Steelhead on Line and Lens 



by Jackson Rivers . . . photograph by Carl Steph 



THE pipe-smoking, felt-hatted experts on fresh-water sport 

 fishing argue long over the relative merits of the steelhead 

 trout and the Atlantic salmon as fighters. Some assert that the 

 bright salmon of our Eastern rivers wins on aerial acrobatics. 

 Against this, the boys from the Pacific slope rivers offer the long, 

 powerful runs and staying power of Salmo gairdneri. They say 

 that the angler who has lost an hour-long battle with a heavy 

 gairdneri suffers a "steelheadache." 



No steelheadache resulted from the episode shown in the 

 photograph on the opposite page. The picture is in fact a kind 

 of double success story a collaboration between Arvi ("Shorty") 

 Kouvo, steelhead fisherman, and Carl Steph, who took the unu- 

 sual color shot of the 8 14 -pound steelhead on the first leap after 

 it was hooked by Shorty, who is standing in the boat in the 

 background. 



The steelhead in the picture is, or was, a resident of the 

 Kalama River, Washington. Shorty Kouvo and Carl Steph are 

 both residents of Woodland, Washington. Fish, fisherman, and 

 photographer got together in exactly the right position at exactly 

 the right time in perfect lighting one day last April. 



It didn't just happen. Before this fishing-photographing expe- 

 dition, there had been many others over a period of years. Shorty 

 hooked this steelhead on the Kalama on the fourth day of an 

 otherwise no-luck trip. Carl had set up his camera on the oppo- 

 site bank, using an 8i/ 2 -inch commercial Ektar on his 4x5 Speed 

 Graphic, lens set at 1/100 of a second at f6.3- After an hour's 

 wait, Shorty Kouvo hooked the steelhead, and Carl Steph 

 snapped the shutter. The result is one for the books of photog- 

 raphers and steelhead fishermen. 



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