STEELHEADPALOOZA '10: A hands-on seminar like no other in the West!
UPDATED Sept. 1, 2010 / 6:00 p.m

AUBURN, Wash. - The Sept. 11 itinerary for SteelheadPalooza 2010 just keeps getting busier and busier.

I guarantee you this if you show up at Flaming Geyser Park in Auburn for our second annual on-the-water steelhead seminar celebration: you will not go away empty-handed. The laundry list of participating sponsors/partners - G-Loomis, Shimano, Power Pro, Lamiglas, St. Croix, Daiwa, Berkley, and on and on - translates into a gigantic pool of giveaway swag for all of y'all who attend.

What will SteelheadPalooza offer? Hands-on demonstrations, the latest/greatest steelhead gear on the market, and access to the kind of information that takes years upon decades to gather. It's all yours ... FOR F-R-E-E.

8CHECK BACK HERE TOMORROW for the official SteelheadPalooza lineup. We'll have a complete list of speakers, seminar topics, participating sponsors and kickass news bits that will blow you away!

-JS

NWWC FLASH: Giant halibut comes to scale in Glacier Bay: 466 pounds!
UPDATED Aug. 30, 2010 / 7:15 a.m.

GUSTAVUS, Aka. - The latest on that 466-pound world-record-size halibut caught last week out of Gustavus, Alaska: it's definitely the bigger halibut ever landed on sport gear, but, because it was harpooned, it won't qualify for International Game Fish Association world-record status.

Either way, that's one B-I-G-ass 'but!

For years and years, Homer has been the default "Trophy Halibut Capitol of the World", but I think it's safe to say that Gustavus and Glacier Bay are this year's undisputed heavyweights.

NWWC Blogger Andy Martin has sent photo after photo of 200- and 300-plus-pound halibut this year chartering for Alaskan Anglers Inn and Deep Blue Charters, but the fish on the right takes the cake.

That's 466 pounds of Glacier Bay monster, taken by Capt. Justin Parker (pictured) and client Dale Jin of Granada Hills, Calif. The fish is 7 pounds heavier than the standing IGFA record, a 459-pounder taken by Jack Tragis in 1996, fishing out of Dutch Harbor.

But get this: this fish was the F-O-U-R-T-H 400-plus-pounder landed out of Glacier Bay this summer!

It's only the latest of a summer-long string of big fish being hauled in by the Alaskan Anglers Inn boats, as Martin has reported. Martin has personally hauled a handful of 300-plus-pounders aboard, and was on the scene when the 466-pounder came to the dock in Gustavus.

8CHECK OUT MARTIN'S QUICK REPORT HERE, and check back here on NWWC.com for his official report on the GB halibut fishery.

SALMON REPORT: Chris V. puts the wood to career-best 45-plus B-10 beast
POSTED Aug. 18, 2010 / 6:43 p.m.

ASTORIA - I appreciate a low-key salmon guide. Chris Vertopolous of Northwest Angling Experience, it seems, fits that bill perfectly.

"Buoy 10 has definitely picked up," Vertopolous told me today. "We're getting 6 to 12 chances a day, typical Astoria fish: 12 to 24 pounds, with a few biggies."

A few biggies. A. Few. Biggies. Like, maybe, the 45-PLUS-POUND Hawgasaurus Rex that Vertopolous is hoisting in the picture above?!?

8TAKE A LOOK AT THE IFISH THREAD discussing Chris V.'s monster B-10 beast, and tune in this Saturday as The Greek checks in LIVE from Buoy 10.

WILD BLOG BUDDIES: Adrienne shares a view of Thompson River rainbows
POSTED Aug. 18, 2010 / 3:12 p.m.

BANKS OF THE THOMPSON RIVER, British Columbia - It's titled simply "Summer 'Bows". Sometimes you need to just shut up and let the pictures do the talking. So, we will.

8CHECK OUT ADRIENNE COMEAU'S SHOTS FROM THE THOMPSON on a recent escape from Michael & Young Fly Shop in Vancouver.

AUG. 14 WILDCAST: April shares the view from Steelhead Valhalla
POSTED Aug. 15, 2010 / 6:12 a.m.

