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WILD BLOG: Deciphering the voodoo of the biggest German browns ever
PUBLISHED Oct. 29, 2012 / 10:54 p.m.
SEATTLE - There's a closely guarded science to consistently catching big fish of any species, and a reason why guys like NWWC's Bill Herzog can claim 230-plus 20-pound steelhead to their credit.
In the case of trophy-class German browns, though, there's a whole 'nother level of arcana: The best brown-baggers in the West protect their secrets like they do their checking account PIN numbers and Facebook passwords.
8CHECK OUT 7 TIPS TO FINDING BIGGER GERMAN BROWNS as brown-bagger Mike Nielsen shares the secrets of his success.
WILD BLOG: A peek at Nicky P.'s coho toolbox: the 4-1-1 on plugs
UPDATED Oct. 25, 2012 / 8:42 a.m.
SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. - If there is one word to describe the Skagit River's coho fishery this fall it's "consistent". Fish are now spread throughout the entire Skagit - from Mount Vernon to Marblemount.
Concentrate your efforts to slower edges, back sloughs and wood piles. These coho conga lines are excellent places to enroll your favorite flashing intruder or wiggling wonder.
In my opinion, there are four different ways to fish coho on the Skagit right now. This blog will address one of those techniques: plugs.
8CHECK OUT NICKY P.'S LATEST TEAM FETHA STYX BLOG ON PLUGS and learn how to fish one of the best coho lures out there.
WILD BLOG: Brace yourself, old-school, for some new-school shooter ideas
UPDATED Oct. 24, 2012 / 5:54 a.m.
SEATTLE - I was struck by an epiphany last week. That epiphany is about 5-foot-4 ½, with flaming red hair, is 20-something years old, has almost no huntingexperience … and is most certainly the future of hunting and shooting in the Pacific Northwest (and, the whole country, for that matter).
The epiphany's name is Shelley Sargent, the editor of Western Shooting Journal, the new sister publication of Northwest Sportsman.
8CHECK OUT MY RECENT BLOG ABOUT SHELLEY and the future of shooting and hunting on the West Coast.
8GO "LIKE" SHELLEY"S PAGE ON FACEBOOK AND FOLLOW ALONG with her observations about the gun and shooting world.
WILD BLOG: Cogdell's dove tips: how to be a better shotgunner this season
PUBLISHED Aug. 31, 2012 / 11:54 a.m.
SEATTLE - You can virtually hear the shotgun-shell manufacturers of the world rubbing their hands together in glee this week as hunters prepare for early September's traditional dove opener. You know it, I know it, and everybody with a 20 gauge and a grain field from San Diego to Seattle to San Antonio to Sarasota knows it: we're going to burn through massive amounts of shells over the next few weeks, fellow members of Shotgun Nation.
That may or may not apply to Olympic medalist and World Cup champion trap shooter Corey Cogdell.
Likely not.
8PAY ATTENTION, DOVE HUNTERS: COREY C.'s TIPS ON SHOTGUNNING and how to be a better hunter this season.
NWWC BAIT LAB BLOG: Pautzke Nectar kicks up your plug wraps for Chinook
POSTED July 23, 2012 / 10:12 a.m.
YUBA CITY, Calif. - Most West Coast anglers and guides wrap their Flat Fish and Kwikfish with sardines or crawdad fillets. This has been standard for longer than I've been fishing. However, few guides go beyond this.
On the other hand, I've learned to not get complacent in my techniques. It's important to me to constantly seek new methods and be on the cutting edge for my clients whether I'm running plugs or fishing bait.
8CHECK OUT MY NEW FIRE BLOG ON HOW TO PREPARE BAITS for Kwikfish and FlatFish, for summer and fall Chinook.
WILD BLOG: My backstory: The confounding case of Gary Tudesko
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED January, 2010 / ESPNOutdoors.com
WILLOWS, Calif. - Gary Tudesko never dreamed that a duck hunt before school could turn into a legal battle involving the Fourth Amendment, the California Code of Education and federal "Gun-Free School Zone" laws.
But when the 17-year-old junior at Willows High School in rural northern California stowed his and a friend's unloaded shotguns on the back seat of his Chevy Silverado and went to class on the morning of Oct. 26, it set off a chain of events that led first to Tudesko's suspension from school, and, at the end of November, his expulsion by the school district.
8CHECK OUT SHANGLE'S BACK STORY FROM ESPN OUTDOORS on the legal battle of California youth hunter Gary Tudesko.
WILD BLOG: Losing your heroes, gaining your perspective ...
PUBLISHED June 27, 2012 / 9:45 p.m.
SEATTLE - "Gentleman" is an overused word and an under-accomplished status. It fits a bygone era. Today, we have gangstas and playas. We have superstars, fakers and wannabes. And very damn few gentlemen.
We lost two of those recently in the fishing industry, and my heart is heavy for the loss.
8HELP US HONOR HARRY LEMIRE AND HOMER CIRCLE and their contributions to the sport!
WILD BLOG: Odell Lake serves up trophy Mackinaw this month: gearing up
POSTED June 14, 2012 / 7:12 p.m.
CRESCENT, Ore. - Traveling down the Cascades Lakes Highway, I was looking forward to a couple days of fishing on Wickiup Reservoir with some buddies. You never know what to expect or who might show up from year to year.
This annual fishing trip always generates wild times, a lot of laughs and a few new friendships. I'm not sure the designated tree for the beer can pile is indicative of how much fun we've had, but maybe the size of the pile might tell who showed up that year.
8READ UP ON HOW TO CATCH ODELL LAKE'S MONSTER MACKS as Del Stephens shares some of his trolling secrets for trophy lakers.
RUDNICK'S BUCKET LIST: State-record cutthroat potential at Omak Lake
POSTED June 3, 2012 / 8:30 a.m.
OMAK, Wash. - You won’t catch a lunker every day, but if you want a legitimate chance to catch a trophy-sized cutthroat trout, Omak Lake is where you should be spending some of your fishing time (especially in June and early July).
The Lahontan cutts, which originally came from the alkaline lakes of Nevada, were first stocked in Omak Lake in the mid-1970s, but it wasn't until the summer of 1993 that anglers began to take notice of the cutthroat fishery here. That's when Omak Lake regular Dan Beardslee smashed the lake and state record for Lahontans with a whopping 18-pound trout.
8CHECK OUT TERRY'S WRITE-UP OF OMAK LAKE and find out why this Colville tribal lake is one of the best trout fisheries in the state this month!
WILD BLOG: Palaniuk makes his first official footprint on Elite Series history
POSTED April 22, 2012 / 10:30 p.m.
BULL SHOALS, Ark. - I've decided that I'm officially rooting for Coeur d'Alene Outlaw Brandon Palaniuk to blow the doors off the 2012 Elite Series. I'd like him to win a couple of tournaments, challenge for Angler of the Year honors, and be seen on the cover of every bass magazine across the country.
I'm a fan of style, you see, and, Sweet Georgia Brown, the kid from Rathdrum, Idaho certainly seems to have it.
8CHECK OUT MY BLOG ON THE "STYLE POINTS" THAT PALANIUK is racking up as he begins to make his mark on the Elite Series landcape.
NWWC WILDBLOG: How to reenergize and customize your frozen eggs
UPDATED March 24, 2012 / 1:06 p.m.
SEATTLE - One rainy evening I was hanging out in my garage and getting my fishing gear ready for the next morning's trip. I had four containers of eggs left over from fishing earlier in the day and I decided to use them for tomorrow. The eggs were pre-cut and cured in Pautzke's natural colored Borx O' Fire.
I thought I was ready to go ... that is until the rain turned into a downpour. I knew that this kind of rain would cause the water to gain some serious color. At that point I came to the realization that my natural-colored eggs would no longer make the cut. My baits needed a recharge.
8CHECK OUT A QUICK, EASY WAY TO RECHARGE YOUR BAITS and how to customize your egg colors to best fit your local water conditions.
STEELHEAD NATION: The General makes the case for metal madness ...
POSTED Jan. 30, 2012 / 8:21 p.m.
SEATTLE - For over 30 years, I've waved the flag for steelheading's oldest technique. Yet spoons are still the ultimate angling enigma.
Spoons can either make or break you. If there was ever a lure that is condition specific, it’s bent metal. Choose them at the right times and the tough becomes suddenly easy. On the flipside, you’ll often find that spoons on winter rivers are guaranteed skunkings
8CHECK OUT HERZOG'S 5 REASONS TO FISH SPOONS for steelhead, and some advice on when NOT to throw metal.
STEELHEAD NATION: Kratzer's secrets for cooking up shrimp for steelhead
POSTED Jan. 25, 2012 / 9:21 p.m.
FORKS, Wash. - A few years back I was doing a steelhead fishing seminar in front of more than 200 people. I pulled out a bucket of cured prawns and a guy in the back stood up almost immediately commented on how strong their scent was. Soon, the room smelled like prawns. And, that potent smell that filled the room is equally as powerful underwater.
This is one of the reasons I always keep prawns on my boat when I'm steelhead fishing.
Over the years I've come up with a way to make prawns easy to cure, but also tough. I've used a few cures that are easy, meanwhile the one I am going to show you has become staple in for me. This cure process makes a tougher bait and brings out the smell of the prawn better than any I have come up with yet.
8READ UP ON HOW VETERAN GUIDE KRATZER PREPARES HIS PRAWNS to maximize their scent and durability for steelhead.
NWWC BAIT LAB: Introducing Fire Brine, the new curing solution for eggs
POSTED Jan.1, 2012 / 5:40 p.m.
PUYALLUP, Wash. - Pautzke director of operations Chris Shaffer and I talk often. He knows how much I enjoy playing with bait and frequently picks my brain, so when called to ask if Fire Brine would work on single eggs my immediate response was "Why?"
Shaffer called because he knew over the summer, fellow pro Nick Petosa and I headed over Snoqualmie Pass to the Pautzke factory to help "tweak" an old family recipe and create Fire Brine.
8CHECK OUT THE NEWEST, EASIEST WAY TO CREATE PERFECT EGGS with Fire Brine, the latest bit of egg science by the worldwide egg leaders.
WILD BLOG: The freaks come out in the winter at Rufus Woods Reservoir
POSTED Dec. 26, 2011 / 7:01 a.m.
WENATCHEE, Wash. - If you have any illusions about catching the state-record rainbow trout in Washington, you head straight to one location: Rufus Woods Reservoir. This impoundment of the Columbia River has produced the past several state-record rainbows, and our own Bill Herzog swears that the next world record rainbow swims here.
But, how do you catch these sterile, football-shaped freaks of nature?.
8READ UP ON THE RUFUS WOODS TRIPLOID FISHERY as local guide Anton Jones explains how to catch the rainbow of a lifetime.
FROM THE BAIT LAB: Single-egg curing tips from a Great Lakes steelheader
POSTED Dec. 2, 2011 / 9:50 a.m.
STEELHEAD ALLEY - There are many methods to curing eggs. Here in Steelhead Alley I think it's safe to say we all have our own favorites. However, we also tend to do things a bit different than in other parts of the country.
For example, curing single king, brown trout and steelhead eggs is engrained in our culture whereas that practice is foreign to many West Coast guys
8TAKE A STROLL THROUGH STEELHEAD ALLEY AND FIND OUT how to brine single eggs for steelhead baits that will stand out.
 Decipering Idaho's Clearwater River POSTED Nov. 25, 2011 / 8:50 a.m. LEWISTON, Idaho - Few will argue that Idaho's Clearwater River is one of top steelhead fisheries in the world. I happen to be lucky enough to live and guide on this steelheader's paradise. 8 READ THE REST of Albrich's advice on catching Clearwater River steelhead. |
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SPOKANE, Wash. - The web is abuzz with the loyalty displayed by one dog in China. It seems that the dog’s owner died a week or so ago and that the dog has stayed by his grave ever since. 8 READ LYNN'S LATEST Gun Dog blog at Outdoor Life for a lesson in loyalty. |
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ELLENSBURG, Wash. - For more than 75 years my family has provided anglers with the best salmon eggs on the planet. I'm thrilled to report that this year's crop of fish was superb! 8 CHECK OUT THIS SPECIAL behind-the-scenes look at the Pautzke egg process. |
NWWC THANKSGIVING: Sharing our crew's Thanksgiving traditions ...
POSTED Nov. 24, 2011 /8:50 a.m.
ARLINGTON, Wash. - Thanksgiving has always been the traditional kickoff to the winter steelhead season on the West Coast. And as you'll notice if you follow NWWC crew member Nick Petosa's Facebook page, Nicky P. is a follower of tradition. There will be some steelheading on the Petosa Turkey Day menu.
