The Brule was murky on the opener, but if you could get into a good spot there were big fish to be caught. At 4:30 AM Saturday morning there were 16 cars in the Pine Tree lot. We decided to try avoiding the crowds and headed up above FF to some favorite holes. The morning fishing was slow with no fish hooked or caught. We tried the first hole below FF and I finally landed my first steelie of the year, a bright 20 incher. We decided to try the other side of the pool and Tim soon hooked into a big brown, close to 26 inches. We got the nice lake-run female in after a short battle and it was released. I landed a 22 inch brown soon after, another nice female. Nothing but a couple of smolts were caught for the next couple of hours so we headed to a favorite spot below 13. This spot was always good for a fish or two and it again produced for us. Soon after we got there I hooked a monster steelhead. It jumped right away and I knew I had a nice fish on. I chased the fish around trying to stay on top of it and keep it out of any logs. I soon realized that we had left the net in the car and there was probably little hope of getting the fish in. I did get it right up next to me a couple of times and knew I would be a little upset if I didn't get it in. It was a brightly colored male hookjaw close to 32 inches, by far the largest I had ever hooked. After attempting to bring it to shore a couple of times, it made one last attempt to get off and was successful. It found its way into some sticks and I was in disbelief when the hook popped out. I was a little heart broken, but I know there are more fish of that size in the Brule and one of these days I will get one in.