Great Lakes "Steelhead"
One fish per day. If I were to average the number of steelhead I've landed on the swing over the last 16 years on the Salmon River, that is what it would come out to. In general steelheading terms, that is a pretty good number. For real, wild, and native PNW steelhead, it is high. For potamodromous rainbow trout on the Great Lakes, it is low. For my style and ego, it is right where it should be. Keep in mind that I don't fish the lower fly zone, you'll never find me on the DSR, I'll seldom swing a few runs in the Upper, and I'll occasionally dabble in Altmar on a slow day. I like that number. It means that I get skunked quite a bit and every now and then I catch a bunch. That number keeps the experience from getting stale and ensures that I keep making the five hour drive as I burn the candle on both ends of a work weekend. Every now and then there are outliers. For example, in 2020-21 I didn't land a single fish on the swing on the SR in New York, but caught 3 wild summer fish in Oregon on the Rogue, North Umpqua, and Deschutes. This year, I fished nine total days and didn't catch a single fish on five of them. But...I landed almost 30 fish on the other four. Two outlier days where time and timing converged with pods of migrating fish, some fresh out of the lake. On days like that, you literally forget certain interactions, grabs, and released fish. Looking back on it, I prefer a particular day fishing with Mike Kohler, Nate Kohler, and two of their buddies. On that day, I took a back seat and helped them get into fish. On that day, I fished less, and only landed one. It was a big chrome hen on a dry line and a wet fly. That's the one you remember. Everything else is just skunkings and outliers...
Mike Kohler with the release...
