fozzybear and all that voted Steelhead,
I have to tell you guys my Steelhead story which is why I voted for them in this thread.
Imagine a small Alaskan stream, on Prince of Wales Island, but could be anywhere in Alaska. You are standing in this small stream, a big Grizzley has just ran away from the banks, the air is pure, the water is better than Ozarka. You have a 7 wt fly rod and a purple egg sucking leech on the end of it. Casts are no problem in this stream as a 40 foot cast puts you well on the opposite bank. You pass a dead fallen log and your leech comes to the end of its drift and begins rising in the cuttent. You know that is the prime time for a Steelhead to strike so you ready in anticipation. Then it happens; the purple monstrocity called a fly suddenly stops rising and goes downstream. A magnificent 38 inch plus fish goes head to tail above the water in moves that Greg Lougainess would envy. The fish heads for the downfallen log and there is nothing you can do to stop it. For inexplicable reasons, it turns and heads downstream and you follow running, stumbling, crashing as you go. You come to the end of the pool and the fish knows and you know that it has no where else to go. So, it fights. it jumps, it pulls, and does everything in its power to gain freedom, but in the end looses the struggle. It is dead before I can even get it out of the water. A magnificent fish, a fish of a lifetime, but in sad irony it fought to the death. Steelhead, one of the World's treasures.
