Ever had this happen?

skyriver

skyriver

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From a few years back.
It's sort of like when you're watching the bobber and nothing has happened for 10 minutes. The minute you admire the scenery or look for a snack the bobber goes down. Well, no bobbers here, but fish on!
It was the 2nd time I'd been hit stripping in in that hole. I lost the first one after a few head shakes. Who knows, maybe it was the same fish. I know musky will come back and hit again, but not too sure about steelhead. I'd like to think they're not that stupid. Haha!

If you go full screen you can see the boil from him grabbing the fly. I was fishing a 7.5' float/2.5' sink 10' tip on a Commando head on my 7wt switch. I landed this one so a happy ending. Now I tighten the rod often. 😁 What's your goofiest steelhead hookup story?

 
I'm afraid that steelhead are indeed that "stupid". Over my decades of chasing steelhead, I recall 3 occasions that I caught the same fish on consecutive casts. In one case I was sampling and tagging some fish. I would slide a fish into the shallows, measure the fish, take a scale sample and insert a numbered floy tag. After releasing the fish I recorded the information and secured the scale sample and returned to attempting to capture more fish. On that next cast I caught #276, the very fish I had just released!

Regarding encounter a steelhead while stripping your line, for more than 30 years I have been experimenting with fishing streamers with an aggressive strip during the winter. That approach has result in a number of steelhead including my 5 largest fly caught steelhead in more than 60 years of using flies.

One of the goofiest/lucky steelhead hookup came while skating a steelhead bee in the fall. A nice steelhead rushed my fly knocking the fly into the air. My clumsily hook set released in tangled line. I could see that steelhead rushing around in circles just under the surface apparently look for where that darn fly had gone. I shook my line tangle free but with lots of slack line I executed one of the worst casts ever with the line and fly landing in a heap with a significant splash at least 10 feet short of my target. The steelhead did not seem to care rushing to the fly taking it on the run hooking itself and somehow as the line came tight it was knot free - sometimes it just pays to be lucky!

Curt
 
I broke off a winter steal head on the set while fishing eggs and yarn 50 plus years agoian. I rehooked and landed it not 30 minutes later. It had swallowed the first bait. About an 8lb fish.
 
I was fishing the Maupin area on the Deschutes with my buddy on his Birthday a few years back. He was fishing a Chubby Chernobyl and I was downstream from him nymphing. He hooked into a nice redside, fought it for a bit before it popped his knot and swam off with his fly. He headed further upriver pretty butt-hurt and I waded into the hole where he lost that fish. First cast and I hooked and landed the same fish and re-claimed his fly. He was not impressed.
 
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I've seen steelhead chase a fly being stripped into the shallows on the Morice a couple times. Once, there were several fish chasing it. That run was stacked with fish and they were all wild. I wonder if having a bunch of fish together makes the behavior happen, sort of like sockeye in baker lake chasing the hooked fish.

I had a winter steelhead take on like the 5th fast strip on the Skagit once too. It was a very small fish but as memorable as any.

I've never caught the same fish twice but the wild summers that I've seen seem willing to strike multiple times. It seems like when they are in the mood they will attack nearly anything.
 
charles sullivan said:
I've seen steelhead chase a fly being stripped into the shallows on the Morice a couple times. Once, there were several fish chasing it. That run was stacked with fish and they were all wild. I wonder if having a bunch of fish together makes the behavior happen, sort of like sockeye in baker lake chasing the hooked fish.

I had a winter steelhead take on like the 5th fast strip on the Skagit once too. It was a very small fish but as memorable as any.

I've never caught the same fish twice but the wild summers that I've seen seem willing to strike multiple times. It seems like when they are in the mood they will attack nearly anything.
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I've wondered about stacked run fish being more aggressive since they've spent their whole life competing for food.
This run surely had more than 2 fish in it and I wouldn't be surprised if it was packed. As I floated into that hole a guy was leaving and told me he had caught one about 30 minutes prior. Maybe the same fish 3 times? 😁
 
Early season Oregon coastal system winter steelhead fishing I had fished out a run, cast as far as I could from the last place you can stand on to reach as far into the bucket in front of the tailout. I let the fly come all the way below me and hang for a few seconds, swim it back and forth, hang, and then reel in all but 2’ of line and my tip, I begin to lift the rod tip to bring the fly to hand and it gets eaten by a small buck the instant the rod tip raises!
 
First run of the summer season a few years back I rigged up at the top of the run. Turned to grab a beer from the cooler and with the rod sticking out behind me a fish grabbed my dangling fly and took off. Almost dropped the rod. That spot is now of course called beer run.

Not too long ago I picked a buddies pocket with a skater. Got the fish in and it had a bead rig hanging out of its mouth. The bead was the size of a marble and hanging about 3" out of its mouth.

Dog bless these crazy fish. For all the perfect conditions, fishing well skunkings I've received these kinds of stories keep me thinking one more cast....
 
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