- Carl Johnson of Brookings, Ore., holds a 15-pound Smith River steelhead he caught and released on New Year’s Eve while fishing with guide Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing. The steelhead hit an orange Spin N Glo fished with roe cured in Pautzke’s BorxOFire fished with size 1 Lazer Sharp hooks. (Andy Martin photo)
Confession time: I was a little late to the winter steelhead game. Growing up in the high desert, I didn’t even see a metalhead until I was 19 years old. That fish, though, just happened to be MY fish – my first – caught on a spoon on the Smith River. I didn’t really understand the significance of that fish at the time, and I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing, besides hucking a spoon, but I sure as heck understood what that fish did to me.
It made my hands shake and my heart race, and the second I got my hands around that little 9-pound chrome hen, I bellowed like a bull ape. I’m sure that anglers up and down the Smith River Canyon believed they had heard the mating call of Bigfoot.
I had the tremendous good fortune of working as the sports editor at the Curry Coastal Pilot shortly thereafter, meaning that the Smith was almost at my back door. I met and worked with Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing, started paying attention to water gauges and reading up on steelhead techniques, and caught more fish.
And that’s when I really got the sickness. I slinked and skulked around that river – and its sister to the north, the Chetco – like a hyena, unknown and unnoticed by the local guides who made their living on the Smith. They don’t even know it (unless they’re reading this now), but I knew who Greg Squires and Mick Thomas were long, long before I got into this game of fish writing.
It’s been a long ride on a downhill slope since then, and I’ve burned more time (yes, and money) on steelhead in the past 20-plus years than I care to admit. And I’m not slowing down anytime soon. I haven’t been back to the Smith nearly enough in the past couple of decades, but, Squires, damn him, has virtually guaranteed that I’ll be spending time travelling North Bank Road and skulking around the Hiouchi Café again.
If you’re a steelheader – even if you won’t fish the Smith at all this season – do yourself a favor and pick up the January edition of California Sportsman, where you’ll see a feature written by Squires. I’ve seen a bazillion stories on the Smith (and written a couple dozen myself), but Squires’ piece on reading/reacting to changing water conditions on the river is easily one of the best ever written.
Digest that story slowly and thoroughly, because there are more nuggets of useful information in those 1,600 words than in 10 other stories twice that length.
Call for reader photos: I know you’re out there. And I want your photos. North Coast steelheaders, I’m putting together a “Gallery of Steel” page for the February issue, and I’d like to include you. E-mail your steelhead hero shots to jshangle@media-inc.com for consideration.