Are they really just rumors?

      Recently my phone has been blowing up about the recent increase in daily bag limits of hatchery steelhead on the Kalama River that will come into effect March 1st. The reaction I'm getting from most everyone is the Kalama must be loaded with hatchery steelhead to support the increase, with anglers ready to book a trip and get out and fill the boat, unfortunately that is not the case.
      Hatchery steelhead have really come into the spotlight over the past few years, with more emphasis on "saving" our wild gene stocks. I'm not really sure where I stand on this whole issue, as a guide I'm never in favor of less fish, in other words decrease, or in some cases, terminate the release of thousands of hatchery fish in an "attempt" to save a few so called wild fish, BUT, one of my favorite steelhead streams this time of year has no hatchery fish at all, its all about catching and releasing big wild fish.
     Over the years I've heard many opinions and rumors about where our fisheries will be in the future, one such rumor now is there will be no more hatchery steelhead as of 2017, unless the river has or can implement a brood stock program, in other words hatchery fish that were live spawned from wild parents, and yet those of us who live to fish steelhead remember the thriving brood stock program on the Olympic Peninsula that was terminated without a justifiable reason, so who knows where the truth lies.
     Hatchery steelhead in the state of Washington are in most cases a terminal fishery, in other words put there only to be harvested by anglers. To give anglers more advantage of harvesting hatchery steelhead some systems such as the Cowlitz River and the Kalama River have a recycle program, meaning when hatchery steelhead come back from the ocean to spawn, if they are not caught, or "harvested", when they reach the hatchery from where they were raised they are collected in a pen, loaded up into a truck, driven downstream and realeased to make another journey upstream past anglers attempting to catch them again. On the Kalama River if a fish is able to make the journey several time without ending up being tagged on a catch record card, they are again loaded up into a truck and removed from the system entirely to places like Kres Lake in Kalama where they spend their remaining days swimming around the edge of the lake looking for some way to escape this HELL they've been dropped into, at this point their best hope is they WILL be caught.
     Raising the limit of hatchery steelhead on the Kalama is nothing more than another attempt to remove hatchery fish from the system to protect the wild gene pool that show up this time of year to spawn, apparently there are studies to support the idea that hatchery steelhead are a weaker strain of fish that if left in the system to spawn with wild fish it will pollute the wild genes, thus threatening the future of our wild steelhead...WHO KNOWS, all I have to say on that is QUINAULT.
     I think most of us will agree our steelhead fishery is under threats from all sides, but consider this, with recent record returns on salmon, maybe the steelheads demise will be that they are listed as a game fish,

thus making it illegal to end their life by being commercially harvested and put in a can......
        
 

     When I first got into the guide business  I wasnt sure what to expect, sure I knew that if things went well I'd make a living by taking people fishing, and I in return would get to spend the day on the water chasing fish. Now I didnt know who these people would be, or where they would come from, for some reason I imagined taking someone out for a day of fishing only to never see or hear from them again. Little did I know.....
     They say that in business 20% of your customers make up 80% of your business, or something like that, and I've found that in the guide world that holds true as well. After 30 years of rowing driftboats, and 12 years now as a full time salmon and steelhead guide, I've developed some very close friendships with some of the people I've had the chance to fish, and though we may only see each other once a year, we seem to pick up right where we left off the year before.
      Those people are like Drew and his Father Mark. Drew is one of those who is obsessed with fishing. I first fished with Drew and Mark 2 years ago when Mark booked a trip for Drew for his birthday that comes every year in October. Our first year together was a horribly slow coho year and the only fish caught were two late summer run steelhead that Drew caught pitching a Blue Fox spinner into riffles, what I noticed that day was that Drew was just one of those fishy people, he had it and had it bad. Well I fished with Drew and Mark again yesterday, this was our third year of fishing together centered around Drew being another year older. This year has been a great coho year, Drew and his Father mark took turns hooking and fighting fish, even managing to put some of those fish in the box. While we spent the day catching coho, life seemed to have picked up right where we left off from last year, Drew updated me on his out of control retriever that loves to eat off the counter, it was almost as if no time had passed at all, even though a year had passed.
     While I love to end the day with a fish box full of fish, it's these friendships that have become the most rewarding, my attorney friends in Montana who a year ago one of them become a father to twins, I could go on forever with just such people who have not only fished with me but have enriched my life, and through things like social media we're able to stay updated with each other.
     Being a fishing guide has been rewarding in ways I definately didnt expect, and to those of you who keep fishing with me I cant thank you enough, my dream job would not be what it is without you......