The photo above is of my oldest boy Chris and I, on his very first Turkey Day chukar hunt, back in 2000. That hunt is one of my favorites: My brother Dan and I started doing it years and years ago. But what are YOUR Turkey Day hunting and fishing traditions?
8GO LIKE THE WILD COUNTRY FACEBOOK PAGE and share your Thanksgiving Day fishing and hunting traditions with us!
WILD BLOG: 10th Anniversary of 9/11 - what, exactly, does it mean to you?
UPDATED Sept. 11, 2011/ 9:30 a.m.
ARLINGTON, Wash. - There’s a picture that hangs on my wall at home. As a piece of art, it’s really nothing special. Taken with a little snappy Kodak disposable camera over 10 years ago by my brother Dan, it’s taken from too far away, over-exposed and so undersaturated it looks like a sepia print from the Wild Wild West.
It’s a simple little 4 x 6 print, sitting side-by-side in a wooden frame with a picture of my oldest boy Chris and I sitting on top of a stack of hay we had just loaded for my dad's horses. As plain as that photo is, though, it means more to me than any of the thousands of HD photos I’ve ever taken in 20 years in this business.
That picture has hung on the wall at The Pink Apartment, the Train Crossing, the Duplex, the Brown House, the Golf Course House … everywhere my nomadic life has taken me. And it’ll hang on the wall anywhere I call home as long as I live.
8ON THIS 10th ANNIVERSARY OF SEPT. 11, 2001, WE BOW OUR HEADS in recognition of the men, women and children who lost their lives that day ...
FACEBOOK: Shangle's first day on Lake Ontario: "I have met Ms. July ..."
POSTED July 25, 2011 / 7:30 a.m.
OSWEGO, New York - The problem with high expectations is that, more often than not, they go unmet. You go out on a blind date with who you thought was Ms. July, and turns out that she was actually Ms. Tractor Repair Queen of the Hazzard County Fair.
I have met Ms. July. I mean THE actual Ms. July. Her name is "Lake Ontario", and she's a thing of absolute beauty.
8CLICK OVER TO THE NW WILD COUNTRY FACEBOOK TO VIEW the photos from Day 1 of Shangle's "Destination Great Lakes" run to Lake Ontario!
WILD BLOG: Waves of Chinook feeding hard off Tofino coastline; halibut, too
POSTED July 25, 2011 / 6:30 a.m.
TOFINO, British Columbia - So far, the month of July has provided outstanding offshore fishing conditions out of Clayoquot Sound, with light to moderate winds and swell conditions for most days. One major NW blow left us tied to the dock for an afternoon, but the next day the ocean provided great conditions once again.
Chinook Salmon numbers have been very strong, with average sizes increasing to the 18-26 lb range. The past three days have provided a new "save" of Chinook salmon feeding hard along Tofino's coast, with a number of these kings breaking the Tyee class!
8CLICK HERE TO READ JAY'S COMPLETE REPORT on the phenomenal fishing going on now out of Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia.
X LISTEN TO THE NWWC PODCAST AS JAY EXPLAINS WHY THIS MONTH might see the kickoff of the hottest inshore coho bite Clayoquot Sound has seen in 10 years!
PAUTZKE BAIT LAB: Duane shares his shrimp secrets for recent STS article
POSTED June 7, 2011 / 2:30 p.m.
PUYALLUP, Wash. - Fishing coon shrimp for salmon and steelhead isn’t a new technique. Pacific Northwest anglers have been employing the procedure for decades. Nonetheless, in the last few years the application has seen an influx in interest, likely a reflection of modern formulas that make brining the shrimp easier and more efficient than in the past.
“There’s been many recipes out there, but most of them that have been written about are on a massive scale literally requiring a guy to brine a five-gallon bucket of shrimp and your everyday angler doesn’t need to brine that many shrimp,” says NWWC's resident bait thug Duane Inglin, who has a self-imposed degree in Mixology. “The recipe I use makes it easy for the average angler, whether one at guide’s level or a newbie, to add shrimp to their arsenal. I don’t want people to think that I’ve discovered something incredible here, because I haven’t, but I’ve refined some older formulas that work for me and I know they are going to work for others."
8CHECK OUT SHAFFER'S FULL FEATURE AND DUANE'S CURING INFO complete with a full array of color photos that didn't appear in the original story.
NWWC BAIT LAB: Duane shares the secrets of the "tiger prawn rainbow"
POSTED April 18, 2011 / 5:40 p.m.
PUYALLUP, Wash. - Do not adjust your monitor. The colors you see above are real.
Those tiger prawns might look like they've been swimming in the collection pools at 3 Mile Island, but they've really been hanging out in the NW Wild Country Bait Lab, where our resident bait thug, Duane Inglin, has been building the Tiger Prawn Rainbow.
8CHECK OUT DUANE'S NEW BLOG ON COLORING UP YOUR BAITS for salmon and steelhead, and some tricky new presentations with the good ol' tiger prawn.
NWWC BAIT LAB: Pro's secrets to a better, more durable scented bait wrap
POSTED Nov. 2, 2010 / 7:17 p.m.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - As we've reported here for the past several weeks, fall Chinook season is fully en fuego from the Olympic Peninsula down to northern California.
And if you ain't rolling out the stinky stuff, you're just kidding yourself, because fall kings are bait biters to the extreme. Three weeks ago, we took you to school with our extra-sloppy egg goo in southwest Washington. This week, it's the wobble of a Kwikfish or Mag Lip with some extra ju-ju courtesy of a well-cured bait wrap.
8CHECK OUT GUIDE TROY WHITAKER'S ULTRA-SIMPLE curing process for bait wraps, using Pautzke Fire Cure.
WILD BLOG: Chetco River tops the list of best big-Chinook rivers in the West
POSTED Nov. 4, 2010 / 9:47 a.m.
BROOKINGS, Ore. - When people think big salmon, places like the Kenai, River's Inlet, Skeena and Kodiak Island usually come to mind. Few people realize some of the biggest Chinook on the planet are caught far from Alaska, in places like the Smith River, Sacramento River and Southern Oregon's Chetco River.
The Chetco, a gem of a stream that flows from the Siskiyou Mountains into the Pacific Ocean at Brookings, has relatively quietly moved onto the list of the very best salmon rivers in the world. It has big fish, lots of them, and some of the best-looking salmon water anywhere.
Right now, the Chetco is yielding the kind of results that local guides can claim it as the best salmon fishing in the world.
8READ WHY CHETCO RIVER VETERAN ANDY MARTIN claims that his home river on Oregon's South Coast is the undisputed No. 1 trophy-Chinook fishery in the world this fall.
WILD BLOG: Sometimes it rains a little on the Washington coastal rivers ...
POSTED Oct. 10, 2010 / 7:20 p.m.
QUINAULT, Wash. - So while my Wild Country on-air counterparts apparently stole the key to the chocolate factory late last week - really, you donkeys, near 70-degree temperatures on the Humptulips?!? - I had a much more, shall we say authentic, October day on the Quinault.
That is to say, pissing rain.
All day long.
Thanks for coming, here's your souvenir T-shirt.
Oh, and don't forget the nickel-bright Chinook that tore me a new a**hole when it obliterated my 2/5-ounce B.C. Steel spoon.
I did not go to the Quinault hunting 30-pound Chinook: I was fishing a Lamiglas 8-12 rod that, for coho like the ones I encountered last year fishing with Underwood, is a fair fight. A 30-pound Chinook, though?
Not so much. Hence, the need for a chiropractic adjustment after the jaw-rattling bite that nearly seperated me from my molars.
Just thought I'd share.
Metal 'til the end.
-BH
WILD BLOG: Dissecting the Humptulips River for fall Chinook and coho
POSTED Oct. 8, 2010 / 7:40 p.m.
HUMPTULIPS, Wash. - It takes precisely 13 seconds for Duane Inglin's called shot to play out for the camera.
"Let's see if we can get a bobber down," Big D. says as he flips a float and an oozing gob of Fire Cured eggs out into the sluggish current of the Humptulips River.
5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... bloop. Bobber down. Fish on, a mint-bright coho.
And for good measure, Inglin does it again, once more with the camera rolling.
5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... bloop. Bobber down.
8CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ON THE HUMPTULIPS RIVER, and the full report from NW Wild Country's float-and-egg blitzkrieg.
BAIT LAB: Bill "Swanny" Swann explores the Power of Pautzke's Purple
UPDATED Sept. 3, 2010 / 5:30 p.m
YELM, Wash. - As a full time fishing guide and owner of Swanny's Fishing, I spend my life tinkering with products, specifically bait and scent. I'm always trying to come up with the newest, hottest and most innovating formulas that will give my clients an edge over salmon and steelhead.
A huge fan of Pautzke Nectar, I've been mixing the original colors for a few years now, trying to generate specific colors that aren't in the mainstream. Purple has been one of my favorites for more than two years now, but it's been a chore for me to mix several other colors to get the purple I'm looking for.
So when Pautzke director of operations Chris Shaffer called me a few days ago and told me they'd perfected Purple Nectar, I was stoked!
8CHECK OUT SWANNY'S BRAND-NEW BLOG on the newest, most dynamic product coming out of the Pautzke factory in Ellensburg. Details on how to use it, and its effectiveness for both Chinook and coho baits.
WILD BLOG: Breaking the 30-year steelhead learning curve in one day
UPDATED Sept. 7, 2010 / 12:40 p.m.
ARLINGTON, Wash. - I'd like to shoot a shotgun like Tom Knapp. If only I could cast a fly like Steve Rajeff. Sure wish I could cook like Tom Douglas, pour a martini like Keith Robbins, and tell a joke like Ron White.
Practice. I can do it. If I spend the next 30 years shooting my Benelli, making 300 spey casts, pouring gin and rehearsing punchlines every day, I'll have it all down.
Practice. Repitition. No problem.
*Insert sound of screeching tires here ... *
P-R-O-B-L-E-M: Dude, I don't have time for all that. Do you? That 30 years of expert knowledge takes 30 years to collect, dammit. Where's the "Easy" button when you need it?
8AND STEELHEADPALOOZA WAS BORN! Check out all the details of the second annual celebration of steelhead, wear-your-waders style.
GUEST BLOG: What's a little marabou between friends? Coho kryptonite!
POSTED Sept. 3, 2010 / 5:40 a.m.
FROM FISHWITJJD.COM - Sometimes you’d swear coho salmon are related to piranhas. They’ll attack anything you put in their collective paths with reckless abandon. In other instances, however, they can be the most coy, brooding and annoyingly moody critters on planet earth.
Luckily, there’s a little secret weapon you can hit ‘em with that seems to turn on even the most lockjawed silvers…
8CHECK OUT J.D. RICHEY'S 4-1-1 ON WHACKING COHO ON JIGS, including detailed info on sizes, colors, tackle and technique.
BAIT LAB: Bill "Swanny" Swann explores the Power of Pautzke's Purple
UPDATED Sept. 3, 2010 / 5:30 p.m
YELM, Wash. - As a full time fishing guide and owner of Swanny's Fishing, I spend my life tinkering with products, specifically bait and scent. I'm always trying to come up with the newest, hottest and most innovating formulas that will give my clients an edge over salmon and steelhead.
A huge fan of Pautzke Nectar, I've been mixing the original colors for a few years now, trying to generate specific colors that aren't in the mainstream. Purple has been one of my favorites for more than two years now, but it's been a chore for me to mix several other colors to get the purple I'm looking for.
So when Pautzke director of operations Chris Shaffer called me a few days ago and told me they'd perfected Purple Nectar, I was stoked!
8CHECK OUT SWANNY'S BRAND-NEW BLOG on the newest, most dynamic product coming out of the Pautzke factory in Ellensburg. Details on how to use it, and its effectiveness for both Chinook and coho baits.
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.
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.
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: 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 July 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.
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.
WILD BLOG: Turn back the clock with a Westport moocher's slamola
POSTED June 28, 2010 / 10:30 a.m.
WESTPORT, Wash. - Hello. My name is Bill, and I’m a moocher.
You all know how much I love my downriggers. Winter blackmouth, kokanee, in local dogfish-infested waters dragging flashers, hoochies or spoons ... trophy rainbow ... Mackinaw ... can’t imagine a piscatorial life without them.
But get me to the wide-open salt, with aggressively feeding shallow water salmon, and things change. Boy, do they. There is just something about having the rod in hand when 20 pounds of angry chrome grips a spinning herring.
