To celebrate our 2 year anniversary a little early we decided to go Camping out on the O.P. The wife wanted to save on hotels and restaurants and go camping and fishing for the whole weekend. We headed to Port Orchard, dropped the kids off with the grandparents, and off we went. We were a bit behind schedule so we didn't get into Forks until 6 and then got to our campsite and set everything up. The sun was falling quickly but the wife was itching to get out so we decided to go ahead and check out the river near the campground, waters were low and success was not found. We drove back to Mora Campground (thanks for the suggestion Justin) and hung out and the wife wanted to be on the water bright and early. We got to the river and saw probably around 7 other guys there. We saw a guy hook one fish which he promptly lost after being yelled at during the whole fight by his friend. We were fishing with jigs and my wife didn't like it so we decided to switch to spinners before we moved spots. No luck there so we decided to move down river.
Spot number 2 no luck and saw about 5 people there so we moved further down stream. Our 3rd spot looked really promising. I saw features in the water that I liked so we set up there and BAM first cast I nailed a 7lb 10 oz buck. As soon as I started cleaning him my wife nails a 7lb 6 oz buck and that was a blast for her to catch her first steelhead within 3 hours of being on the water. We fished a bit more and it seemed dead until my wife hooked a huge fish. This thing made about 4 runs of 10 seconds and just worked my wife really bad. We got the fish within 6 ft of the bank when it ran towards my wife, she felt the slack and freaked out and lowered the rod and raised it all crazy and Poof fish off. The wife and I kept working the hole up until the point she fell into the river and got drinched. With the wife soaked we decided to go back and dry her clothes and have lunch. She didn't want to call it quits so after a couple of hours we were back out there.
We went back to our sweet spot and I hooked into a monster. This thing absolutely smashed the spinner and made run after run. We have no video of this fight because the camera was still soaked from the wife's bath earlier. It jumped and cleared fully out of the water 5 times and took me about 15 minutes to get in on my 8 lb test. We finally got it in and threw it on the scale and it was a nice 9lb 9 oz of summer steel. With all the commotion the bite was off and we needed to get back to camp and go check out Rialto Beach.
This was a great time with my wife and a great way to spend the weekend. I have to thank Joe for rushing the spinners out to me. I think I placed the order and let him know we needed it for the weekend and there they were at my door in three days. We also have to thank Dan for taking us out and showing us what to look for in the water and how to chuck spinners the right way, not the bass way that I am used to. Lastly, we have to thank Don who wrapped up my wife's rod and set it up perfectly for her. Well here are the pics of the damage.
Fish on
First fish of the day
End of the day with our curled up fish
