Mike's First Steelhead

A fellow named Mike emailed me with some questions about Steelhead fishing a few months ago. I did my best to help him in any way, and so did the Chicago Trout Bum. I had a nice email in my inbox this morning.

Here is part of the email:

Thought I'd write to personally thank you yet again. Have been out a few times already this year, but nabbed my first spring run steelhead yesterday.

I now FULLY understand the obsession. It was wild. I only got to get out for about an hour after work, but as I came around a bend I saw at least 2-3 of them swirling around in a deeper pool. 2 casts is all it took.

I also hooked up with two others but lost one very quickly (2-3 seconds) and lost another one when it ran 40 yards downstream and underneath a log!

Two casts is all it took, now that my friends, is poetry.

Here is a photo of his first Steelhead ever, something to be extremely proud of. I remember my first Steelhead well, but we'll save that for another post.

Mike wanted to know the strain of it and he guessed chambers creek, by the shape of it and by the time of year I would wager his guess is right on. I applaud him for diligence in research into Steelhead Strains of Lake Michigan. I wrote up an article on that, you can find it here accompanied by some photographs of Steelhead that I have caught myself.