That’s exactly what I planned on doing to send June off on its way.
You see, the self-proclaimed "Salmon Capitol of the Tlanet -Westport on the Washington coast - would see a two fin-clipped Chinook per day limit until the end of June. By July, the kings are still there, but the limit drops to one and now you may keep an additional hatchery coho.
Any time you get a chance to fish the ocean, you gotta go.
8CHECK OUT HERZOG'S MOOCHING TIP SHEET for some info on how best to take advantage of the downrigger-less bite out of Westport.
NWWC BAIT LAB: Step into Duane's Domain: coon shrimp for summer steel
POSTED June 14, 2010 / 7:40 p.m.
PUYALLUP, Wash. - A key point to remember when you're preparing baits for summer steelhead (or any fish, for that matter): You have to start with good bait to end up with good bait.
Be selective where you buy your shrimp. If you can't find them, then I would suggest: Internet, Internet, Internet. Do your homework and you might be amazed what's out there for your education. Networking on your fishing sites and boards is another useful tool.
8CLICK HERE FOR DUANE'S COON SHRIMP RECIPE and some detailed advice on curing/brining baits for summer steelhead in the NW Wild Country Bait Lab.
WILD BLOG: Quick, name a fishery where you can catch 50 coho in a day ...
POSTED May 31, 2010 / 10:40 a.m.
MOSSYROCK - I’ve fished Riffe Lake six times this year, all before Memorial Day. You see, the attraction here on this 23-mile long, 11,830-acre (full pool) Cowlitz River impoundment are landlocked coho, the only place I’m aware of in Washington State with such a population.
These are not kokanee (landlocked sockeye), which any ding dong who pays enough attention not to pee on the floor knows the difference. There are no kokanee in Riffe, just the other silver bullet that averages 13 to 15 inches. They'll push 18 inches in July.
So you out there who call them “kokanee”, stop it. Now. Landlocked C-O-H-O, Gomer.
8CHECK OUT THE RIFFE LAKE ZOG BLOG as Bill Herzog improvies your Riffe coho IQ.
WILD BLOG: Coastal springers: bigger, stronger, faster ... better!
POSTED May 27, 2010 / 5:00 p.m.
TILLAMOOK, Ore. - In the Northwest, no salmon is prettier, fights harder or tastes better than a coastal spring Chinook.
Sound like a bold statement? If you’ve caught one, you'll agree. 
My client Shawn will agree: He's caught a lot of fish over the years, and the coastal springer he caught with me early this week got his attentin. It hit like a freight train, practically jerking the rod out of his hand, ripped off line and jumped twice before it was slid into my waiting net.
These fish that are fresh out of the ocean taste so good you’d swear they had butter flowing through their veins.
And they're also a lot bigger than their Columbia and Willamette cousins. Most of the time twice as big. They not only get to spend several more months feeding in the ocean before returning, but most of them return as 4- and 5-year-olds.
Which rivers?: Try the Trask, Wilson and Nestucca Rivers - Tillamook Bay hosts these trophy fish in May and June, too. There are not as many fish in these runs as the inland rivers, but there isn’t as much pressure either.
Trolling herring or spinners and bobber fishing in the estuaries and eggs or bait-wrapped salmon plugs in the rivers will get the job done.
Don’t expect to catch a lot. But do expect to be impressed with the ones you do.
Go guided: I'll be running guided trips for coastal springers now through June. For information, give me a shout at (503) 201-4292.
-DJ
DJ UNPLUGGED: Enduring "snot-slick" mud for Wind River Canyon springers
NEW May 29, 2010 / 10:30 a.m
STEVENSON, Wash. - Good news from Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife: The Wind River is receiving so many fish they've bumped the limit up to four Chinook per day!
But just because the limit is 4 doesn’t mean you're going to catch a thing.
8CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW DJ INTO THE WIND RIVER CANYON in pursuit of spring Chinook.
WIlD BLOG: Last-minute advice for your Puget Sound Saturday shrimp opener
POSTED April 31, 2010 / 6:10 p.m.
SEATTLE - Don't blink or you'll miss the 2010 Puget Sound shrimp opener! On the eve of the May 1 shrimp season, here's some last-minute advice from some of our Wild Country shrimp pimps:
8CLICK HERE FOR SOME SHRIMP PIMP INFO that'll help you load yours pots on Saturday's opener!
D.J. UNPLUGGED: Willamette springers: Best in 20 years? I think so
POSTED April 30, 2010 / 9:10 a.m.
OREGON CITY - After a week and a half on the Columbia River under some very intense and crowded conditions, word in late April was that the Willamette River had started to clear after being muddy for several weeks.
Of course, I had to test it out.
Welcome to one of the best seasons I’ve ever seen on the Willamette.
8CLICK HERE TO READ D.J.'S ASSESSMENT OF THE SEASON so far, and why the Willamette River is enjoying one of its best seasons in decades.
WILD BLOG: Wild America through the eyes of EO's James Overstreet
UPDATED March 30, 2010 / 12:30 p.m.
ARLINGTON, Wash. - I fancy myself a bit of a photographer. Occupational hazard, I guess. You spend 22 years in the media business, you occasionally have to pick up a camera and start shooting.
Not that I mind. Quite the contrary, I've been accused of being a photo freak. My fishing buddies roll their eyes when I step on board with them because they know if, God forbid somebody catches a big fish, the fishing comes to a screeching halt as the Shangle flashes start popping.
Yes, that's right, I fancy myself a bit of a photographer.
That is, I did until I met James Overstreet.
8TAKE A LOOK AT THE WORK OF THE MOST TALENTED outdoors photographer in the business, and get a glimpse of ESPN Outdoors' upcoming "American Roadtrip" gallery.
GUEST BLOG: "The Truth" pencils in Columbia River spring Chinook for April
POSTED April 1, 2010 / 10:00 a.m.
OLYMPIA - Goodbye March and hello April.
Way back when, I do not remember days, weeks and months flying by like they do today. Regardless, that’s the way it works, I guess, and for this writer, I do my best to get the most out of every day, week and month, regardless of the weather.
I decided years ago, when I tip over permanently, and friends and family gather to say good-bye, my objective is that no one will whisper, “You know, Tony should have fished more.” I am pleased to report, that I am dead-center on course.
8CLICK HERE TO READ TONY "THE TRUTH" FLOOR'S COLUMN as he examines the run forecasts for a record number of spring Chinook headed to the Columbia River this month.
GUEST BLOG: Springer Fever spreading in southern Oregon's Rogue River
UPDATED March 30, 2010 / 5:30 p.m.
GOLD BEACH, Or. - It's hard to understand what overtakes one when the first report of spring-run salmon hits the rumor mill, internet, and the Rogue Outdoor Store. In my case, it caused me to drop all steelhead gear immediately and focus on jet boat safety checks, maintenance, and springer rigs.
These football-shaped Chinook are the prize of the West Coast. They're mean fighting machines that can scream out yards of line on an initial run. Spingers will test gear to the end of its limit. They run the river in brutal conditions that some can’t believe anyone would be involved with.
This is the beginning of Spinger Madness on Oregon's South Coast.
8READ THE REST OF PAUL LEFEBVRE'S ROGUE RIVER REPORT and about the great springer bite happening now on the Southern Oregon Coast.
WILD BLOG: J.D. finds the taxidermy Promised Land - check 'em out!
POSTED March 17, 2010 / 7:00 p.m.
FISHWITHJD.COM - One of my favorite pages on my buddy J.D. Richey's kickass online newsmagazine - FishWithJD.com - is Taxidermy Gone Bad. Really, you have to see it to appreciate it.
I appreciate it in a twisted, freak-show, train-wreck sort of way. But then again, J.D.'s site is a twisted, freak-show, train-wreck ... but in a very, very good way.
Taking the whole bad-taxidermy thing in a whole 'nother direction, J.D. has this to say about some masterwork fish-reproductions done by Alaska's Real Life Taxidermy:
Take a look at these mounts from Alaska’s Real Life Taxidermy — they may just be the best I’ve ever seen. And here’s the disclaimer: I don’t know these guys, never met ‘em…in fact, just stumbled onto their website last night. Check out these fish…they’re hot!
ZOG BLOG: Another dose of Sekiu blackmouth hootenanny shindig yankitude?
POSTED Feb. 21, 2010 / 10:45 a.m.
FORKS - As heartwarming as the Back-To-The-Future steelheading has been this winter, I'm still just as jacked to get back to the first-class opportunities for feeder Chinook in the Strait of Juan de Fuca out of Sekiu.
Last year’s non-existent ironhead runs pushed me into the arms of another woman, so to speak. I took Edgar to Sekiu to see if the days-of-yore blackmouth fishing was as good as yesteryear, just because there was nothing else to do. Turns out it was the best I’ve seen since the mid-80s, the heyday of Puget sound blackmouth fishing. Most ran 8 to 14 pounds, with a few larger ones hooked just often enough to double-check knots.
Will this year still feature hootenanny shindig yankitude?
8BOOST YOUR SEKIU IQ HERE AS BILL HERZOG SHARES the intricate details of the best blackmouth fishery on the planet.
ZOG BLOG: Herzog, J.D. Love and their "Days of Spey" on the Hoh River
POSTED Feb. 18, 2009 / 9:45 a.m.
FORKS - With blanket closures of Puget Sound streams, the long-rodders of Puget Sound are forced to leave behind the perfect swing bars of the Sauk, Skagit and Skykomish. Tough to find spey-friendly water after you cut that list of all-star rivers out.
Consequently, the Hoh had become, by proxy, the darling of the winter fly-rodder. For good reason: The classic long-scalloped bars, the wide runs that marry the aggressive native steelhead with the standard wet fly swing. At least we have the few rivers on the OP left. Like the Skagit of 15 years ago, the Hoh is now the destination of all fur and feather clan from southern BC, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and even northern California.
But know this: we are loving this place to death.
8CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF ZOG'S HOH SPEY DAZE BLOG and how he's benefitted by having his "personal J.D. Love" as a Spey-fishing mentor.
NWWC P.M. LINK: FishWithJD.com hits the economics of squawfish, baby
POSTED Feb. 24, 2010 / 5:45 p.m.
FROM THE MIND OF J.D. RICHEY - If you are, in these tough economic times, perhaps looking for a better paying career, maybe you should consider becoming a professional Squawfish Angler in the Columbia River basin.
To try to help better the survival of out-migrating salmon and steelhead smolt, the Bonneville Power Administration will pay you $4-$8 for each squawfish (northern pikeminnow) over 9 inches you can pull out of the river. As you can see, the more proficient squaw wranglers made more than just chump change last year.
8HIT J.D.'s SITE HERE for the squawfish story, plus the usual buffet of Richey richness.
WILD BLOG: Richey unearths spectacular historical photos of Snake River
POSTED Feb. 12, 2009 / 1:45 p.m.
SEATTLE - I'm not even going to pretend to take credit for this. Longtime NWWC Buddy J.D. Richey of www.fishwithjd.com did the snooping around for the above image from the Library of Congress, of the Snake River at Shoshone Falls, taken long before Little Goose and Hells Canyon dams. The photographer - Timothy H. O'Sullivan - was an apprentice of famed Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, and served as the chief photographer of the Treasury Department in 1880.
As part of the Geologic Exploration of the 40th Parallel (1867-1869), O'Sullivan logged photographic documentation of many of the West's most spectacular geographic features. His shots of the Snake River can be seen here.
-JS
FROM THE FREAKY FILES: Sabertoothed salmon - it was REAL, kiddies!
POSTED Jan. 29, 2009 / 6:40 a.m.
FISH WITH JD-VILLE, Calif. - Okay, so here’s yet another reason I need that time machine jet sled: So I can go back to the late Miocene epoch, (about 20 plus million years ago) and fish for oncorhynchus rastrosus, otherwise known as the “Sabertooth Salmon.”
This big boy was up to 10 feet long and weighed 300 to 400 pounds. As if that weren’t bad ass enough, ol’ rastrosus rocked some huge 4-inch fangs that extended down from the top of his jaw (bust out the wire leaders and titanium Kwikfish!)
8READ ABOUT THE BADDEST-ASS SALMON IN HISTORY HERE at J.D. (Joe Dakota) Richey's kooky-cool corner of the web, his online magazine www.fishwithjd.com.
ZOG BLOG: Learning from the old-school members of Steelhead Nation
POSTED Jan. 19, 2009 / 2:40 p.m.
The winter steelhead season, so far, can only be categorized as very good. But not everywhere.
