So, last April, when Pat and Chad fly fished steelhead with me, it took the two of them to land a steelhead—one hanging on to the bottom two thirds of the fly rod and the other, the broken off tip. Manage they did somehow to land that fish—no small feat, indeed.
Today, history repeated itself with Pat’s alpha buck, which he poses with a mega grin. This time, the tip of the rod popped off the rest of the rod and slid down the line only to slice the water as the steelhead ran down the river. Know that broken rods are under warranty, but rods with missing parts are not! So, needless the say, yours truly felt his blood pressure rising as the fight wore on. Would the fish bust off and the tip section of the rod slide down the parted line into the river—never to be seen again? Not so, because once again, just like last year, to the net came the fish, this time tip first! Pat had pulled off another one of his improbable fish battles.
For his part, Chad holds his double striped buck. In short, a super day in which we fished hard, covered a ton of water, and just plain got lucky. Thanks for a great day, Pat and Chad!
Captain Tom Kuieck
