Doctor’s Orders: Fall Steelhead

I’ve been an avid angler all my life, including a 15-year stint as a salmon and steelhead guide on Washington streams, which means my son, Kris Jr., was one lucky kid. When most youngsters learned how to ride a bike or build model cars, he sat in the front row of a drift boat learning how to back-bounce large clusters of cured salmon roe, waiting for massive chinook to inhale his offering. He learned just how to feed the beast and set the hook at the perfect time to ensure solid hookups. Between my guide buddies and me, he was spoiled with the kind of fishing excursions in most boys’ dreams.

Pink salmon invade our home river every other year in numbers that would boggle your mind. When they are in thick, we put on clinics for all those fishing around us. Pinks, also known as “humpies” for the large hump the males develop, are the fish that taught Kris Jr. how to cast light tackle, finesse a jig and let a fish run before working it back to the boat, all at the tender