October 22nd 2014

     Mother nature gave us the first good bout rain this fall blowing out all the local rivers this morning. Its always a hard one for me to call when these things happen, the weather forecast has been predicting this for several days now, but I always hope that maybe the Gods will smile on us and somehow WE will we not be effected by the torrential rain that is coming our way. It never happens, crazy as it may sound finally the weather man is right on these things more often than not, but still I hold on to the last hour.
     My text to Tom (did not have the courage to call at 4 am)  was tough "Tom, I hate to do this at the last minute but every river on the west side of the state is rising and will be blown by the time we get on the water, I say we cancel and reschedule". "Again?" was the reply, Tom has fished with me several times and has been the victim of Mother Nature more than once. Any time I have to cancel a trip I always feel like that police officer showing up at your door with bad news, " are you Mr Smith, I'm sorry Mr smith but there was a horrible accident, you see the sky sprung a leak and all the water ran into the Kalama River, Have a nice day Mr Smith". The bad news seldom ends there, rain storms of this size do not go away overnight, chances are I could be off the water for a week, so this means that the new XBOX 1 that come out this week, the very thing that I've been holding over my sons head for the past month to get him to do things like the dishes, vacuum the floor, is now on hold for another week at least, do you know what living with him is going to be like?!?
     On the other hand a week off  the water means I'll get all those things done that I've been putting off, like sleep, lay around and eat snacks while watching recorded episodes of "Naked and Afraid" or "Ancient Aliens", I get to get to call my Dad and get caught up on all the family gossip and hear about his winnings and losses from the Casino or who he ran into while in line at the Buffet. The reality is I NEED some time off the water, its been a great year with little time spent on doing things packing wheel bearings on boat trailers, cleaning and oiling a box of reels that have just been fished to near death, or scrubbing the inside of my car that now seems to have the permanent  smell of bait.
     As I sit here and write this my son is sitting here next to me doing everything he can to be annoying, every sentence he rambles off has XBOX in it, its going to be a long week. If I end up going to jail for shoplifting video games, would some one please send me a copy of NorthWest Sportsman?

August 17th 2014

     When we head out for a day on the water whether it be on a boat or from the shoreline there's so much to be aware of and when we do it under the influence not only does it become a safety issue but you miss out on what's brought us there to begin with.
     Here in the state of Washington as in a few other states the use of marijuana has become legal, and before I go any further on this I'll state where I stand on this. I voted for the legalization of marijuana, being illegal I feel it plugs up our judicial system, fills up our over crowded jails and is far less dangerous than alcohol, I know this because I drank a fifth of whiskey a day or MORE for 15 years which completely destroyed my life, I ended up going through an intensive inpatient treatment center, and while going through all the emotional, legal, and financial hell I was going through I never heard anyone say that they smoked some weed last night, crashed the car and abused their family, do I think that weed is the healthiest for our community. ...NO but I think its healthier for the community to stop arresting people for it. With that said.......
     When you show up to a guided fishing trip, your guide wants to give you a memorable day where your safety is most important and of course you catch fish. When you book a trip with me we are fishing small tributaries where the angler is actively involved in the success of the day, you are not sitting in a boat seat staring at a rod waiting for a fish to commit suicide on your hook, with me you're casting, you're learning to read water, you're waiting for a bite that if you don't respond to immediately you miss your chance and on a slow day that  chance may be your only chance at landing a steelhead.
     I understand that getting out to go fishing for a day means relaxing on a day off, for many that day includes drinking a couple beers with your buddy, or now here in Washington, blazing some weed, it's my personal opinion that these things are safe in moderation, but I WILL tell you that when you show up to a guided trip with me, if you're under the influence whether it be alcohol or weed, your chances of catching fish are extremely diminished.
     As a guide and probably with most guides we eat, sleep, and drink fish. We obsess over catching fish and how to help our clients catch fish, we want you to have a successful day and come back and fish with us again, but when you show up "high" , that makes our job extremely tougher. I'm writing this because now that marijuana has become legal, the number of people showing up for a guided steelhead trip under the influence is growing, and I notice that it's THOSE trips where our catch average drops horribly. It's a LEGAL right to smoke weed and I respect that, I voted in favor of those rights, but when someone fishes with me for a day and leaves having not caught fish it's hard for me to not take it personal, that I could have done something more, but if someone has decided to show up under the influence and its clear that its hindering the chance to catch fish there is nothing I can do to fix that. Drink and smoke my friends, it's your legal right, .please just do it responsibly.
    

