Olympic Peninsula Winter Steelhead 2009: Day 2

I am writing this a few weeks later, so details aren’t super accurate but I wanted to at least have some record of it. Date / Time: 3/22/09 Location: Olympic Peninsula- Bogachiel River The Characters: Kory Kapaloski, Dave Severson, Brian Kapaloski, Paul Callister Weather: Partly cloudy, rain showers sporadic Water Temp: High 30s to mid 40s Water Level / Tide: Getting just right, slightly high but good for the upper end, dropping, gauge about 29 feet. Water Clarity /Quality: Perfect “steelhead green” with a few feet of vis. Moon Phase: last quarter to New Fishing: Walked in on park trailhead, not one other car. Covered lot of water including trying a mini run where i hooked fish the year before but it had largely filled in. Eventually found huge run, awesome piece of water riffle at the top gradually spreading out into a huge slow moving run with slot down upper left and then lower right. About 15 minutes in, hooked a huge fish at top of that run, battled it for about 10 minutes or so got several good looks at it, probably at least 20 pounds. Finally it twisted and rolled and line went slack, looked at hook and it had broken right behind the barb…totally devastated but elated that i had hooked a monster. what a mix of emotions Looking back on it, I am stoked that i hooked a giant bogi fish on the swung fly. NOt my fault that the hook broke. After that met up with BK and PJ, as they got a late start. They fished the runs in viscinity of the ones we had the day before at the top of the dirt road to no avail. Went over and checked out the Hoh and drove all the way to the park boundary. Quite a few people around. Water looked perfect, but it was getting late and there were people in most spots. Fished the run at the 2nd boat ramp up from the last takeout before the canyon to no avail.