Thursday was my Birthday, and after a frustrating day of catching up on office work, a good friend showed up at the house informing me it was time to wind down with a cold one.  I told him that would be good, or we could head up river and do a real quick maiden scouting run on the McKenzie River for steelhead.  Greg is a true fisherman, and very little arm twisting was necessary.  Good news awaited us at the takeout where we parked the shuttle rig.  The 2 guys in the driftboat that was pulling out had landed 2 nice steelhead, each about 7 lbs.  By 5:30pm we were on the water.  As we entered the first good steelhead run we noted several hopeful bank fishermen working the far side of the river.  Our gear wasn't in the water 30 seconds before Greg's rod doubled over with a hot chromer screaming down river.  As we laughed out loud about the intantaneous bite, I lifted up my rod only to immediately scream "DOUBLE"!  Greg yelled"Bull",  but his eyes soon widened, recognizing that my bucking rod was no simulation.  We had indeed caught the attention of the guys across river who informed us that the "five minute rule" was in play.  Apparently that river etiquette requires a minimum of five minutes in the hole before hooking a fish.  News to me.  With smiles on our faces, and perhaps a hint of guilt we headed down river.  By the time we nosed into the boat ramp, we had hit 3 gorgeous summer-run steelhead ranging between six and twelve pounds.  These are fun, bright fish of hatchery origin, so my mouth watered a tad, since I knew the BBQ would be sparked up this week.  My birthday had been redeemed.....better than a cake! With over 2900  summer steelhead over Willamette Falls by May 8th, we may be in for some pretty decent metalheading this season.  That number represents about 1000 more fish headed this way than we had on the same date last year.  The salmon picture is far less optimistic as ODFW is invoking special restrictions due to low returning numbers.  Only time will tell how critical the picture really is.  Meanwhile ODFW personnel are already busy recycling excess steelhead that have returned to the South Santiam Hatchery.  Suffice to say, this may be the year to book a steelhead trip.