August 16th

     With the coming of fall every year means fall salmon, and this is by far the busiest time of the year, not only does it mean catching hundreds of salmon in a couple short months, it also means curing eggs.
     I took the day off from the river to cure eggs. Eggs are one of the best baits there are for catching salmon and steelhead. Many theories exist as to why fish will eat others eggs, my beliefs are that for fish like resident trout eggs are a huge source of protein, but for fish like salmon that do not eat once they come into the tributaries to spawn, I believe they eat the eggs of other fish to ensure the survival of their own. Again this is my own belief.
     When it comes to curing eggs or bait in general many just assume that I have my own secret recipe, but that is not so. Tackle store shelves in our area are packed with salmon egg cures with labels like "Double Neon Red" or "Bloody Tuna Recipe" , these are powdered cures where you just sprinkle the cure on the eggs, message it into the "skein" , let sit a while then your eggs are ready to use or freeze to use at another time. I use the analogy that in the race car world there are those that build race cars and those that drive them, I don't want to create a good egg cure I just want to use it.
     Over the next few months I'll need to put up nearly 100 quart jars of bait to be used the following season, this means after spending a long day on the water chasing salmon, it also means long evenings curing eggs. If your doing eggs for the first time yourself, first determine what species you're targeting whether it be salmon or steelhead, for steelhead I like "Pautzkies" and for salmon Scott Ammerman who is an Oregon Coast Salmon and steelhead guide has his own line of cures, once you've got the eggs in front of you just follow the recipe on the label and this should result in PERFECT eggs.  Good luck!

August 15th

     I fished with father and son today Chad and Mike. Right off the bat this morning they informed me they could not catch steelhead, they were both new to the sport and after several trips where they hooked fish but never landed any, they were convinced they were jinxed!
     The advantage of fishing over alot of fish, that bite, is you get to make mistakes. You get to miss a few bites, you get to leave too much slack in the line, and eventually your going to get on top of things and finally land a fish. Well that's
what happened to Chad and Mike today.
     We started out with a slow morning, casting and casting after fish after fish with not even a bite. About midmorning we came into a run and finally bobber down.....then bobber up!  In this same drift this scenario repeated itself several times before Mike yells FISH ON!  It was a nice little hatchery fish that fought well before surrendering to the net, finally they had landed a steelhead and I can't tell you what that meant to him.
     We left that spot and floated into another hole that produces fish almost daily, Chad makes a cast, his float goes a few feet before disappearing from sight Mike comes back on it...FISH ON AGAIN! This fish to would put up a great fight before the net was slid underneath it. At this point it was high fives all around, Chad and Mike, father and son had come out together and successfully landed steelhead!
     Heading out to fish steelhead a few times a year and going home empty handed doesn't mean you can't catch fish, like anything it takes practice, and lots of it. If you fish steelhead in January, chances are conditions will change when you come back in March, the same applies again in June, and when conditions change so do techniques, so in essence the learning curve starts over with every trip. Today all Chad and Mike needed was the chance to make some mistakes and then apply what they learned on the next opportunity until finally they put it all together and bobber down resulted in fish landed.
     So with anything in life, don't let a few mistakes take away your confidence, if you head to the river convinced you can't catch fish chances are you probably won't.
    
    

August 14th

     Alarm goes off at 5 am, my girlfriend and I carpool into town together, meet clients at 6:30, chase steelhead till around 1:30 pm, load up the raft and head to self wash car wash to pressure wash boat, pick up girlfriend at 4:30 make the 45 minute drive home, eat dinner, return calls and messages till 8pm then hit the hay to do it all over again the next. This has been a routine every day since father's day, thats 58 straight days of chasing fish.
     Steelhead fishing has been good this summer, warm mornings and steelhead that will bite make it hard to want to take the day off, before you know it February will be here with rainy cold days that will have us wishing for the days of steelhead fishing in shorts and t-shirts.
     It's been a great summer with plenty of excitement, at the top of the list is steelhead!  We've seen some truly great fishing with some 15 hookup days. We've had many first time anglers catch their first steelhead and some caught more than one. My Girlfriend Ginny and I headed to Neah Bay to do some fishing ourselves, we caught king salmon out at Swift Sure bank and seabass and ling cod inshore in the kelp beds, only to go home and be back to guiding steelhead trips the next day.
     Other exciting news, you've heard me mention Dave Calhoun from NW Rods in previous posts. Dave was recently given the co host spot on the outdoor tv show Outdoor GPS, CONGRATS DAVE! We fished with Dave a week later and did a live broadcast from the river for the show which was VERY COOL! Thanks again Dave.
     There's still PLENTY of summer run steelhead around, but most local anglers are getting geared up for the upcoming fall salmon return. The ocean has been fishing good for salmon for over a month now, legendary salmon hot spot Bouy 10 is producing fish and the first fall salmon were caught on my home stream the Kalama River this last week, in no time the Pacific Northwest is about to go CRAZY with salmon!
    If you like to fish I hope you've been able to take advantage of some of the great fishing taking place locally, if you're looking to get in on some steelhead fishing before summers end we have some open days and if you want to fish fall salmon with us you need to book NOW as those dates fill fast. As always if you just have a question as to what's biting where or what to use we're always willing to help, if we can't help you we'll put you in touch with someone who can!