I was looking for something and I saw this cover. What surprised me was I have the issue based on contents but have no memory of the cover. It may have been missing. Dad didn’t take perfect care of his mags before I got to them.
What I did remember was this article with one of the best pics of a steelhead, or any salmonid that I can remember, posing with the iconic Ted Trueblood. Anyone remember him? In his day, he was the man, although I never paid that much attention at my age. However, other authors like Tom McGuane lauded him and that is no small praise.
The river in the article was kept a secret by Trueblood, et al, for as long as possible. It was the Clearwater in Idaho that had a run of steelhead from redband stock. A superior fish with analogues in the famous Thompson River run, the strongest steelhead in the world.
It was a flashback to see it again.
The fish handling leaves something to be desired. It foreshadows all the fish abuse on Facebook now but at the time proper handling was just starting to be understood. You never hold a fish by its gills like that plus its weight out of water can kill it. Nowadays, you can’t lift a steelhead out of the water in some places, like WA, by law. The caption says this is a steelhead in the 20 lb class, a stupendous steelhead.
Trueblood wiki page
As a kid, I read everything outdoor related I could get my hands on. Inevitably, I picked up a few heroes along the way; Ted Trueblood was one of them.