Malek and Gabe Catch Their First Steelhead

On Thursday, March 23, 2017 Malek, Gabe, Michael, and myself went steelhead fishing on the Big Manistee river near Wellston. We met our fishing guide, Doug Samsal, at the Highbridge Rd launch site on the Manistee at 7:45 a.m., just barely sunup. Air temperature was 21°. Fortunately for us, Doug had a good sized heater and cover on his 21 foot river boat. We were in the river fishing by 8:00 a.m. After four hours of fishing Malek was the only person with a “hit” on his bait but because we did not get a good “hook set” the steelhead was off the line after three or four retrieves. About one-half hour later Michael had a steelhead “slam” his rod, but before Michael could get the fish turned away from some underwater structure, the steelhead broke two hooks (approx. 2 inches in length) completely off the bait and escaped after wrapping Mike’s line around the structure. Around 1:00 p.m. Malek landed his fish and shortly after, Gabe landed his fish. Because the hook set is one of the most important skills in landing a steelhead, Michael did all of the hooksetting before handing the fishing pole to Malek and Gabe. In six hours of fishing we did not see any other fishermen even get “hits” on the poles, yet we had 4 hits and landed two of them. The video and pictures below show the excitement of the catch and landing of the fish. By 2 PM we had landed two fish and fileted them before we arrived at the boat launch. By 2:20 p.m. we were on our way home with memories and stories that will last us our entire lives.