WHEN YOU THINK ALL HOPE IS LOST

 This is one of those fishing stories that ends with a happy ending. On our last camp trip on the John Day  I was Guiding for Marty Sheppard of Little Creek Outfitters we had some great fishing. On day 3 of a 5 day trip camp trip one of my clients was having a epic day, I think he hooked 7 or 8 fish. The last fish of the day is where the story begins. Bob was fishing through this big boulder run, I was standing high on the bank watching the fly, I just told Bob he was getting to good area with a big pile of rocks I could see from my high vantage point. The fly finally reach the rocks and wham fish on, the fish hit hard and ran directly toward the rocks on the far bank. Before we knew it the fish was wrapped up in the rocks.
I told Bob to move down stream to see if we could get it off the rocks, we tried all the tricks none of them worked. I figured the fish was gone by now and some how I needed to get to the other side and untangle this mess. So I walked up stream to the raft and rowed across to get the line back, before I untangled the line I thought I would take a picture to show Bob how we had no chance of landing this fish. After the photos I started to untangle the line from the rocks when I got to the leader I noticed the steelhead was still on the end. I have the raft in one hand and pile of line around me with a big steelhead on the other end. So I yell to Bob to strip line in the fish is still on and about ready to take off again.
Bob might say I was yelling at the top of my lungs Strip Bob, Strip faster, Strip, Strip, F ing Strip.
Bob finally reconnected to the fish and the fight was back on, I rowed across and help land the biggest fish I saw all season. I have been guided for over 20yrs and have seen this happen before but it never ends well, it fills good to have one of those crazy stories to end with photos of the fish.