ANAHIM LAKE, British Columbia - The lower Dean River is about as deep in the steelhead bucket list as it gets. We haven't been to Steelhead Valhalla in years, but, fortunately, we have friends in low places.

8LISTEN IN AS WE CONNECT WITH APRIL VOKEY from Blackwell's Dean River Lodge, where she's shared the river for two weeks with the world's strongest steelhead.

8CHECK OUT APRIL'S DEAN RIVER BLOG and photo gallery from a place that our own Bill Herzog describes as "steelhead perfection".

2010 FORREST WOOD CUP: Of helicopter rides and a $45,000 payday
POSTED Aug. 13, 2010 / 8:40 a.m.

DULUTH, Georgia - Ron Hobbs, Jr. got his ride in the Blackhawk helicopter. He got to share a stage in front of 12,000 people with his boyhood hero. He got to compete with the man who was recently ranked #1 in the BassFan.com World Rankings.

Oh yeah, and he cashed a check for $45,000, too.

8FOLLOW RON HOBBS JR.'S RIDE through the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier in Georgia.

-JS

2010 FORREST WOOD CUP: Hobbs advances to final day of 2010 FWC
POSTED Aug. 7, 2010 / 11:40 p.m.

GAINESVILLE, Georgia - Finally, after four days of practice, three days of competition in the 95-plus-degree Georgia heat and a nerve-wracking Day 3 weigh-in, Ron Hobbs, Jr. will get his ride in a Blackhawk helicopter.

That's the prize Hobbs and five other anglers - Brent Ehrler, Cody Meyer, Larry Nixon, Kevin Hawk and Troy Morrow - will get for making it to the final day of the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier. That, and a shot at $500,000, and a revered place in the history of bass fishing.

To get there, though, Hobbs had to endure a gut-wrenching weigh-in and a last-minute charge by two local Lanier veterans.

8CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW RON HOBBS QUALIFIED for the final day of the "world championship of bass fishing", and how he expects things to play out on Lake Lanier on Sunday.

2010 FORREST WOOD CUP: Hobbs climbs into Top 10 on Day 2 of FWC
POSTED Aug. 6, 2010 / 4:10 p.m.

DULUTH, Georgia - Ron Hobbs, Jr., it turns out, isn't very good at estimating the weight of five fish in the live well of a Triton. Fortunately for Hobbs, though, he's an UNDER-estimator.

Hobbs weighed in just over 13 pounds today on Day 2 of the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier in Atlanta, climbing from 12th place to 7th and putting himself in position to compete for a $500,000 payday in the "world championship of bass fishing."

"I don't know, I think I had about the same as yesterday - maybe 10 pounds," Hobbs said as he hung out in the parking lot of the Gwinnett Center, waiting to weigh in. "But, then, yesterday I thought I had about 7."

And, just like on Day 1 and 2, Hobbs plans to continue his largemouth assault on Day 3.

8CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT HOBBS' DAY 2 CLIMB and how his largemouth plans shape up for Saturday.

2010 FORREST WOOD CUP: Hobbs hits Day 2 "Magic Tree" at 2010 FWC
POSTED Aug. 6, 2010 / 12:40 p.m.

DULUTH, Georgia - Exactly one week ago, I asked Ron Hobbs, Jr. on Northwest Wild Country whether his plans for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup included: 1). Largemouth; 2). Fishing in the expansive creek system of Georgia’s Lake Lanier.

His answers: “No” and “no”.

So where does Junior find himself fishing today on Day 2 of the $500,000 “world championship of bass fishing”? In the back of a creek.

And what does Junior find himself fishing for? Largemouth.

Oh how quickly things can change. And, in Hobbs’ case, change for the better.

8CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE DETAILS OF HOBBS' magic tree and how he plans to fish it throughout the week.

WILD BLOG: Mining the trophy halibut grounds of Glacier Bay
POSTED Aug. 1, 2010 / 10:40 a.m.

GUSTAVUS, Alaska - The following text hit my cel. phone about 2 minutes before going on the air this Saturday:

"Another 200 yesterday, 6th of the season for me"

This about a week after the following text:

"300# hali today"

That from Wild Country blogger Andy Martin, who has put on a summerlong clinic on catching giant halibut in Glacier Bay. Normally, identifying the best trophy-halibut fishery in Alaska is next to impossible. This year, though, the hands-down big-'but fishery of the summer is Gustavus

I'll have a feature on ESPNOutdoors.com later this week on the Gustavus barn-door fishery.

