My wife suggested that we celebrate my birthday, November 5th, by going steelhead fishing. I thought it was a great idea, and we headed up to Pateros. We were both surprised that the day turned out to be sunny and warm, hardly a typical steelhead fishing day. We made a drift in the area known as Coyote Rocks and didn’t touch any fish. I was about to head up to the top of the drift for another try, when she suggested we run across the river. Sounded good to me. I have taken a lot of steelhead from this point back in the day. I set the drift with my bow mount and as I slid down the river made a cast to the slot just off the rocky bank. My bobber went down, and I set the hook and saw the flash of a steelhead below the surface. Instead of running down stream the fish ran out in front of the boat and jumped high in the air. Then, ripping line off my reel, ran straight up ahead of me. Then—my line broke. My heart sank, but the experience reminded me why steelhead fishing is so special.