There is nothing like a hard day on the river to remind you just how crazy we are to fly fish. Steelhead will do that to you. I spent the day fishing the Methow River in Central Washington with my uncle. We arrived at the river around 9:30 to find no wind, no rain and plenty of sunshine. The river was running a bit high but crystal clear. The day was off to a glorious start.

We strategically planned to fish in the middle of the week to avoid the crowds and so far our ruse was working perfectly. Only a handful of fishermen were plying the waters for the steelhead sulking seductively. We rigged up and started off down the path to the river with a quickness.

In my mind I was convincing myself that one fish today would make it a great day. That's all I wanted - just one. This would be my first steelhead - period. Nevermind the great views, good company and perfect weather. Forget about standing in a river casting a fly. Just one fish. I got my wish.

After 20 minutes of drifting my version of a black stonefly nymph through the run I hooked into a fat beast of a rainbow, pushing 20 inches. It might have been a steelhead, we didn't keep it around long enough to get a good look. Live and let live. This was a good omen. I knew today was going to be a good day. With spirits high I started to work the rest of the run; however without incident.

Still in good hopes after reaching the bottom of the run I headed back up top to give it another shot while I waited for my uncle to finish up downstream. The third drift through and I hooked into a small steelhead, roughly 5 or so pounds. He gave a good fight, a couple of spirited runs and right before I was able to get him to land, he came unbuttoned.

All this action before noon, I knew the rest of the day would hold more excitment to come. I was wrong. We spent the rest of the day walking 2 miles of river, working run after riffle after tailout. Tossing everything in the box, deep and shallow, slow and fast. All for not. Nevermind, it was a great day on the river with good company. I learned a lot about my passion and myself as an angler and that makes it worth it.