Headwaters Fishing Team: Personal Best Steelhead on Moke River

My sled for the day was the trusty Jackson Coosa!

I'm stoked to be writing this report. A few days ago I got a email from a NCKA brother from Santa Cruz saying he had saw my post about fishing the Moke and wanted some more info because he was coming up and wanted to float the river. I told him all the info about put in's take out etc. Then I got to thinking maybe he wants some company, so I invited myself along and he agreed. We got a late start due to some unforeseen shuttle issues. If felt so good to be out on the river again. The sun was shining and the water was super low. I was using my spinning gear and throwing a worm behind a slinky weight. The other two guys (Jim and Mark) were using fly rods and throwing Nymphs. At the first hole I broke the ice with a nice 15+ trout from my yak. Then Mark followed right up with a huge Steelhead that snapped his line right at his boat. The three of us leap frogged down the river. Jim pointed out a nice overhanging tree that he thought would be a good spot, so as I drifted by I threw out my worm. It bounced a few times and then wham! It was off to the races. A beautiful buck launches strait out of the water. The fish took a ton of line before I could tighten down my drag enough to hold him. I was using 4 lb test so I wasn't in any hurry to horse him in. He fought for a good minute or so before I got him to the boat, and thats when I realized I had lost my net. Quickly I yelled to Jim to come toss me his net. The fish continued to charge the boat and then take line. Finally I got him in the net and got to shore. My personal best steelhead! Right out of my own backyard. He was super red and tore up from being in the river for a long time. He was a Hatchery fish, but I wan't about to keep him. Jim took my photo and then we revived and released him. Such a great time. After that we continued fishing and hooking up. Total we hooked 15-18 fish and landed probably 10 including one carp. Those guys are going back out again tomorrow but I have to stay back and run the store. I'm looking forward to guiding some customer down the river again next Friday. Hopefully we do as good.

Dan A.