The Fishin' Magician: Steelhead off the mouth of the Entiat

I had some fun steelhead fishing late last week. My first trip was with my fishing buddy Rollie Schmitten, off the mouth of the Entiat River on the Columbia. We had just a couple of hours and we had some success here last year.

The bar in this area changes every year, but Schmitten found an area where the fish were holding and we took advantage of a brief bite. I landed a nice hatchery fish and he lost one right at the boat. We missed a couple of other strikes on our Maxi-jigs and saw one caught from shore. The fish we landed kept our steelhead success streak alive into the third season!

On Saturday I was invited to jump on board with Shane Magnuson, Upper Columbia Guide Service. He had the McCourties, a father and eight-year-old son and his old friend Garrett Graham along and had room for me. We fished the area known as The Rocks down stream from the mouth of the Methow. We were pretty busy, too.

oth McCourties landed their first steelhead ever and we had a blast watching young Christian strain to pull the fish to the boat. His dad Anton not only caught some nice steelhead but a big smallmouth bass on a bobber and jig!