First fish of 2012

After a long stretch without any fishing, I got out for my first outing of the new year with a my buddies Craig and Bob. To say that the weather was beautiful would be a vast understatement as it was as nice of a bluebird day as the Evergreen State has to offer.

An unseasonably nice day on the water

The nice weather meant that the river was fairly busy, but there were still some fish around, they just required some work. Craig hooked into the first fish of day, which took as he was retrieving his fly but popped off almost immediately. Nymphing seemed to be get the best reaction from the fish and it was just a matter of persistence and keeping them on once hooked. The honor of landing the first fish of the day went to Bob, it just wasn't the steelhead that we were hoping for but a Whitefish.

Also found this little guy...

With day growing short and after personally losing two steelhead in a row, I finally made it happen and hooked into a very hot 10 or 11lb steelhead. This fish seemed inclined to spend as much time in the backing as possible, but after chasing downstream for a good 1/8 mile we were finally able to bring it to the net. Being a hatchery fish it became a guest of honor for dinner too.

Not too bad for my first fish of 2012

We didn't touch another fish after I was lucky enough to get mine, but it was one of the more beautiful days on the water that I can remember in a long time.

A great day on the water