8IN THE MEANTIME, CHECK OUT MARTIN'S WEBSITE and some of his killer galleries of Alaska and southern Oregon fish.

ZOG BLOG: A Baker(s) half-dozen: images from the Baker Lake sox fishery
POSTED July 31, 2010 / 1:30 p.m.

CONCRETE, Wash. - My ongoing sockeye vision quest took yours truly, some fishing buddies and Edgar straight from the Brewster slama-rama-ding-dong to Baker Lake last week. And while the action on this historical first-ever Baker fishery is already fading, this is a spot that I - and may of our Wild Country listeners, apparently - have high hopes for in the future.

Haven't had the good fortune of taking in this fishery? No worries! C'mon along for a quick Baker(s) half-dozen (photos, that is).

8CHECK OUT HERZOG'S BAKER LAKE BONANZA and stay tuned early next week for the next vision-quest report: Lake Wenatchee.

ZOG BLOG: Helping you cash in on Brewster's (1/3) Millions
POSTED July 30, 2010 / 5:30 p.m.

BREWSTER, Wash. - Over 300,000 sockeye are heading for the Okanogan River near Brewster on the upper Columbia River. There’s a six-salmon limit per day. Wanna go?

That’s right, kids, the fish ladder count at Bonneville is nearing 400,000 sockeye as you read this. Over 300,000 are heading to one place: the Okanogan River, which dumps into the Columbia at Brewster. This is the second consecutive year of this plethora, as we saw some outstanding sockeye bites in Brewster Pool late last July into August.

Add over 150,000 more salmon, you have this year’s opportunity.

Knock, knock.

8CHECK OUT ZOG'S A to Z GUIDE TO BREWSTER SOCKEYE! Detailed information and diagrams of the most effective rigs for sockeye in the Brewster Pool.

NWWC BAIT LAB: K.I.S.S. tiger prawns = Keeping It Simple with Sugar
POSTED June 14, 2010 / 7:40 p.m.

PUYALLUP, Wash. - The facts are like this: Steelhead like sweeter bait.

If you're skeptical about a steelhead's addiction to sugar, the next time you're curing up eggs for steelhead fishing, try curing some of your skeins with a slightly higher salt base, like you might do for salmon (or as you normally might do with your home brew). Then try doing some of your skeins with a good’ol helping of table sugar, or raw sugar if you can find it.

8BUT I DIGRESS. THE FOLLOWING IS A SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE METHOD for curing/preparing raw tiger prawn for steelhead.

BASS REPORT: Junior takes shot at $500,000 payday at Forrest Wood Cup
NEW July 26, 2010 / 6:30 p.m

ATLANTA - Barely 10 days away from competing for a $500,000 payday, Ron Hobbs, Jr. is most excited about signing a liability waiver.

A half-million dollars and bass-fishing immortality can wait. Right now, Junior wants to talk about Blackhawk helicopters.

"Dude, I had to sign a waiver in case I make the top 6 and get to ride in a Blackhawk helicopter - how cool is that?!?" Hobbs says the week before departing for Atlanta and Lake Lanier, where 78 of the FLW's top anglers will compete for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup and the biggest paycheck in professional bass fishing. "I just want to make the top six so I can fly in a helicopter."

8CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT RON HOBBS' PREPARATION for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup on Georgia's Lake Lanier.

WILDCAST CENTER: Mike Floyd dishes the dirt on late Westside musky bite!
NEW July 11, 2010 / 1:30 p.m

LAKE TAPPS, Wash. - Mike Floyd subscribes to the age-old theory: Talk softly and carry a big stick.

Or, more accurately in the case of the Westside's musky savant, carry a big net. The net is for the overgrown tiger muskies that the humble Floyd has a knack for landing: The 49-incher in the photo above is the largest confirmed musky ever caught on Lake Tapps.

