Gas Station Boudin

My awesome stepdad, Doug, and his first steelhead. We floated the Nestucca last Friday with a guide, and Doug pulled in this bad boy about five hours into the trip, and after a 15-minute fight. It was a hatchery fish, so we kept it and enjoyed it for dinner on Christmas Eve. 

Steelhead are known as the fish of a thousand casts, and you have to really want it to be out there in the Oregon winter. But getting to spend the day with Doug, doing something that I love (and too rarely have a chance to do), is worth one million empty casts and more. Especially since last week’s rod and every rod I cast, is one built by the guy in the photo.