Water was low, but the lower the better when it comes to the Hole, there are so many holding spots for fish in higher water, and the lower water concentrated them into the slow moving deeper water, which I targeted first.
I had an estaz egg fly with an estaz stonefly underneath that I tied myself.
I worked my way towards the rockpile, fishing the much calmer water on the opposite side of the rockpile, hoping some lethargic fish were holding there.
10 minutes into working my way towards the rockpile, I was there.
Less than 3 drifts later, my indicator submerged, and before I could debate whether it was bottom or a fish, I set the hook anyway.
Shortly after, the 30 ft of flyline I was holding by my side was being taken from me-by FORCE!
Thankfully I kept him away from the rapids, and after a 10 minute fight and 5 net attempts solo he was in the net!
My FIRST Steelhead on my new Hydros flyrod, and my FIRST Steelhead caught on a fly I tied myself, AWESOME!!!!
I was too pumped to get an accurate measurement, but I guessed it next to my net to be about 22".
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOTBALL
Awesome Kype!
Make sure to watch in 1080P!
Funny but long story short, this fish was caught earlier this year in the same spot!
How do I know this?
Look familiar?
I caught this SAME fish a few months ago!!
I looked closely at the spots on the head and the ones on the body, and it's for sure the same fish. Only problem was my guess was wrong, he was 23" last time he was caught.
Good to see it's healthy and doing good in the river, I almost feel like we're bonded now, I hope he lives a long life and maybe I'll catch him for a 3rd time when he's over 10 LB's.
He's been landed and released twice, this is his lucky year...
So my question for everyone would be...can I enter this into the program if I've already entered it a few months ago?
Same fish, months apart...will they accept it? Should I bother entering it?
After snapping some pictures and getting video of the released, it was back to fishing.
Called Katlyn, told her about my victory, and said goodbye with a, "K, gonna catch another one I'll call you soon".
20 minutes later I was tying on a pink bunny leech I've been tying a lot. I prefer them over buggers for some reason, they just look better to me in the water especially.
Slow retrieve near bottom, and 5 minutes later .....tug tug tug...FISH ON!
A silver bullet in the water with explosive speed.
I could see the fish rolling and head shaking quite a ways away in the water with my glasses on because the sun was out (Even though it was 99% cloudy...it was a sign
)I knew it was a nice fish by how hard it was fighting. If my 7 wt had a face it would have been smiling from ear to ear with this fish on, it put up a battle.
Ran way undernear the shelf ice, made me put my rod underwater for a while.
15 or so minutes later, I won the tug'o'war and the fish was in the net.
2 seconds after being netted, it rolled still in the water, and sent the pink bunny leech flying....whew...good timing!
This one was skinnier but about the same length, maybe half an inch longer?
Called Katlyn again, "ANOTHER ONE?". Oh yeahhhh
No action after that, so I went and tried some other water with the same results.
Going to upload the videos of both fish being released, hopeully tonight or tomorrow.
NY trip coming next weekend, can't wait...got my warmup done
The flies that produced today. Not the greatest looking but I don't think the fish cared.
Thanks for looking, will post again tomorrow with videos and another report.
The Canned One 