Southwest Washington, average. Our North End rivers mediocre bordering on dismal ... so dismal that the Sauk and Skagit are now closed. Steelhead just don’t wanna be comin’ ’round, you dig? Hatchery steelhead on the coast, however, have returned in numbers I have to look back to 1985 journal notes to match.
The only problem has been mercurial water conditions. The rains have been spaced to tease, even with our genie-out-of-the-bottle, up-to-the-minute, computer-generated river level technology telling us exactly when to go. Many have been the days since Thanksgiving where a matter of hours being the difference between a long drive to stare angrily at brown rising water and banner mornings of nearly a dozen hookups.
What I want to discuss now is what happened to us in early January on a small river on the north coast, as J.D. Love and I were taken to class by members of the Steelhead Old School.
8CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ZOG BLOG ON LESSONS LEARNED from members of the Olympic Peninsula steelhead crowd that stepped straight out of 1972.
GUEST BLOG: "The Truth" looks ahead to '10; back on former governors
POSTED Jan. 5, 2010 / 7:10 a.m.
OLYMPIA - The calendar does not lie. It suggests it’s the year 2010 and I’ll spend a significant amount of the month planning and thinking about my outdoor agenda. I know there are invitations on my lap to consider fishing a couple times in SE Alaska, a couple trips to the west coast of Vancouver Island and a trip to River’s Inlet in B.C., home of some of the world’s largest saltwater king salmon. Fifty pounders, and maybe a 60 or bigger.
I dig 60-pounders.
8CLICK HERE TO READ TONY "THE TRUTH" FLOOR'S COLUMN as he looks ahead to the 2010 salmon season, and takes a look back at some fishing experiences with Washington's governors.
THE ZOG BLOG: The Best of the Zog Blog, Part II of III
POSTED Jan. 3, 2010 / 8:10 p.m.
SEATTLE - Part II of the most popular blog musings of our own Bill "General Zog" Herzog in 2009. Enjoy 'em:
8Tell me something, A**hole! (June 14)
Whenever I go to seminars, outdoor shows, etc, anywhere we meet anglers, inevitably I get the same question: “How do I get to be an expert angler?” So many variables, my standard answer - even though it sounds like a cop-out - really isn’t. I tell them it’s nothing that 20-plus years of hard work driven by a single-minded purpose won’t do. But if you truly want to be in the elite groupings of the Buzz Ramseys of our little world, then heed this one and only tip: Find anglers more successful than you and ask questions until they walk away or want to hit you. Then write it down in a journal.
8Skagit River summer Chinook, Act II (July 9)
The mid-summer breeze was blowing upriver, like it does every sunny, hot day in July on the Skagit River’s North Fork. It was a typical day anchoring for giant Chinook, hours of watching nodding rod tips without any movement. Thirty boats in sight, and as usual only a lucky few encounter a fish each day. These were fish of Northwest legend, this one of the oldest and most popular fisheries since the 1930s. Now, finally, it's back. Hello old friend, we meet again ... where should I begin?
8Come celebrate July 24 with me ... (July 20)
We all have our favorite days of the year to go fishing. Different reasons for different fish at different times of the calendar. Might be your birthday, an anniversary of some sort, an annual gathering. There is always one day, the red-letter day we circle the minute we get the new calendar each year. July 24 would be that day for me. Let's review ...
8Let's burn some ... salmon patties, that is (Aug. 7)
Since my late teens, I’ve been sort of a closet cook. Out of necessity from my first marriage - as my ex could not boil water without a cookbook and only cooked when I held a gun to her head (kidding ... she never cooked). So I had to learn or go hungry. By trial and error, I came up with some cool recipes. As you can imagine, quite a few of these include fish.
8Seeing salmon through untainted eyes (Aug. 20)
You know who you are. Your unwavering prejudice. The nasty stares, the low muttering when we pass by. The distaste for being around those unlike yourself. The biased, dark hatred. It’s all about being a different color: You are green. We are pink.
COMING IN PART III: Zog's fall/winter jag through the steelhead fisheries of the Eastside.
WILD BLOG: Taking a new approach to the battle against Old Man Winter
POSTED Dec. 20, 2009 / 7:40 p.m.
Please explain this time and space continuum to me: Why does time whiz by when the “FUN!” button is set to maximum, and the clock grinds to a halt when we’re forced to participate in grueling activities?
The seemingly countless fishing opportunities of spring and summer are now being replaced by a handful of rivers open during cold times. Our choices are fewer than someone in solitary lockup in federal prison on Date Night.
But I – yes, loyal Northwest Wild Country listeners, I, the hater of all cold-weather activities - have this thing figured out. This winter is gonna fly by like an F-15 pilot with explosive diarrhea, flying over the mid-Atlantic looking for a porta-potty.
Embrace it. Love it. Lemonade out of lemons, etc.
8CLICK HERE TO READ THE LATEST ZOG BLOG as Bill Herzog takes a new approach to the battle against Old Man Winter.
WILD BLOG: While the Westside suffers, Herzog smokes 'em on the Ronde
POSTED Dec. 4, 2009 / 7:40 p.m.
What did I say?
For months, all we heard on the show was incessant pissing and moaning about “no rain”. Each time, I gave the caveat: “Be careful what you wish for, soon we’ll all be crying for the deluge to stop.”
And what happened? Don’t wanna be an "I told you so", but I TOLD YOU SO.
We've been experiencing a conga line of storms, all spaced perfectly in two- to three-day shots that keep all western Washington rivers at or near flood stage. Each time we get a small window of dry, rivers begin to drop and get tantalizingly close to being fishable ... zooosh.
Thanks for playing. Now put down that length of $200 rolled graphite and wait some more for the first opportunity at winter hatchery fish.
8CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ZOG BLOG detailing Bill Herzog's two November flame runs to the Hottest Steelhead River on Planet Earth.
WILDBLOG: DJ quietly racking up the late-fall Chinook on Tillamook system
NEW Dec. 1, 2009 / 8:30 a.m.
TILLAMOOK, Ore. - NWWC blogger David Johnson is a man of few words in the latest blog entry he shipped off to me late last night:
"Fall Chinook not over yet ... I'll let the South Coast take all the limelight. It's not over for fall Chinook on the North Coast!"
More photos to be posted shortly!
-JS
WILD WORLD: Cabo, Lower Banks on the Wild Country radar this week
POSTED Nov. 24, 2009 / 1:40 p.m.
BAJA, Mexico - Working on my West Coast saltwater column for ESPN Outdoors the past couple of days, it's hard to get Baja off my brain. First, I get the following report from Capt. Justin Fleck, skipper of the Excel out of Fisherman's Landing in San Diego: "17 fish from 180 to 343 pounds today, 11 biggest (were) 206, 211, 220, 220, 223, 238, 241, 243, 247, 305 and 343".
That's nine "cow" yellowfin tuna (fish over 200 pounds) and two "super cows" (300-plus-pounders).
As you'll read when my latest column posts on ESPNOutdoors.com later this week, the 2009-10 season is shaping up to be one of the best on record for 200-plus-pound fish. Many of the long-range boats at Fisherman's Landing have openings in December, so if you've ever wanted to fulfill this bucket-list item, now's the time to do it.
Photo of the day: This one is just an excuse to post a killer underwater image!
I stumbled across the photo at right, taken by Grant Hartman of Baja Anglers in Cabo. while randomly surfing
To you other divers in the crowd, you know darn well that Hartman's heart was thumping loud enough to be heard at the Cabo Wabo Cantina as this whale swam right under him while he was taking underwater photos of seals.
-JS
THROUGH WILD EYES: Swell hammers Oregon Coast; paddle on, dude!
POSTED Nov. 11, 2009 / 9:10 p.m.
CAPE MEARES, Ore. - File this under "cool photos". This image came to our attention from a post at WendMag.com, the online version of adventure-travel title Wend magazine.
WILD BLOG: Finding fall/summer steelhead on Oregon's Rogue River system
POSTED Nov. 2, 2009 / 8:40 p.m.
Large salmon, some easily in the mid-40s, where everywhere, splashing in the eddies near the bank, resting in the shallow tailouts and holding up in the deeper pools. It would be easy to catch them - a sardine-wrapped FlatFish or a big gob of roe and a green Corky would probably trigger an immediate strike.
But on the middle section of the Rogue River, just downstream from Grants Pass, salmon fish has been closed for a month. The fish are dark anyway, as the spawn is in full swing.
As we quietly floated past their newly dug redds, the anglers in the front of the drift boat waited for the signal.
“Over there,” I instructed.
They flung their small roe clusters toward the spawning salmon, quickly took out the slack, and then waited for the strike.
8CLICK HERE to read Capt. Andy Martin's latest blog, and the details of the Rogue River's slammin' late-fall summer-run fishery.
ZOG BLOG: Methow River 2009 - the reality vs. the hype
POSTED Oct. 24, 2009 / 5:40 p.m.
It’s hard to ignore ...
This summer, over 27,000 summer steelhead negotiated dam after Columbia dam to finally breach Wells Dam, just below the town of Pateros at the mouth of their final destination, the Methow River. Normal numbers before WDFW opens the river are around 12,000 fish.
It’s hard to ignore ...
8CLICK HERE to read the latest Zog Blog, and Herzog's rundown on how/where to catch steelhead on the Methow River.
8CLICK HERE to listen to our NWWC podcast of our on-air discussion of Eastside steelhead techniques
WILD BLOG: You can take my dog, but please don't take my cel. phone!
NEW Oct. 21, 2009 / 9:30 p.m
The other morning as I was in my boat at the dock, I looked over at my sonar unit ... and it wasn’t there!
For a moment, panic hit me. I remembered taking it out of the boat, but I couldn’t remember if I took it into the house or left it in the truck. Luckily, it was in my truck.
Then I thought, “At least I didn’t forget my cel. phone!”
What is the fishing world coming to when a guy would rather go without a depth finder than without his cell phone?
The cell phone has become one of my most important tools on the larger areas that I fish like the Columbia, Tillamook Bay and Willamette River. By having a network of friends and guide buddies that I can keep in touch with, I can know what’s happening ten miles away without going there myself. This in its self has saved a ton of time and fuel.
I can also dial into the depth the fish are running, and what exactly they're hitting on.
On any given day at Astoria, I knew what was going on with 10 other guide boats.
When you can run a tiller motor, back bounce and talk or - better yet text - all at the same time then you know your skill level is getting up there.
Last year Washington banned talking on a cell while driving and Oregon follows suit next January. Let’s hope they never expand this to talking while driving a boat.
-DJ
8 CLICK HERE to read David Johnson's latest updates on iFish.
WILD BLOG: My assault on the Quinault - coho heaven on bent metal
POSTED Oct. 10, 2009 / 3:40 p.m.
Sometimes a great fishing trip gets dropped into your lap, like the top scoop of ice cream on the cone. You never see it coming, but now you have to deal with the mess.
Each Saturday after Northwest Wild Country, you may find me at the fishing counter of Sportco in Fife. Usually my mornings are spent dealing with a Puyallup, Skokomish or Nisqually River “liner” (those of the 6-foot leaders and Corkie brigade) who has broken his cheap rod for the eighth time.
Last Saturday, however, I was delivered a great treat, courtesy of Quinault tribal fishing guide Rich Underwood.
Rich was cleaning us out of Vibrax spinners. I had to ask why the hoarding of metal, he replied that a record number of coho were invading the lower Quinault and he was simply re-loading.
Hmm. Big, fresh-from-the-tides, ultra-chrome coho? Eating metal?
I wanna go. Tomorrow.
8CLICK HERE TO READ the latest Zog Blog, and how Herzog experienced "the best river fishing day for fall coho of my life".
WILD BLOG: Bass legend hooks up with Fraser sturgeon
POSTED Sept. 9, 2009 / 4:40 p.m.
I pose the same question to bass icon Jimmy Houston, and 20 minutes later, to Fraser River guide Dean Werk: “So, Jimmy/Dean, what was your first impression of Dean/Jimmy?”
Their reactions are immediate, and exactly the same: laughter. Sincere, from-the-gut, “Oh, do I have a story to tell you” laughter.
“Oh, man, he’s a character,” Houston tells me about Mean Dean the Fishing Machine, owner of Great River Fishing in Chilliwack.
“That guy,” Werk says about the iconic Houston, “is just a card, man.”
8CLICK HERE to see what happened when a bass-fishing legend experienced the Fraser River's white sturgeon fishery.
