Pre-Work Steelhead Fishing

The Hood River Hookers took club fishing to a new level of dedication with pre-work steelhead fishing this past August. Tom and I enjoyed a stunning PINK and purple sunset before calling it an early night. The 5:00A.M. alarm buzz is a lot less painful that way.

Mount Adams sitting pretty in pink.

We met Neal at the Drano Lake boat launch in WA. It was dark and 5:30A.M. All the boats in the water dropped anchor along the channel for the best chances of hooking one of these slippery friends. The sun joined the party and gave us a bit of welcome warmth.


Neal recasts the bait—purple shrimp—under a bobber. Simon checks his work.

Tom trying his patience.

Skunked.

Me realizing that none of us are probably going to catch anything—it's time to go to home and get dressed for work.


Slightly discouraged after watching anglers around us land fish after fish, we celebrated with ice cold Rainiers when Neal pulled in this beauty on one of the morning's final casts. Dinner!