Grande Ronde

They say steelhead are the fish of 1000 casts but sometimes the moon and the stars all line up. I want to tell you about a brief one hour and a half that we had on the Grande Ronde River. We were fishing with my father and my buddy Mike out of Portland. It was that time of year where we had this big steelhead camp on the Grande Ronde and it is a tremendously fun time. People from all over the Northwest converge. Dad and I and my buddy all lined up on our favorite run and boom, my dad gets a fish on. This is 15 minutes in and we are all hooting and hollering. No more than 10 minutes later I look into a pretty nice A-run six or 7 pound fish and then Mike gets one. We thought, we can't believe this. Maybe 30 minutes has transpired. I change a fly and catch probably one of the nicest fish I have ever gotten on the Grande Ronde. 10 minutes later my dad catches another fish followed by Mike 20 minutes later. We are all within a 100 yard stretch. We all stood around dumbfounded. It is not supposed to happen that way. They are supposed to make you earn it, claw tooth and nail for an opportunity to catch a steelhead especially with what we refer to as a dry line meaning just under the surface. I will always remember that day.