I finally made a visit to below Wells Dam for steelhead a few days ago. This was after having terrible luck fishing further up river. My fishing buddy Rollie Schmitten and I started our day in Pateros. We tried drifting our bobbers and jigs in two spots where I am used to having very good action; in the estuary and then down river at the Rocks. We didn’t even get a sniff in the estuary and Schmitten got just one hit at the Rocks. After a bowl of chowder and a sandwich at the Rivers Restaurant, we decided to give Wells a try. We have had some great times below Wells Dam and hadn’t fished for steelhead, and this seemed like a good day to do it. We made a few long drifts along the bar and below, hooking just one fish. We switched colors of our Maxi-Jigs and made the run across the river to the big eddy. Settling into the eddy, and actually drifting up river, we finally got some action. Schmitten released a nice wild fish and not five minutes later I got a 9-pounder keeper. Whew. It was a near thing, but we kept our success streak alive.