Losing A Steelhead the Hard Way!

Sandy River Cliff 

There was an excellent stretch of steelhead water on the Sandy River we called the Bat Hole. It required balance and steady nerves to reach. You had to claw the rocks like a bat and scale down a steep cliff to reach the water.

One morning my friend Rick and I managed to reach the water safely and began fishing. It wasn’t long before my buddy hooked one, and by the way his rod was bending, I knew that it was a large fish. After five minutes I yelled at him,

"Rick, you’ve got to put more pressure on him because those rocks might break him off.”

He just nodded his head as he puffed his cigar and played the fish. Finally, after ten minutes he had worked the fish closer to the surface, so I said,

"Keep it coming, Rick. You’ve got him hooked well.”

Finally, he had worked the fish within ten feet of the bank when suddenly the line snapped and the fish slipped quietly out of sight. As he started anguishing about the loss, I started laughing.

"Hey, what’s so funny, that’s the biggest fish I ever hooked!”

"Rick, you didn’t just lose that fish."

"What do you mean,” he snapped back.

With a snicker I answered, “You burned the line off with your cigar!”