BUZZ BLOG: Buzz turns in his scorecard from the Buoy 10 killing grounds
NEW Aug. 31, 2009 / 10:30 a.m
ASOTRIA, Ore. - Just got this quick missive from Yakima Bait Co.'s Buzz Ramsey:
"At Buoy 10 is where Jason Resser, Jim Sproul, Mike McGuire, Larry Ellis and I caught our limit on Saturday. Although we tried herring (normally the most effective bait), all fish were caught using red-and-white spinners produced by Yakima Bait.
With 700,000 Coho now returning and the daily bag going to 3 fish September 1, we may again have to try our luck.
This was the final day of a 5-day trip where our boat kept 49 of 100 salmon landed and 1 steelhead that happened to be fin-clipped. Although the numbers varied each day, overall only about half the coho landed had the required-to-keep missing adipose fin."
-Buzz
WILD BLOG: Looking at salmon through untainted eyes ...
POSTED Aug. 20, 2009 / 8:30 a.m.
You know who you are.
Your unwavering prejudice. The nasty stares, the low muttering when we pass by. The distaste for being around those unlike yourself. The biased, dark hatred.
It’s all about being a different color.
You are green. We are pink.
How does one develop such hatred? From years of hanging with the wrong crowd: those who will fish only for Chinook.
Nothing wrong with them - the darts, the hoochies, the spoons, all with some manifestation of green. All Northwest anglers love to target kings. But this passion begins and ends with one species of salmon.
Limited, and a bit sad.
Chinook-only anglers are missing a rare treat we only get for a few weeks every two years. Anybody who says that taking a light rod and twitching a jig or tiny Buzz Bomb and getting double-digit hookup days is not more fun than watching the Dallas Cowboys lose by 50 points is full of it.
When a pink is caught on a heavy downrigger rod, 25-pound test, and an 11-inch flasher ... yeah. A twisting irritation that must be removed, unceremoniously winched right in. Not the least pleasurable and only moderately more exciting than a glob of seaweed.
Break out your heavy trout spinning rod or light steelhead bobber and jig rod and, well, totally different story.
Tainted, you king elitists are. You need to se this fishery through the eyes of those who, for the lack of another description, do not know any better. The youth, the ones who do not live anywhere near the Northwest, and those who rarely, if ever, fish. These are the wide-eyed, the ones who know nothing more than a wild, chrome salmon is sizzling around, barking line off the reel.
8 CLICK HERE to see humpy fishing through untainted eyes.
 Over 1 million reasons to fish Buoy 10 POSTED Aug. 7, 2009 / 3:30 p.m. ASTORIA, Ore. - Now is the time to plan, gear-up, and fish the mouth of the Columbia River for a mixed bag of Chinook and coho. The reason: the Columbia River is expecting 700,000 coho and another 500,000 Chinook to flood the big river from now through late September. Since the waters extending west from Buoy 10 to Buoy 4 (known as the Columbia River Control Zone) are closed to all fishing regardless of run size, the area just east of the number 10 Buoy and an imaginary north/south line extending from it is the first place you can ambush salmon as they enter the Columbia River mouth. 8 CLICK HERE to read the rest of Buzz's inside scoop on the 2009 Buoy 10 bite. |
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TACOMA, Wash. - Since my late teens, I’ve been sort of a closet cook. Out of necessity from my first marriage - as my ex could not boil water without a cookbook and only cooked when I held a gun to her head (kidding ... she never cooked). So I had to learn or go hungry. By trial and error, I came up with some cool recipes. As you can imagine, quite a few of these include fish. Summer is the time for excess.Exceptional seasons with liberal limits means we will be baking, barbecuing, broiling and frying salmon. Lots of salmon. Every other day, salmon. More salmon. "Please-Dad-can-we-have-steak-instead?" salmon. 8 CHECK OUT Zog's killer recipe for salmon patties, THE best answer for leftover salmon |
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ASTORIA, Ore. - The mouth of the Columbia is known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific", and it's said that more ships and boats have sunk here than any other place in the world. It's a big area and it can get dangerous, but if you respect it you can have a lot of fun. Remember that no fish is worth you life, and if in doubt, D-O-N-T G-O! What else can you do? 8 CLICK HERE to read David Johnson's tips on safety at Buoy 10. |
WILD BLOG: Goldston finds himself living the angler's dream at FWC
NEW Aug. 1, 2009 / 10:30 a.m. EST
PITTSBURGH, Penn. - “Starstruck” might be a strong word, but as Tommie Goldston stands on the floor of Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Penn., site of the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, that’s the only word the Gardnerville, NV angler can come up with.
“Absolutely starstruck,” Goldston repeats. “I can’t believe I’m here, I can’t believe I’m doing what I’m doing … I just can’t believe any of this.”
“This”, for those of you who don’t follow professional bass fishing, is the World Series, Tour de France and US Open of the fishing world, all rolled into one dazzling display of lights, smoke, sound, and Jumbotron video. A total prize pool of $2 million is on the line. Thousands of people from western Pennsylvania – and, for that matter, throughout the country – will file into the same arena in which the Stanley Cup currently resides, where, on Saturday and Sunday, they’ll boisterously cheer the weighing of fish.
And Goldston, a quiet, unassuming roofing contractor from west-central Nevada, will be right in the middle of it, alongside the mega-superstars of the bass-fishing world.
8CLICK HERE to read about Tommie Goldston's road to the Cup, and his awe-inspiring encounters with two legends of the sportfishing community.
WILD BLOG: Beating offshore coho "drive-bys", hitting a Grand Slam ...
NEW July 14, 2009 / 8:30 a.m
Ocean fishing has been “off the hook” for coho salmon, both off the mouth of the Columbia River and out of Garibaldi. We have been easily getting limits within two hours of fishing.
Talk to anybody who's done some offshore coho fishing, and you will hear about “drive bys”. They are very common. There are a few ways of cutting these down and converting some of these missed opportunities - I stress S-O-M-E of them ... you'll always have some drive-by’s.
It’s the nature of the fishery.
Not only are there small fish out there, but also the nature of coho on a feeding frenzy is to slash and kill baitfish. Many times this behavior simply knocks the bait off the hook.
8 CLICK HERE to read David Johnson's tips on how to defeat drive-bys.
BUZZ BLOG: Ocean salmon a million strong: how, where to get your coho
POSTED July 20, 2009 / 3:30 p.m.
Over a million strong and the easiest of salmon to catch: Coho salmon are what many anglers are now chasing off the Oregon and Washington coastline.
Although past ocean regulations have, at times, been confusing, this year’s large run offers seven-days-a-week fishing, and has made daily limits more normal than not.
For example, the ocean zone covering the majority of the ocean off Oregon - from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain - is currently open daily for the taking of up to three fin-clipped Coho and will remain so until a total of 110,000 coho are harvested.
8 GET BUZZ'S ADVICE on the how, when and where to find coho off the Columbia River.
WILD BLOG: The Skagit River Summer Chinook, Act II ...
POSTED July 9, 2009 / 9:30 a.m.
The mid-summer breeze was blowing upriver, like it does every sunny, hot day in July on the Skagit River’s North Fork. It was a typical day anchoring for giant Chinook, hours of watching nodding rod tips without any movement. Thirty boats in sight, and as usual only a lucky few encounter a fish each day.
“An hour a pound you must wait for a strike,” the old timers tell us.
In that case, we were due for a salmon weighing several hundred pounds, as this was our fifth trip that summer to the Skagit River’s lower North Fork, sitting in a hogline waiting for our first ever bite from the most coveted king salmon of them all.
8 CLICK HERE to read the rest of Bill Herzog's tour de force on Skagit River summer Chinook.
NWWC FEATURE: Prepping for July 1 crab opener, "Deadliest Catch" style
NEW June 30, 2009 / 12:45 p.m
SEATTLE - I feel like I’m about to ask Tiger Woods how to hit through the windmill on the local putt-putt course. But, I find myself at the lunch table with Capt. Keith Colburn of the 156-foot, Seattle-based crab vessel Wizard – you may have seen him on a little program called “Deadliest Catch” – and, dammit, I can’t pass on the opportunity.
Dungeness crab season has been quietly percolating in some West Coast fisheries since June. The Puget Sound season opens July 1 from Sekiu to Tacoma, and the summer Dungie fishery is at full, raging boil (pardon the pun) up and down the West Coast shortly after Fourth of July. So, here I have access to a guy who drives one of the most productive boats in the history of the Bering Sea’s infamous crab fishery.
What do you think I’m going to ask him … something about his fan club?!?
8CLICK HERE to read the rest of our exclusive "Deadliest Catch" crab Q&A with Capt. Keith Colburn.
-JS
NWWC FEATURE: Which PNW outdoors towns are the best? You decide!
NEW June 28, 2009 / 11:05 a.m
ARLINGTON, Wash. - I'm biased, of course, but my buddies back in New York at Outdoor Life have some 'splaining to do. Perusing the second annual "Top 200 Towns for Sportsmen", which OL published late this spring, my pride was a little bit wounded.
So should yours be if you live in Forks, Walla Walla, La Grande, Republic, Brookings, Wenatchee, Hermiston or Astoria. Your towns didn't make the list. Matter of fact, only a handful of locales from the outdoors-mad Pacific Northwest squeezed into the Top 200.
Lewiston, Idaho was ranked No. 1, Idaho Falls and Pocatello came in at No. 3 and No 5, respectively, but only five towns in Washington and Oregon made the Top 100 (Tillamook was the highest Beaver State town at No. 49, while Moses Lake was the Evergreen State's highest ranked at No. 52)
Which brings me to this debate: which towns in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia) are the very best to take residence in if you're a dedicated outdoorsman or woman? What are the PNW's best zip codes for hunters, anglers and outdoor geeks like you and I?
Help me rank them: There's a new list starting, as of today: the Pacific Northwest's Top 20 Outdoors Towns. But, while the boys at Outdoor Life relied on the black-and-white of a spreadsheet to build their Top 200, THIS new list is all up to you and your brothers and sisters in the blinds, jet sleds and tree stands throughout our great region.
Help me out here. Give me your best suggestions, and the reasons why Curlew or Roseburg or Klickitat or Kamloops should be ranked in the PNW Top 20. Go surf around your favorite Pacific Northwest discussion boars, pick up the threads on the PNW Top 20, and chime in.
8Or, drop me an e-mail: joel@nwwildcountry.com.
-JS
WILD BLOG: The trophy halibut of Montague: 100-pounders a'plenty for NWWC blogger Andy Martin
POSTED June 21, 2009 / 8:40 p.m.
SEWARD, Alaska - Anyone who says halibut don’t fight and that catching them is like reeling up a sheet of plywood hasn’t experienced Montague Island in June.
For the past three weeks, anchoring in 70 to 90 feet of water in the shallows off the southern tip of Montague, we’ve been enjoying the very best Alaska has to offer. Big fish after big fish, boatloads of 100-plus pounders, releasing more than a dozen trophy lingcod a day, and seeing everything from breaching humpbacks to pods of killer whales.
All month long, I’ve been enjoying watching people live out their ultimate fishing adventure, the fishing trip of a lifetimes, capped with a trophy halibut from the Gulf of Alaska.
The scene: Montague Island is located approximately 60 miles from Seward. The large island, which has robust Sitka blacktail deer and black bear populations, helps create Prince William Sound. Big halibut flock to the island in June, emerging from the deep water of the Pacific to the food-rich waters flowing out of the sound.
8 CLICK HERE to read more about Seward's best-in-the-world trophy halibut fishery.
WILD BLOG: Who wants to be a millionaire? Or, tell me someting, a**hole!!
POSTED June 14, 2009 / 8:30 p.m.
Whenever I go to seminars, outdoor shows, etc, anywhere we meet anglers, inevitably I get the same question: “How do I get to be an expert angler?”
So many variables, my standard answer - even though it sounds like a cop-out - really isn’t. I tell them it’s nothing that 20-plus years of hard work driven by a single-minded purpose won’t do. But if you truly want to be in the elite groupings of the Buzz Ramseys of our little world, then heed this one and only tip ...
8 CLICK HERE to read the latest Zog Blog, and Zog's advice on how to become an Olympic-class angler.
GUEST BLOG: Awaiting the kickoff of the Pacific Northwest albacore season
POSTED June 7, 2009 / 9:30 p.m.
The summer is here and each year there’s always a contest to see who will catch the first albacore off the Oregon coast: when will someone land the first tuna? It’s like the official start of the Oregon and Washington offshore tuna season when it happens.
