by JD on February 2, 2012
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
Well, sometimes you just need a little fish porn. And man, what a week it’s been for that! I probably should have saved this fish for last because it dwarfs the 20 pounders below, but holy giant rainbow trout, Batman…that is one amazing specimen is it not?
All I know about this leviathan is that it was caught last weekend and measured 44 inches by 24 inches, which using the steelhead weight formula, comes out at 32 freaking pounds! WOW!!!!! My jaw just hit the floor!
And, just for kicks, here are a couple other 20 plus pounders…
This one was taken by Paul LeFebvre of Brookings, OR. He caught and released the fish Feb. 1 on the Chetco River while fishing with guide Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing. The steelhead hit a cluster of roe and took a half hour to subdue!
Twenty plus pounds of Perfection!
Our pal Greg McElroy sent in this pic of Tim Obert who fished just south of the Chetco, on California’s Smith River with Mad River Eggs for this low 20′s buck.
Damn, raise your hand if you work day just got totally screwed…
by JD on January 18, 2012
Welcome to the 20-pound club! Guide Tony Sepulveda (L) and John Sellers
It’s time to welcome the 20-Pound Steelhead Club’s newest member, John Sellers of Fortuna, CA, who fished on Tuesday with guide Tony Sepulveda of
Greenwater Guide Service on a very low and clear Chetco River in Orgeon for this bruiser buck.
Let’s let Tony tell the rest of the story…
“John hooked the fish drifting roe and a Fish Pill along a shallow break,” he says. “When he swung on the bite, it erupted in 18″ of water and went burning off the flat with it’s back out of the water like a spooked bonefish!”
Congratulations are in order for John…fish like that don’t come every day. And to that end, he thoughtfully opted to release it, despite the ridiculous regulation in Oregon that allows for the retention of wild steelhead.
“John’s a relative newcomer to steelhead fishing, catching his first on the Eel with me last winter,” says Tony. “With his big fish resting in the net, we talked about the importance of keeping those genetics in the gene pool. John was immediately on board. We took a few pictures and sent him on his way. We ended the day by 1:00 pm with 6 landed out of 10 hooked, a 20 pounder and a double hookup. Not a bad day!”
Fishing the upper Hoh River in Washington State, Jimmy Davis (left in the above photo) of Mad River Manufacturing fame did a little R&D mission on Washington’s Hoh River, where this beautiful 20-pound wild buck crushed one of his very own: A 6-inch Flame Orange Super Float Mad River Worm
Jimmy is now entered into our March Hawg of the Month Contest in which he has a chance to win some cool new headgear from the Pautzke Bait Co. If he advances, he will get to compete in the Hawg Bowl Playoffs at the end of the year and maybe, just maybe win a trip with Bill Swann of Swanny’s Guided Fishing. Click to ENTER
by JD on February 12, 2011
More California slabbage...
Nor Cal’s Mad River is mainly known for it’s solid population of hatchery steelies…but don;t for a second think it doesn’t pump out some dandy wild fish as well. Every year, a handful of 20-pound steelies comes out of this coastal drainage and it looks very much like Doc Johnson of Windsor CA here is awfully close with a 38″ x 20″ wild buck he caught while drifting a No. #12 orange Corkie slathered up in Steelhead Gravy below the Blue Lake Hatchery. After a quick grip and grin, the buck was back in the creek, hopefully soon to deposit some of that epic genetic material.
Doc is now entered into our February Hawg of the Month Contest in which he has a chance to win some cool new headgear from the
Pautzke Bait Co. If he advances, Doc will get to compete in the Hawg Bowl Playoffs at the end of the year and maybe, just maybe win a trip with Bill Swann of
Swanny’s Guided Fishing. Click to
ENTERby JD on February 4, 2011
Quit while you're ahead, brother! It's gonna be tough to top this one!
Would you believe that this 25.9-pound, 40 1/4x 26-inch steelhead was the first one ever for Mick here? He caught the jumbo hatchery beast while side-drifting Pautzke’s cured eggs in Northwestern Washington with our pal guide
Bill “Swanny” Swann. That’s the good news.
The bad news is it’s probably time for Mick to take up golf…table tennis…antiquing…cubist painting…French cooking…whatever. Because, when you start your steelhead fishing career off with a fish like that, there’s really nowhere to go but down…
Klar (left) and Moore with a little New Year's Magic!
Talk about a way to get your year kick-started! Curtis Moore of Healdsburg, CA (fishing with guide
John Klar) just this morning, Jan. 4 at 9AM, caught and released this beautiful 20-pound wild steelhead in the Smith River.
Klar, via “boat phone,” said that they hooked the beast at the top of Jed Smith Park. “It was an epic fight,” say Klar. The fish jumped several times and just tore holes in the water.” You can tell what Klar was talking about when he called the fish “flawless.”
Moore hooked the big daddy on a peach Fish Pill, some orange yarn and a small cluster of eggs. Nice work!
I wanna go!!!!
While sifting through some photos of previous fishing missions last night, I ran across this one I took of the Skeena River in British Columbia…totally ruined my evening. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how I wanted to be right in this spot again…soon!
Man, I’ve got a serious jones for big steelhead going on right now…you feel me??
Yep, we figured that was a tough fish to beat!
It was a close battle between two epic 20 plus pound steelhead, but in the end, Dave Pitts and his buddy with the Giant Oregon Steelie took the popular vote and will now be entered into the Hawg of the Year finals in December.
Here’s a look at the final results…
[click to continue…]