A run of less than five minutes took us through a pristine tidal estuary into prime steelhead habitat. The Gold proved to be a small river with a steep gradient. The river drops rapidly from its headwaters high in the Insular Mountain Range. In several places the river is forced into a narrow constriction by towering rock precipices that line the river on both sides. Steep canyons constrain the river, forming deep quiet pools that often terminate in white water chutes that whisk into the next deep lingering run.
Most drifts exceed ten feet, many are over twenty.
The great depth of the Gold compels anglers to use bottom-bouncing gear instead of the more traditional float rigs used in Canada. Dale rigged with a small rocket-red Spin and Glow and suggested we do the same. I was rummaging through my vest for the prescribed steelhead medicine when it happened. On the first ten feet of his first cast of the day Dale hit a fish. Before our trip was ten minutes old, we were into fish.