The seasoned offshore fishermen will tell you albacore have been out there all along, but in the last five years, the traditional salmon fisheries have struggled, leaving offshore fishermen looking for something else to chase. Five years ago on a nice ocean, and in a place like Tuna Town off Depoe Bay, you would’ve been lucky to count half a dozen boats trolling for albacore.
Last summer on a nice ocean in August, you might’ve had a few times where you were forced to change directions to keep from running into another boat.
8 CLICK HERE for the rest of "Tuna Dog" Stephens' blog on Pacific Northwest albacore.
WILD BLOG: The Road Cougs hit Oroville: V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!!
POSTED June 7, 2009 / 9:30 a.m.
NWWC Note: The following is the blog account of Washington State's first-place finish at the FLW National Guard College Fishing tournament at Lake Oroville, California
Blast off: Its Thursday. Just two more days until we're on Lake Oroville for the third tournament of the season, and already it’s the ONLY thing on my mind. The thought is tearing through my mind faster than a 250-horse Merc at take-off, and just imagining the feeling of a rod in my hand is enough to get my heart pumping.
Enthusiasm and excitement are surely in no short supply, and for a bunch of wide-eyed college kids, this is what dreams are made of.
Looking at barely half the drive of our Lake Roosevelt tourney, things were already shaping up to be a great weekend. We opted to take several cars this time, but thanks to the FLW’s travel allowance, it was more of a convenience than anything. By Friday evening, the team reunited in the town of Oroville, California ready to rock the crimson and show the world just how Wazzu rolls ...
8 CLICK HERE to read the latest from the Road Coug Blog.
WILD BLOG: Barta battles back, Part I
POSTED May 29, 2009 / 5:40 p.m.
Even from his bed in a rehabilitation center near Denver, Colorado, where he’s recovering from a rare spinal condition that left him paralyzed from the navel down, Capt. Tred Barta projects the kind of swagger and intensity that made him a legend on the East Coast tuna grounds, and launched him to the top of the outdoors television world.
“I’m very, very, very, very, very confidant that the first TV show I’ll be doing this year is the (Oregon Tuna Classic) tournament (in late August),” Barta said Friday, as he rested between rehabilitation sessions at the Craig Rehabilitation Center in Craig, Colorado. “And the next show after that? It’ll be an Oregon elk hunt. I’m coming to that tournament, I’m going to help raise some money, and the only question people should have is ‘How are we gonna get an elk for Tred?’. I don’t care if they have to prop me up on a hay bale, I’m coming for my elk.”
It’s that swagger and positive attitude that family, friends and fans of the amiable star of “The Best and Worst of Tred Barta” are counting on to help him overcome a spinal cord infarction, which hit the healthy-as-a-bull Tasmanian Devil two weeks ago as he prepared to fly to Alaska to film a bear hunt for his hit show on The Versus Network.
8 CLICK HERE for part I of Barta Battles Back.
8Crab advice, "Deadliest Catch" style - Keith Colburn's Deadly Dungie tips ...
8Those dam(n) springer trends - Making sense of nonsensical numbers ...
8The fishing year with a year - How much bonus time do we get in '09?
8A legend re-remembered ... sorta - Returning to a steelhead fishing legend ...
8Building Mt. Fishmore - I have a hammer, a chisel, and a vision ...
8Skeet: West is Best II - Reese wins one for the West at 2009 Classic ....
8900,000 springers? Maybe - We can always dream like Ward Norden ...
8Commission vs. Commission - Oregon's F&W Commission = broken ...
8On the horizon: bright, dark - Dark clouds, silver linings ahead for PNW anglers ...
8Entering The Perfect Storm - The best Chinook bite in our lifetime ...
8She's out there, somewhere - The world record walleye has been caught on the Columbia ...
8American trout tradition upheld - Mineral Lake, USA, where the trout opener tradition is alive and well...
8Bassin's best? Look West - West Coast anglers are the best in pro bass fishing ...
8The end of a magazine era - The presses have finally shut down at F&H News ...
8CA salmon management sucks - Water managers are irrigating California salmon into oblivion ...
8Dobyns: the Bizarro sight-angler - Don't ask Gary Dobyns for sight-fishing advice ...
8The Summer of The 60 - This will be the summer that I catch a 60-pound Chinook, by God ...
8Checking in from the halibut grounds - First report from Seward!
8On my fishing iPod playlist - Some tunes ROCK for salmon and halis ...
8Halibut cotton candy - Stacked herring the way to go for barn doors ....
8Haunted ... - ... by the ones that got away....
8A (failed) fishing experiment - The Great Glow Corkie Incident ...
8Who wants to be a millionaire? - Or, "Tell me something, a**hole!"...
8Skagit, Act. II - Returning to the famed grounds of the lower Skagit River ...
8Of metal and metalheads - The downfall of heavy metal music & steelhead ...
8Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale - Musings from Gilligan's Island ...
8Love American (Lake) Style - The 4-1-1 on American Lake kokes ...
8Kicking winter in the $%*! - FINALLY, time to look forward to summer fishing ...
8Blackmouth in the Twilight Zone - Best bite in Washington is ....
8Of daffodils and dilly-dallying - Time for some spring prep work ....
8Victim of changes ... - The plight of my beloved steelhead ...
8Last roundup on Willamette - Finishing up my season in style ...
8Another successful season - Looking back on Springers, 2009...
8Running the M2SP - Testing out Worden's newest salmon plug ...
8Cold water, cold feet? - Will cold Columbia water mean early closure ...
8Columbia shakedown cruise - Our first licks on springer fishery ...
8Second mouse gets the cheese - Don't race for cold-water steelhead ....
8My steelhead addiction - How far will YOU go to satisfy your addiction ....
8Shhhh, the bite is on - Low water? No problem on my steelhead streams ...
8Chee-bobbin' - When it's you versus your buddies for steelhead ....
8Bring lots of gear - Low water steelhead tips from my bag of tricks....
8Post-storm steelheading - Time to dig out from under your snowbank and get into the heart of steelhead season ...
8Trout Spinners 101 - Buzz's spin on trout spinners ...
8Tributary time! - The spring Chinook bite moves into Columbia tribs ...
8Our broken allocation process - Battling over Columbia River springers ...
WILD BLOG: Of Metal and Metalheads: The Rise and Fall ...
NEW May 18, 2009 / 2:00 p.m.
So, I’m watching VH1’s “History Of Metal” last night. You all know me, if it’s metal, I’m all about it - be it music, spinners or spoons. Part Three of a four-parter, “The 80s” was featured, all about the mercuric rise of metal from fringe to mainstream.
First part of the show was about the early 80s, when metal was raucous, rebellious, loud, always with a message … and damned fun. The best of times. Bombastic. One continuous party. Like being blindfolded on a rollercoaster.
The second part of the program was the crash of the genre - how it became formulaic, how all bands started doing the same thing (power ballads). No more “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, no more “You Got Another Thing Comin’”, no more “we’ll never let up, hope it annoys you". It was no longer fun, no more individualism, no more message. Certainly a lack of soaring, chainsaw chords.
Everyone had to do the popular choice … right? Bland becomes boring, no more challenges, fade to black.
From rollercoaster to rowboat.
Runnin’ with the devil, we ain’t.
Faust sold his soul for youth and love. Today, I would almost be willing to make that deal myself for a one-way ticket back to 1982, when music was music and fishing was real, when anthems and innovations were routine. Metal died because of hitting the “easy” button, and steelhead fishing as the greats knew it went the way of the Okie Drifter with the plague of side drifting.
8 CLICK HERE as Bill Herzog puts the pedal to The Metal in the latest ZOG BLOG.
WILD BLOG: The Road Coug begins; First stop, Roosevelt, AZ and the FLW
POSTED April 21, 2009 / 11:30 a.m.
Thursday
2,600 miles, 150 gallons of gas, and 8 hours of fishing to make it all worth it.
This is the WSU bass team. We’ve got 30-something rods innovatively packed in a massive concrete-forming tube, cradled between the seats of our 7-person rental van fittingly named “The Coug-Cruiser”.
Needless to say… ITS ON.
Our crew consists of Zack, Kipp, Huy, James, myself (Chris), and Sarah (to make sure she keeps the guys from getting out of hand), and one heck of a dad who has put in some serious time and gear to get us going. We’ll be the basis for three Wazzu teams, and the ONLY three teams fishing for the state of Washington.
We understand that our “purple and gold” counterparts just aren’t up for the challenge ... but that’s ok! We’re doubtful whether those huskies can even spell “FLW”…
8 CLICK HERE as WSU student Chris Gregersen kicks off the first edition of the Road Coug Blog. Check back for updates as the Cougs take on the West Coast in the FLW College Series.
SPRINGER FEVER/WILD BLOG: Johnson takes shakedown cruise
NEW April 8, 2009 / 1:30 p.m.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Last Thursday was my shakedown trip on the Columbia to make sure everything on the boat was running in good enough order to start my springer season.
I had my friends Ty and John and my Dad Lloyd along to help me drown some chartreuse-dyed herring while we were out there for a few hours.
8CLICK HERE to read David Johnson's latest WildBlog post.
WILD BLOG: Blackmouth in "The Twilight Zone" ...
NEW April 2, 2009 / 1:30 p.m.
This winter, I’ve spent a good chunk of time (much more than any responsible person would squander) in the town of Forks and surrounding rivers, trying to find steelhead that have all but disappeared like George Bush on January 21.
I’m ready to put the poorest winter season on record behind us - let’s get on to more pleasant and productive fisheries.
But I’m not ready to break out the spring Chinook and kokanee gear just yet. There is one other fishery happening right now, in the backyard of vampire-crazed Forks and steelheading Ground Zero.
Dare I say it’s the best late winter/early spring fishing I’ve done in many years. It’s on the saltwater. For king salmon. Lots and lots of them.
And, amazingly, unlike the seething hordes of anglers packing into local rivers, mosh-pitting, tasering and bludgeoning one another for the two fish left, most days there are only a few boats around.
Curious?
WILD BLOG: Of daffodils and dilly-dallying
NEW March 29, 2009 / 4:30 p.m.
Equinox … not only the title to one of my favorite rock albums of all time, but a switch flicked by Ma Nature to usher out - as rudely as possible, as far as I’m concerned – winter, carried out Pulp Fiction style with a branding iron to Old Man Winter‘s privates.
The coldest, crappiest winter in many years. Other than a few bright spots on the blackmouth front, forget the fishing portion of this program. Bring on spring!!
8 CLICK HERE as Bill Herzog does some spring prep work in the Zog Blog.
WILD BLOG: Who belongs on Northwest fishing/hunting Mount Rushmore?
UPDATED March 25, 2009 / 10:40 a.m.
I have a hammer, a chisel, and a vision.
I’m going to find the biggest cliff face in the Cascades, put hammer to chisel, and pound-pound-pound-pound away like John Henry until my vision towers above me for the entire world to see.
After I’ve cleared all the rubble from the mountainside and brought my granite vision to life, the fishers and hunters of the Pacific Northwest will have a monument unlike anything they’ve ever seen.
West of Keystone, South Dakota, anyway.
My vision, you see, is of 60-foot sculptures of the illuminati of Pacific Northwest outdoors. Four faces from the illustrious fishing and hunting past of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska, carved into the heart of the Cascades, a permanent reminder of the pioneers of the hook, the bullet and the bowstring.
A fishing and hunting version of Mount Rushmore.
A Mount Fishmore, if you will.
8 CLICK HERE to join the debate about who belongs on Mount Fishmore.
WILD BLOG: Uh ... did we miss a nomination for Mount Fishmore?!?
NEW March 25, 2009 / 8:40 p.m.
Hey Joel.
How in the hell can you have a Mt. Fishmore without the finest caster on the planet? You're kidding right?
You realize that you made a mistake right? It's ok to admit that you had some oversight and you messed up, right?
This is a serious question about who should be on that wall. You want the truth? You cant handle the truth!
8 CLICK HERE for Perusse's nomination (and a lesson in Fly Casting History 101).
WILD BLOG: Victim of changes ...
NEW March 19, 2009 / 3:00 p.m.
Disclaimer: I am a steelhead fisherman. Since my first fish on the Puyallup River in January of 1971, up until the last one Thursday, March 19 on the Sol Duc, my number one passion has been, is now, and always will be steelhead fishing.
I have spent many, many hours targeting other finned beasts, like Chinook, coho, pinks and chum, to the lakes and rivers that hold rainbow, cutthroat, kokanee, Mackinaw and even the lowly whitefish - I do so love them all.
