We had heard the fish were running pretty heavy and weren't suprised to find the area below the dam packed with fisherman when we arrived. We each found our own spots and began working the water. I was fishing a shallower pool below a riffle that seemed promising. I was near the end of my drift when my line shot downriver. A fish lept into the air, took off downstream, and broke my line before I knew what had happened. There goes my first Root River steelhead. We continued working the run when Justin hooked into a monster fish. She took him all over the river, but eventually we were able to get her in the net. It was a huge female close to 31 inches and still full of eggs. It was one of the fish that had gotten over the weir with the high water.

I soon hooked up again with a bright colored male who took me down stream. I was able to get the fished turned into the shallow water where Justin got it in the net. It was a fresh male close to 26 inches. It was pretty exciting fishing, as someone would hook with a fish every couple of minutes. I soon hooked into another fish who ran over to the other side of the river, jumped and tailwalked on the surface and then took off downstream. I could tell this fish was larger and was praying that it wouldn't get off. It finally came up to the surface and Justin was able to net the fish. It was another huge male, this one was close to 31 inches. The fishing slowed around noon, so we took a short break. The crowds were thinning as a lot of the fish had been caught. When we returned it seemed like more fish had shown up. Justin hooked into and landed another nice male close to 29 inches. I also hooked into a smaller female around 23 inches. The fish started moving to the shallow gravel area and you could just barely make them out. I spotted a nice female holding behind a rock. It took a couple of casts and I was hooked up. She didn't have much fight in her, but she taped out close to 30 inches. She was a skinny fish with no eggs left in her. Justin hooked a monster fish that took him way down river. He followed after it, but unfortunitely his hook popped out.

We returned early the next morning, but for whatever reason there didn't seem to be as many fish as the previous day. We worked with river for a good two hours before I finally hooked up with a nice fish. At first I don't think it realized it was hooked, but finally it took one big run and then circled back. It kept staying around my feet and we had trouble netting it. Finally I was able to get it up to the surface and we netted the fish. It was a little beat up, but it was a monster male close to 32 inches. It was the only fish we landed the rest of the morning. The water was up at 200+ cfs, but the visabilty was maybe a foot and a half. The best flies for us were small egg patterns and san juan worms.