run we approached Pink would be like "Now what you don't realize Jason is that all these things are, are predators with fins...what we've got here is a classic example...long leader heavy fly...yadda yadda yadda." The last one I missed I was like "Shut the #$!@ up Pink, or you ain't gettin' dinner you stupid mutt!"
Here's one from the other side, the lucky side? After going 13 for 13 one morning on an unknown (at the time) Oregon river, couldn't land one the evening of the same day, hooked 4, all LDR's. Just one would've broken my personal record but couldn't do it. Every grab was a blessing...
I have been doing this for a relatively short time...about 20 years now. At least compared to some. It doesn't really matter how many you land or how many you hook. The ones you lose and the ones you wish you could have hooked, those will most likely replay in your head the most. Which gets you back on the river for another day to learn something new. Losing fish is part of the fun. I honestly can't remember how many in a day I have lost. Can't remember how many I have landed in a day either. It is written down somewhere. Only concerned about the next trip and having a good time fishing.
It wasn't in one day, but over a 3-day float on the Grand Ronde I one time hook and lost 11 consecutive steelhead. I was throwing away flies, convinced the hooks must be defective. Then I landed the next 12 consecutive steelhead I hooked. Sometimes there is no explanation. Sg
As other have mention those kind of streaks are just part of the steelhead game. In the mid-1970s there was consideration of requiring barbless hooks for steelhead whenever CnR was going to be required. Now remember that was very much a different era. Anyway to see how practical it was to fish with barbless hooks (the wisdom of the day was that you would lose too many fish) I fished the entire January through March period with nothing but barbless hooks (using mostly gear) keeping records of fish hooked, fish landed and fish lost. Like Salmo my longest losing streak was 11 in a row and my longest streak of landing fish was 17 in row (the only time I can recall keeping such detailed records on fish landed and lost). At the end of the 3 months I had hooked 162 steelhead (yes back then I fished steelhead a fair amount) and landed 135. Of the 27 fish I lost over that 3 months 11 came in that one bad streak. I was so impressed with the effectiveness of those barbless hooks I have fished nothing but barbless for steelhead, sea-runs, bull trout, resident stream trout, etc ever since. Based on the experience also had no problem with barbless hook requirements on CnR fisheries. Curt
It has to do with how the fish are biting on that particular day. Sometimes they are killers and sometimes they are nibblers. Hook placement on the fly should be varied depending on water temp too. Cold water = stinger hook. Warmer water = traditional hook. I have had fish charge out from under a root wad and t-bone the fly in the summer, something I doubt happens much in winter. However, overall, the feeding behavior of steelhead is like the behavior of salmon, unpredictable, and random. At least that is how it seems to a logical human. They may bite more but may not be biting in such a way as to hook and hold them, or they may all have the hook in their throat, each and every one of them at a particular time and place.