But our great pastime - the one that keeps you awake Friday night, the one that brings uncontrollable trembles at the sight of a roller in the pool, the one you spend your last 20 bucks on tackle instead of food - is going to be gone in five years if things do not do a complete about-face.
8 CLICK HERE to read NW Wild Country's debut ZogBlog, and Bill Herzog's sobering observations on the state of our steelhead.
WILD BLOG: Skeet's Classic victory part of a West Coast tide change
UPDATED Feb. 28, 2009 / 5:30 p.m.
SEATTLE, Wash. - To even the most disinterested Pacific Northwest salmon junkie, Skeet Reese's recent victory in the 39th Bassmaster Classic was a thing of beauty.
Among a field of 51 competitors that leaned heavily toward the "Bass States" (88 percent of the 2009 field hails from east of the Rockies) the outspoken Californian became the second West Coast angler to win the Super Bowl of bass fishing in four years, duplicating Luke Clausen's 2006 Classic title run.
It's part of a tide change that's slowly - but undeniably - changing the face of tournament bass fishing. After 30-plus years of Southern dominance, that tide is flowing hard to the West.
Blogging on Skeet's victory: Check out my Best Is West II blog on the burgeoning influence of West Coast anglers on the national bass scene.
WILD BLOG: The second mouse gets the cheese ...
NEW Feb. 21, 2009 / 8:30 p.m
TILLAMOOK, Ore. - Drift boat steelhead fishing on many rivers has become a race.
Boats race down the river, sometimes leaving the ramp a few hours before it's even daylight, hoping to beat the next guy and be the first to the biters.
Although this works, and sometimes very effectively, there are other options. The 24-pounder above is proof positive that the second mouse gets the cheese ...
8CLICK HERE to read David Johnson's latest blog.
WILD BLOG: Norden calls for 590,000 to 900,000 springers in 2009
NEW Jan. 25, 2009 / 3:30 p.m
ARLINGTON, Wash. - Back in the mid 1990s, Ward Norden was a semi-regular source for various magazine articles I wrote about salmon politics. I can't say that I always believed what Ward was preaching, but I always appreciated his viewpoint ... because it sometimes came from WAY out in leftfield.
Ward has always struck me as a bit of a contrarian, and he's never been afraid to go against the grain when it comes to fish politics. And, by God, some of his outside-the-box run observations have turned out to be spot-on over the years.
In recent years, Norden has become more familiar to the general public via his newsletter titled Albacore News, in which he serves up trends and observations about Pacific Northwest tuna runs. Not as many people are aware that, every January, he also publishes a comprehensive salmon projection for the following year, with predictions about the health and general availability of all species of Pacific salmon.
Here's hoping that Norden's crystal ball is tuned to the right frequency in '09, because he's calling for some mind-boggling things to happen over the next 11 months, including: 590,000 to 900,000 spring Chinook returning to the Columbia River; record runs of humpies returning to Puget Sound rivers; and a resurgence of Chinook and coho fisheries in some our favorite Pugetropolis marine areas.
I don't care if you believe a word of it, Norden's forecast is, at the very least, an interesting read.
8CLICK HERE to read Norden's complete prognostication of our 2009 salmon returns.
-JS
WILD BLOG: WA, OR commissions battle over Columbia springer allocation
NEW Jan. 6, 2008 / 9:00 p.m
OLYMPIA, Wash. - By anyone's admission, the annual season-setting process for Columbia River spring Chinook can be confrontational, bordering on hostile.
This spring, though, the Oregon Fish & Wildlife Commission pulled off an early sneak attack that would've made Admiral Yamamoto proud.
"I'm pissed, and every member of the Washington commission should be pissed," Jack Glass seethed during a Dec. 6 interview on Northwest Wild Country.
It was the first time I'd heard the even-tempered Glass approach the realm of profanity, but, as he spat out the words, it was apparent to everyone listening in Seattle radioland that Gentleman Jack was ... well ... pissed.
He had every right to be.
As a member of the 2008 Columbia River Working Group - the volunteer group charged with developing a pre-season sharing plan for Columbia spring Chinook - Glass had sacrificed precious guide days and dozens of hours of his personal time to participate in workshops that were supposedly designed to detoxify the cantankerous process between Columbia sport and commercial anglers.
Every minute of Glass' volunteer grinding went out the window the second the gavel dropped on the Dec. 5 Oregon Fish & Wildlife Commission meeting.
Detoxify? Try RE-toxify.
Wild Blog continues ... : Read the rest of Shangle's Wild Blog and tune in to Northwest Wild Country throughout January as the Columbia's season-setting process continues.
-JS
HAPPY NEW YEAR: Here's to more of this in 2009
NEW Dec. 31, 2008 / 11:45 p.m
ARLINGTON, Wash. - My New Year's resolution: more of the above in 2009. More fog-shrouded mornings, more azure-blue afternoons, more deep-orange sunsets. More silver, more chrome, more bronze. More, more, more, more, more.
Thanks for a great year. Buckle up for bigger, better and faster in 2009.
-JS
WILD BLOG: Wild Country kids taking advantange of winter wonderland
NEW Dec. 21, 2008 / 6:30 p.m.
ARLINGTON, Wash. - It's been at least 20 years since I rode a sled, but after Sledfest 2008 in the Shangle neighborhood the past couple of days, I wish I hadn't waited that long.
I could blog about the Columbia River spring Chinook allocation mess. I could blog about the upcoming blackmouth opener in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2. I could blog about winter steelhead.
All in due time.
Tonight, the Wild Blog is all about snow, sleds and Gore-Tex covered, red-cheeked kids. Check it out HERE.
-JS
WILD BLOG: Trey Carskadon on the mend following heart attack
NEW Nov. 18, 2008 / 7:45 p.m
PORTLAND, Ore. - I just got word that Pacific Northwest fishing champion Trey Carkadon suffered a heart attack last weekend. Trey, who currently serves as president of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association and is one of the primaries of BDC Advertising in Oregon City, is resting comfortably at home after being treated at Meridian Park Hospital in Portland over the weekend.
Trey has been a longtime trusted source on West Coast salmon issues, and served as an in-studio co-host during the Everett Coho Derby a couple of years ago. He's been a good, good personal friend, an enthusiastic supporter of Northwest Wild Country, and a tireless soldier in the battle to save PNW salmon and steelhead.
Sincere wishes on a speedy recovery to a great friend of the Wild Country crew, and a great friend of Northwest fisheries.
You've worked hard enough for awhile, Trey. Time to take a long-overdue break. We'll save your spot in the hogline for you, buddy.
See the Ifish thread about Trey, and leave your comments here.
-JS
WILD BLOG: Shelton's new album hits stores aross the country this week
NEW Nov. 17, 2008 / 8:00 p.m.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Yeah, yeah, I know. A NASHVILLE dateline, and a headline about a country music singer?!?
Even though my bio page is laced with references to Metallica and Eric Clapton, I'm from country roots. My dad is one of the best country-rhythm guitar players I know, and I grew up listening to Jim Reeves, Marty Robbins and Chet Atkins.
So, get off me, already!
A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of spending some time with Blake Shelton researching a magazine story on celebrity outdoorsmen. I liked the guy instantly: he was gracious, down-to-earth and funny, and proved to be a total bow-hunting fool. I took Blake and his tour manager out to Skookum Archers in Tacoma, and watched him shoot the hell out of the target course down there. He was more excited about showing me videos of his big Kansas whitetail buck than talking about music.
This is a dude I'd gladly invite to elk camp.
Heads up to all you Wild Country country-music fans out there: Shelton's new album - titled "Startin' Fires" - is available in stores as of today (Nov. 15). I've blazed through the album, and am pretty sure that, if you liked his previous stuff, you'll like this one.
And, just for old time's sake, I think I'm breaking out "Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs" for intro music this weekend.
-JS
WILD BLOG: Hogasaurus Rex - which is bigger?
Oct. 29, 2008 / 10:15 p.m.
A recent thread on Piscatorial Pursuits got me looking through old photos of Hogasaurus steelhead, and I stumbled across a photo of Eli Rico with a Skykomish steelie (left) that taped out at roughly 30 pounds.
Which begs the question: which of these two fish is bigger? The Sasquatch-sized buck on the right, or the deep-bodied Sky bruiser on the left?
We'll never know ... but it sure is fun to argue about it, ain't it?
-JS
WILD BLOG: Forgot about this YouTube video with Kevin Gogan ...
Oct. 12, 2008 / 5:30 p.m.
We've cajoled Kevin "Pro Bowl Ejectee" Gogan out of bed and into the Wild Country studio several times over the past few years, and they've always been some of our funniest shows of the year.
We don't talk much about Gogan's two Super Bowl rings or his 14-year NFL career, blocking for Hall-of-Famers like Emmett Smith and Troy Aikmen. We don't even talk much about fishing.
Oh no. None of that. Our on-air conversations with Gogan ALWAYS come back around to his ejection from the Pro Bowl, and his Sports Illustrated cover as "The NFL's Dirtiest Player".
I stumbled upon this old gem from YouTube today, filmed with Gogan and Jackass alum Danger Ehren. Classic Gogan.
For those of you who don't remember Kevin Gogan, go check out his Wikipedia entry for the basics, and then add these facts to flush out his bio: 1). He's a fishing fool who roomed with Wild Country co-host Tom Nelson at the University of Washington; 2). He's served as an NFL analyst for an online entertainment website NBX.com; 3). He was the first player ever ejected from the Pro Bowl after an ... ahem ... "altercation" with Neil Smith that resulted in Gogan kicking Smith in the yarbs on national TV.
We'll probably convince Goges to hit the studio again around the Super Bowl, but in the meantime, check out the YouTube video above (and I dare you, try NOT to laugh at "check the oil").
-JS
WILD BLOG: Our Wild Country buddies hit killing fields for 2008 season
Oct. 11, 2008 / 3:00 p.m.
ARLINGTON, Wash. - They're killin' me. Just absolutely frickin' killin' me. They're coming to full draw and firing a broadhead right through my heart.
I'm referring to the far-flung members of the Northwest Wild Country family, and the sudden deluge of photos and "you shoulda been there!" messages that hit my inbox this week.
Antelope, trophy Wyoming muleys, a trio of eastern Oregon muleys ... aarrgh! Killin' me, I say!
Hunting season just kicked off throughout the West Coast, and as the photo of Del "Tuna Dog" Stepens (above) attests, our Wild Country buddies have already put some big, big bucks on the ground.
Season of firsts: Buzz Ramsey of Pure Fishing kicked it off in September with his first-ever Oregon antelope (pictured at right), and then followed it up this week with an Oregon mule deer (as did his son Wade). Stephens picked up the baton last week with the first big-game animal of his archery career: that beautiful Wyomine muley at the top of the post.
The funny think about Del's trophy is that he was stalking a whitetail buck when this big mossyhorned brute wandered by.
With the deer season just starting this weekend in Washington, I'd expect more of these cyber "neener neeners" to be in my mailbox soon. Endsley, you're on the clock!
Check back later for more.
-JS
WILD BLOG: Swanny goes coho loco on Cowlitz, gears for Chehalis system
Oct. 3, 28 / 4 p.m.
CAMELOT PARK, Wash. - Some guys really know how to hurt you. Take Bill "Swanny" Swann, for instance.
Last Saturday, Swanny was sitting in the Wild Country studio as a guest co-host, talking the talk about coho on the Cowlitz River. By Wednesday, he was also walking the walk.
The following text message hit my phone on Thursday from the wandering Swanny. Turns out that the coho fishing in southwest Washington has been ... eh ... pretty damn good this week, to say the least.
"Yesterday on the little C we caught 9 samon. 2 kings 8 silvers. Today 12 salmon, 2 kings 10 silvers 5 jacks. Water's come up brought all fish in."
As has been the case throughout the West this year, Swanny's Cowlitz coho have routinely run bigger on average than previous year classes. There aren't nearly as many fish headed down the Puget Sound pipeline through Sekiu, but the Columbia and Grays Harbor systems are apparently the places to be for teener coho like the one Swanny's holding above.
-JS
WILD BLOG: A & A = B.C. guides with the "women's touch"
Aug. 28, 2007
Girls and boys, meet Adrienne Comeau and April Vokey, the head guides for Women Sportfishing in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.
Girls, you want to grow up to be just like Adrienne and April. You want to be able to dress in pink, have nice nails, and be able to cast a spey rod a country mile.
Boys, you just wish you could cast like Adrienne and April.