I had the great fortune of tackling Tapps recently with Floyd and Darren Largent of Auburn Sports & Marine. I'm an admitted musky greenhorn, through and through - I've caught plenty of Northern pike, but the western Washington strain of this giant Esox is a mystery fish to me. That might explain the first words out of my mouth when I spotted a 50-plus-inch MuskySaurus Rex lurking over a submerged weedbed on Tapps' north end: "HOLY BLEEP!"

XLISTEN IN TO OUR RECENT Q&A WITH MIKE FLOYD and get a look at the Evergreen State tiger musky fishery (including details on the development of the summer bite on Tapps).

DJ UNPLUGGED: Reanalyzing the reopening of sturgeon on the Columbia
NEW July 5, 2010 / 10:30 a.m

ASTORIA, Ore. - The bad news: Washington and Oregon fisheries managers extended the sturgeon retention season on the lower Columbia River. 

Why? Because the quota wasn’t filled. It wasn’t last year either. Or the year before that.

8READ DAVID JOHNSON'S BLOG ABOUT STURGEON and why the lower Columbia River's recent reopener to sturgeon retention is bad news for the fishery.

CRASH TEST: FishWithJD.com puts the MagLip through its paces
POSTED June 28, 2010 / 9:40 a.m.

FROM FISHWITHJD.COM - Yakima Bait Co’s MagLip has been selling like hotcakes in the Pacific Northwest lately, but is that just a case of everybody rushing out to buy the newest thing on the market or does this plug actually catch fish?

Recently, we spent a couple weeks thoroughly testing the MagLip to find out.

8CLICK HERE FOR THE MOST COMPLETE MAGLIP REVIEW on the web, and J.D. "Joe Dakota" Richey's assessment of Yakima Bait's tricky little plug.

TUNA REPORT: Secret Island finds albacore 86 miles out of Newport
POSTED June 28, 2010 / 7:40 a.m.

NEWPORT, Ore. - Back-to-back calls from Bud Hosner of Big Tuna Marine and Del "Tuna Dog" Stephens - who had just spent two hours in the NWWC studio for our June 26 show - confirmed it: the first sport-caught albacore of the year was headed back to port, aboard the Secret Island.

Tron Bull, Chris Powers and the crew of the Garibaldi-based Secret Island connected with 10 silver bullets after a seek-and-destron mission took them all the way out to the 125 5 line, roughly 90 miles offshore.

8SEE THE FIRST TUNA OF THE SEASON and read the entire report on the SI's recent iFish thread.

8FOLLOW THE RECENT iFISH THREAD ON SSTs and the potential arrival of the first big waves of albacore to the Oregon fishery.

GUEST BLOG: Kramer spends some time with West Coast bass basics
UPDATED June 23, 2010 / 11:40 a.m.

LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. - "Do you know the best single tail grub ever made? That’s an easy question. The best grub is the one they’re biting."

So says George Kramer. Or, as I like to call him "The Sage of Lake Elsinore". I've had the pleasure of working with George for going on 13 years now, first with F&H News and these days with California Sportsman. If you're a West Coast basser - be you from Electric City or Lake Havasu City - you've benefitted from George's writing sometime, somewhere.

8CHECK OUT GEORGE KRAMER'S "GRUB-OLOGY 101" and the review of a new tool in the West Coast basser's arsenal, the Kalin 4-inch grub.

NWWC ON TV: Check us out LIVE Saturday a.m. on Comcast SportsNet NW
UPDATED May 26, 2010 / 5:50 p.m.

SEATTLE - Yeah, we know: Faces for radio. See for yourself Saturday morning as Northwest Wild Country host Joel Shangle fires up the mega-microphone with co-hosts Bill "General Zog" Herzog, Mike Perusse and Duane Inglin for two hours of the fastest, smartest, most informative outdoors radio show in the country. Yyou can see it all from 6 to 8 a.m. on Comcast SportsNet Northwest.

Here are the channels, and where you'll find us:

nCHANNEL 179: Puget Sound and the Seattle Metro area (from Bellingham to Olympia), Bremerton, Centralia, Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties, Spokane

nCHANNEL 37 (337 HD): Southwest Washington (Longview, Vancouver), Portland Metro area, Salem, Corvallis, Eugene

nCHANNEL 40: Bend ; CHANNEL 82: Ashland

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