First steelhead of the season...

I went to the river today at about 10:30. I seemed I was late to the game; there were about twenty other anglers at the park when I arrived. I couldn’t find a decent spot to fish near the “honey hole” so I walked down river and fell into line. I fished a run that was just downstream from one of the deeper holes in this area. I did manage to catch a sucker fish. At least I wasn’t going home completely skunked. I decided to walk further down river to see what things were like around the bend. Before I made it around the bend, I slipped and fell in. Sadly, it was in about 12” of water. My boots are shot; the felt is worn away on the bottoms. When I fell, I wound up on my side and water got into my waders. To add insult to injury, these were new waders and now I have green stains all over the side and the butt. I was trying to be careful with the new waders since it was the first time I wore them on the river; so much for that. At that point I started walking back towards the parking lot since my entire right side of my body was soaked, from my shoulder to my toes. As I was walking back I decided it was tolerable to stay and fish for a while since the temperature was at about 50 degrees. Had it been much colder and I would have had to get into dry clothes as soon as I could. As I was walking back up river towards the parking lot, I noticed an opening at the “honey hole” and stepped in and began to fish. On the second or third cast I had a fish and off. Damn! That is so frustrating. I continued to fish this spot for a while with no success. I saw a guy I have seen at the fly shop several times. We chatted for a minute before I had another fish on! This steelhead I was able to bring to hand. The first fish of the season; woo hoo! It was not the largest steelhead, it wasn’t even a big steelhead; it was a small fish coming in at about 14”, a “skipper”. After losing 6 fish over three separate outings; I was very happy to bring this fish to hand, regardless of its size. At least my streak of losing fish was over! As I beached the fish and got hold of it, the fish flopped around in an effort to get away. While it was thrashing, I got hooked by the dropper fly. So there I was soaking wet, bleeding, with fish and hook in hand. It was a tough day for this angler. As tough as it was, I still went home happy because I caught my first steelhead of the season!  I didn't get a picture of the fish i caught today.  I am posting a picture of a fish that was about the same size from last season.