We found only one lonely fisherman when we arrived at the river, which was not a good sign. We started out fishing under the bridge and worked our way downstream. After an hour without any hookups or signs of any fish, we decided to head downriver. I wanted to try a pool in Quarry Park that held fish back in January. We were again surprised to find the parking lot in Quarry Park also empty. We got down to the pool and both began working head of the pool. Outside of the many snags in the pool, we didn't hook into anything exciting. I worked my way down through the pool to the tail without a hookup. We decided to head back up below the dam to see if any fish would move up in the late afternoon. When we arrived, there were 10-12 fishermen up at the dam. We were still able to slide into our favorite spot under the bridge. I began working the water in close and then gradually started casting out further. Near the end of my swing, my line took off and I set the hook. A large fish exploded on the surface and quickly shook my hook. I was disappointed that I lost the fish, but was excited to know that there was at least one fish around. I continued to work the same area and within a couple of minutes I was hooked up again. The fish shot downriver and tail-walked across the surface. I took off downriver after it and after a short battle we were able to net the fish. It was a long, skinny female close to 32 inches. It was my first Chamber's Creek steelhead and was no longer holding any eggs. More then likely it was one of the 117 fish that had been processed and passed up from the weir early in the week. We continued fishing the faster water below the bridge and up at the dam, but didn't hook into any more fish.

We returned early the next morning, hoping that some fish had moved up overnight. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, as there were 20-25 fishermen below the dam. We headed to the same spot where I had hooked the fish the previous day. We fished for close to an hour without a hookup and saw only one fish hooked and caught. We decided to head down to a favorite run in Island Park, hoping to get away from the crowd. The run was open and I started out fishing at the head, working the fastest water. Jerry worked the area below and continued downstream for another hundred yards. With no signs of fish here, we decided to head to Lincoln Park to see how things were going. We headed to the lot by the weir and saw the familiar while camero. MP was out guiding, so we stopped by to say hi before checking the weir. The window at the weir was closed and it didn't appear that there were any fish in the tank. We headed down to one of the bends and began working the faster water and pockets behind the boulders. After losing some flies and hearing reports from other fishermen that no fish had been caught, we decided to head to another river. The flow was around 180 cfs, with visibility only a couple of inches. I caught our lone fish on a chartreuse egg, but we also fished egg patterns, San Juan worms, darker wooly buggers, and egg-sucking leeches without any luck. Water temps for the weekend were in the 39-40 range, warm enough to fish flies, but not warm enough to get the fish moving up river. The only fish in the river were the Chamber's Creek steelhead and Loopers, the Ganaraska strain spring run fish hadn't run yet.