I decided to get out yesterday and wet a line so I could test out some stainless steel guides I made for a float rod. I tied up a few spawn sacks grabbed my trusty Lab Bear and headed down to the lower Rocky River. I rigged up and then proceded to make a cast and then began drifting. The first hole did not yeild a hit but then again having a Lab who absolutly loves the water and would rather swim through the hole and chase my float up and down stream doesn't help matters does it. So Finally, I walked up stream a little bit and settle in fishing a tail out just above some faster water. I make a cast and somehow manage to keep the Bear out of the water and manage to hook into a nice fresh steelhead on a rather large pink spawn sack. After landing that first fish I made some more casts and ended up hooking into one more fish which broke me off. After that I got in to a major snag and lost most of my rig. At that point I just had a couple of more spawn sacks and decided to call it a day. The River had at least a foot of visibility which I was suprised by because the pervious two days it had rained pretty good and Saturday the river was high and quite muddy. I could have gone with smaller sacks considering the near perfect conditions for the day.

The wire guides seemed to hold up pretty well with that first fish and I was quite pleased with the results, I'll have to post a few pictures of the guides in various stages of completion. The bait and float casted out nicely. I couldn't find any compliants with the guides so far. Only time will tell on how well they work. I have two big trips coming up and I am looking forward to seeing how these guides hold up to some large king salmon from the Salmon River in NY and then the large browns and steelhead next month when I make my second trip up to New York.