Women Sportfishing operates out of Chillwack, B.C., and offers profesionally guided sturgeon, steelhead, salmon and trout trips on the Fraser, Pitt, Harrison and Vedder rivers, and on various interior B.C. lakes. The WS crew operates out of custom North River sleds, and provides their female clients with the cat's ass in fly and casting/spinning tackle, waders, etc.
These trips - and the whole Women Sportfishing business philosophy - are based on two undisputible facts: 1). Female participation in sportfishing is one of the biggest sources of potential growth in the sport; 2). Sometimes women just want to learn from women. No offense, guys, but sometimes we're just crappy teachers.
Not so with A & A.
"It's so amazing, the number of women who are getting into the sport," Comeau says. "I love to help them realize that they can fish, too."
US Fish & Wildlife Service statistics support WS's philosophy: roughly 7.6 million women fish every year in the United States, and one out of every four anglers on the water is female. If that's not proof enough, check out the national success of the Women's Bassmaster Tour, and the growth in women's outdoors events and organizations in the Pacific Northwest.
Washington Outdoor Women hosts upwards of 130 women every September for their two-day fishing/hunting/outdoors clinics. Northwest Women Flyfishers has 120 members.
Adrienne will be at Cabela's this Saturday, 2-3 p.m, for a seminar on the opportunities for women in Pacific Northwest fisheries. Dudes, you owe it to your daughters, sisters, wives, moms and grandmas to bring them out to see her seminar.
-JS
WILD BLOG: Fish that don't bite ... on hooks
Aug. 27, 2007
Anybody else here a diver?
I've been diving since I was 18, and have had my share of face-to-face encounters with fish like the moray eels shown on this page. If you want a sincere appreciation for saltwater fish, spend a little time in their environment.
The moray eels in the following pictures were snapped by Wild Country buddy Chris Shaffer, who's job description is as follows: 1). Travel the world; 2). Have fun; 3). Take photos.
Shaffer has been a repeat guest on Wild Country, and I've travelled with him on fishing excursions to Ireland, B.C., the Yukon Territory and Panama. We've had our share of adventures (including almost being eaten by a grizzly bear in the Yukon), but I've been on his ass for years to get his open-water dive certification. Shaffer finally took the plunge this year, and he's obviously taking his study of fish to a whole 'nother level.
These photos are from a trip last week to the Republic of Dominica, where Shaffer and some buddies made multiple clear-water dives and encountered everything from rays to sharks.
FISHOLOGY 101: Morays will eat your fingers if you screw around with them. Check this out: the title is "Moray Eel Eats Thumb." Doh!
WILD BLOG: Rico and the Lake Sammamish suave
Aug. 26, 2007
"Here fishy fishy ..."
Every e-mail I get from Eli Rico is the same. No chatter, no jokes, no nothing. He slaps "here fishy fish" in the subject line, presses the "SEND" button, and delivers a load of fish porn.
And this time of year, there's a whole lot o' porn to go around.
For the next 2-3 weeks, Rico's official nickname is "The Butcher of Sammamish". You want a glimpse of the best salmon bite in the Pacific Northwest? Forget about Buoy 10 coho and head out to Lake Sammamish, where Rico puts on a Chinook-catching clinic from mid-August to early September. This fishery is surrounded by Pugetropolis: the lake's shorelines are lined with million-dollar homes, and I swear you can smell the corn dogs from the nearby 7-11 while you're fishing. It's as urban as it gets.
And, it's Rico's personal playground. Year after year, I watch Eli dominate this fishery, while everybody else struggles to figure it out. I've watched angler after hotshot angler roll into the parking lot at Sammamish State Park, spend the next 6 hours trolling around without a nibble, and load up at the end of the day, fishless and cursing.
Eli isn't shy about sharing, either. Wild Country co-host Bill Herzog muscled his way onto Rico's Wooldridge last fall, snooped out e-x-a-c-t-l-y what he was fishing, mimicked it to the last detail ... and still watched helplessly as Rico quadrupled his catch for the day.
The above picture is of a Sammamsih piggy, caught on an evening troll, before the corn dogs got stale at 7-11.
-JS
WILD BLOG: She's out there, somewhere ...
Summer Archive, 2008
She’s out there, somewhere. All 25.3 pounds of her.
Check that.
If she’s survived since April 11, 2007, when guide Ed Iman gently slid her back into the waters of Lake Umatilla, she’s gotten bigger. She may be pushing 26, 27 pounds now, a full 5 pounds heavier than the certified world record.
She’s become a thing of legend. A modern fishing fairy tale. She’s an urban myth that has become the Holy Grail for walleye anglers from Washington to Wisconsin. She’s no legend, though. She’s been hooked, fought, netted, videotaped, weighed and released into the Columbia River between McNary and John Day dams.
She’s the biggest walleye ever caught on a hook and line.
WILD BLOG: Don't know what you got ...
Summer Archive, 2008
Here's
a depressing little piece of nostalgia that turned up in
the sock drawer of Wild Country co-host Bill Herzog: the
1973 Washington Sportfishing Rules pamphlet.
The pamphlet itself is an innocuous li'l glimpse of a simpler time - 3 ½ x 8 ½, 33 pages, hand-drawn sketch of a rainbow trout on the back cover - but once you start reading the rules & regulations that governed our rivers and streams 35 years ago, you'll feel like you're an 85-year-old looking at your high school yearbook.
So many friends … gone forever.
By unofficial count, there are 44 rivers and streams in Washington that had nearly unrestricted access to wild steelhead in 1973, and are now either CLOSED, or their RUNS ARE EXTINCT.
That's F-O-R-T-Y F-O-U-R!
Sound the bagpipes for steelhead in the Elwha, Cispus and Skokomish. Mourn the disappearance of seasons on the Black, Duckabuch and Dungeness. Remember wistfully the lost opportunities on the Nisqually, Suiattle and Hamma Hamma. Here's a list of fisheries that were open to Evergreen State anglers in 1973 which are currently dead or restricted:
| Big Beef Creek | Big River | Black River | Burley Creek |
| Canyon Creek | Capital Lake | Cedar River | Cispus River |
| Counter Creek | Curley Creek | Deschutes River | Dewatto River |
| Dosewalips River | Duckabush River | Dunegness River | Elwha River |
| Entiat River | Hamma Hamma | E. Fork Humptulips R. | Jim Creek |
| Kennedy Creek | Lake Union Ship Canal | Little Quilcene River | Mill Creek |
| Nisqually River | Nooksack River | Quilcene River | Salt Creek |
| Tornow Branch | Sauk River | Sherwod Creek | Skagit River |
| Skokomish River | Skookum River | Skykomish River C&R | Snow Creek |
| S. Prairie Creek | Suiattle River | Tahuya River | Toutle River |
| Vance Creek | Lake Washington | White River | Yakima River |
Don't know what you got 'til it's gooooooneee ….
-JS
WILD BLOG: Website documents Pacific Northwest salmon-fishing history
Fall Archive, 2008
E-mail came in yesterday from a gentleman named Don Edge, who's the creator of a nifty new website in development called Pacific Northwest Fishing Golden Years. Don was kind enough to send me a note about the closure of F&H News (covered in the WildBlog), and asked that I take a peek at his site.
I'm glad I did.
PNFGY.com will provide some fantastic, nostalgic reading for those of you who appreciate the history of our sport. Don is in the process of collecting an online museum of Washington fishing materials, and his site is currently populated by some really cool stuff. Go check out the old pages from the Warshal's and Shoff's catalogs, and the old Taft's and Ben Paris fishing guides from the 1920s and 30s.
Don's site also has some fantastic information about the salmon derbies of yesteryear, including posters and advertisements from the grand old Ben Paris Fishing Derbies of the late 1930s and 40s, where derby winners drove away with DeSotos.
I hope to get Don on the air in the next 2-3 weeks, as we head down the home stretch of the 2008 derby season. In the meantime, go surf around Pacific Northwest Fishing Golden Years. I promise, it'll make you yearn for simpler times.
-JS
WILD BLOG: Salmon paradise found in the Queen Charlotte Islands
Summer Archive,, 2008
SANDSPIT, British Columbia - As I type this, the thumb and pointer finger on my left hand are still sore from furiously reeling an Islander MR3 for three days, with severely ticked-off Chinook and coho scorching line out the other end. The knuckles on both hands still creak and groan when I flex them, the result of fighting fish after fish after ocean-bright, raging, running, slashing salmon.
Once in a great while, a fishery so far exceeds your expectations that you run out of superlatives, and your only choice is to reach for Roget's Thesaurus. How good was the salmon fishing last week in the Queen Charlotte Islands?
Dear reader, may I introduce you to Mr. Roget: stupendous, superb, transcendant, exceptional, superlative, unparalleled, outstanding, magnificent, astonishing, spectacular, ridiculous, sensational, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
I could go on and on.
When Northwest Wild Country co-host Bill Hezog and I climbed aboard a helicopter at the Sandspit Airport on Graham Island in northern British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Archipelago, little did we know that 20 minutes later, we'd be touching down on the helipad of the MV Salmon Seeker and preparing to sail into the salmon-fishing equivelant of The Perfect Storm.
Read about it HERE
PODCAST: Listen to a podcast of our on-air conversation with Oak Bay Marine Group general manager Brook Castelsky HERE
WILD BLOG/RE-WILD: Barta brings the heat
Aug. 7, 2008
We thought we were prepared for Hurricane Tred.
Turns out that the force of nature that is Tred Barta - the garrulous host of The Best and Worst of Tred Barta on Versus - was even more powerful than we expected.
If you missed the Aug. 2 live broadcast of Northwest Wild Country on Sportsradio 950 KJR, you missed one of the funnest, most energetic, rip-roaringest interviews we've had in the four-year history of the show. The Wild Country crew of myself, Tom Nelson and Bill Herzog - along with special in-studio guest Todd Ripley of RvrFshr Products - were prepared for a high-octane dose of "The Barta Way", but brother, we got a heaping double dose of it.
As Ripley so accurately put it: "There are four guys in this studio who have never had a problem speaking their minds, and, that guy blew all of us away."
Barta spoke to us live from Garibaldi Harbor, where he was anxiously awaiting the opening of the Tillamook Bar to recreational boat traffic. He was fresh off his first day of albacore fishing off the Oregon coast, and obviously jacked up to start Day 2, as he quickly informed us: "For a man who's spent his entire life fishing for tuna, the tuna bite off the Oregon coast up here in Garibaldi is RED HOT! Period, over, exclamation point!"
How did it all play out y? Something like this: we opened the microphones, said "Good morning, Mr. Barta, and thanks for joining us," and what followed was 20 minutes of the best of Barta
Check back in the WildCast Center for the podcast of our all-timer interview with Tred. Trust me, it's worth the wait.
-JS
WILD BLOG: The F & H News days
Aug. 6, 2008
July, 1998, I was handed the reins of the California edition of Fishing & Hunting News, and tossed headlong into the maelstrom of hook & bullet journalism. Publisher Pat McGann handed me a list of sources, a dummy sheet of pages to fill in Southern and Northern California editions, and the following orders: "Here, Shangle. Do this."
Little did I know that the F&H News spin cycle would eventually spit me out, 10 years later, at a time when local, close-to-home fishing & hunting information is at its most valuable. Gas is $4.20 a gallon
Life, as it turns out, isn't always sensible.
I could share a number of thoughts in regards to the Thursday, July 31 closure of the Pacific Northwest's longest-running outdoors magazine, and most of 'em wouldn't be very positive. I'm bitterly disappointed, shocked, stunned, perplexed and flat-out pissed off that five-plus decades of dedication can disappear in a wisp of smoke and a half-page press release.
But there's plenty of time for brutal honesty later. For now, here are some random notes about my time at "America's Outdoors News Magazine."
-JS.
WILD BLOG: Outdoors radio challenge - our PD is better than your PD
July 29, 2008
When we say that everybody in our Northwest Wild Country extended family fishes and hunts, we mean E-V-E-R-Y-B-O-D-Y.
The shadowgrass-hatted dude in the middle of the picture is Sportsradio 950 KJR's program director Rich Moore, with a neon-bright Chinook caught last weekend in the Queen Charlotte Islands.
Rich and a group of buddies fish the Charlottes every year, and they fish it hard. This year, they were the first group to operate out of Englefield Bay Lodge's new tugboat satellite lodge, and they worked it from 5 a.m. to dark for four days straight.
The result: the biggest Chinook, halibut, coho, ling cod and snapper landed at Englefield this season.
In case you needed further proof that Wild Country was the shizzle in West Coast outdoor radio, here's more of it: our boss is better than your boss.
Just sayin'.
-JS
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