I have never caught a steelhead before. They are rainbow trout that live in the ocean and come inland in streams to spawn. They grow very big and are known to be difficult to catch and very strong fish when you have them on your line.
The Situk river is a small river with many log jams and places a fish can break your line. Add to that the fact that you have to use a much smaller line than with salmon, because the steelhead is much smarter and you can see the challenge.
Andy lives a mere 9 miles from the Situk river in Alaska and some claim it is the best steelhead fishing in the world. I finally gave in and spent the last week fishing there.
It started off with a terrible rain storm(9 inches of rain in a few days) that blew out the river. Each day the river dropped and fished better. I slowly got the hang of it and by Thursday, Andy took a day off from work and we hit the river.
I found a great hole where many steelhead were hanging out the day before(now known as steelhead hole to us). We spent 4 hours there fighting many fish. Because of the swift water, many log jams, we only landed one out of every 4 fish, but it was a great morning of fishing and I'll include some pictures. These fish tested your arm strength like no other fish I have fought with a fly rod. (By the way, these were the average size fish, the bigger ones broke our line.)
