We woke up this morning with the intent to leave the Salmon River. Once again, things changed. Jeremy is doing some work out here and asked if I could stay a few more days. Of course I said yes, because I wanted another shot at the Steelhead. So we went to a beautiful tributary. The levels had come down a bit from previous days and the water had improved. We pulled into a turn out and Jeremy says, “Stop, we are here.” My response was, “I hope there is an elevator.” The descent of pure shale and mud was ominous at best. We managed to make it down without any mishaps. I could use this opportunity to tell about my 100 yard swim down river yesterday. Which then would explain why I was sitting in my truck in my underwear with the heat blasting? But, I will save you the image and myself the embarrassment. Due to the geology of the river bottom I had to seek and find channels where fish would lie. I chose to fish the tail out of a long channel. I cast to the slowest seam along a walled structure. Due to the colder water temperatures and faster currents, I felt the fish would be in the slowest current. After repetedly casting my nymph rig I began to consider how cold my feet were. Suddenly, my indicator went subsurface. I raised my rod and felt the full weight of a large Steelhead. I had him on for 10 minutes as he zigged and zagged and fought the rod. He managed to escape into a fast channel and spit the hook. Still shocked and suffering from cold feet I made my way back to the same exact spot. Within minutes my strike indicator went subsurface for the second time. Again, I knew it was a Steelhead. Although smaller than the first it seemed to fight just as hard. With Jeremy barking directions at my heals and charting a course down river we managed to land the fish. Even though it was not a huge Steelhead, it was my Steelhead. My first Steelhead.