We searched for untouched and uncrowded water. We found it. We had an entire steelhead run to ourselves but nothing would touch our flies. Joey was flyfishing with some sort of egg with maribou, I had the tried and true orange glo bug pattern and I’m not sure what flies waterwhippa and kranefly were using. None of it mattered really, because nothing would touch our stuff. So, I waded over, up, down, across and back again. I was setup with an indicator 12 feet of leader, 3 feet of tippet and 2 small split shots. I said to myself, “there has to be a few fish in this stretch.” The water was flowing low but nicely, the air temp was an unusual 60 degrees and the water temperature was 48 degrees. We saw a few steelies acting up in the tail of the pool, so we knew it was not a location issue. Then kranefly found the magic pattern. A hot pink egg pattern that he had tied. In record time, he hooked a beautiful brown trout, a male steelhead with a perfect red stripe and a dime bright steelhead hen. Joey, waterwhippa and I were dazed and confused. Kranefly was clearly showing us how to get it done. Then I heard the infamous words, “There he is.” An explosion of water erupts in front of Joey. His rod is curled over and the fish starts to rip. Then, the steelie is gone. I could tell that Joey was caught somewhere between elation and despair. He shook it off as quickly as the steelie shook his fly and started casting again. We were all catching a bunch of really small 12-16″ Rainbow Trout and Landlocks, but those were not cutting it. The day was pressing on and I had switched flies 20 times at this point. So, I decided to go back to old faithful. I tied on the no frills orange glo bug and threw out a long cast. After a few drifts in the run, I was dialed in. My indicator was moving at the exact speed of the bubbles and I could see my indicator making the perfect ticking motion. So I knew my setup was correct. Halfway through my 3rd drift, the indicator darted towards the opposite bank. I set the hook and a decent Brown Trout came to hand. We covered tons of water today for scouting purposes. In other words, we never stayed in one spot too long. We tried to find several steelie holding spots, and it worked. Tomorrow we know exactly where to be, at what time, and what flies to use. But, river and fish dynamics can change overnight and so can our plans.