Who, what ,where ,when ,why and how.

1. Both my Kids first fish. My daughters 12 in plant in Lake Alice at age 4 and my son's 3.5 lb Rainbow in Curlew at age 4 this past summer.

2. A 73lb king in Tofino BC. Trolling a mini hootchie in 30' of water over a sandbar 2 miles off shore . The Kings where everywhere that day. They averaged 30lbs but it was tough getting them into the boat before the sharks took them. This fish peeled 400' of line off(15lb test,11' noodle) like nothing and stayed at the end of it for 20 minutes. He came to the boat gave us a look and headed back to Alaska. He did the classic 3 runs and then came to the side of the boat. The net was too small so I had to grip him by the gills and chuck him in the boat. He was the perfect chrome bright fish. He looked like a 15lb balckmouth just a lot bigger. I had top go to a commerical fish packer to find a scale big enough.

3 steel nates on the Sky in the AM, than a late King 20+ and a Pink in the afternoon!

With so many great days of salmon fishing that get blended together I'll pick out my best day of steelhead fishing: It was last April and we were floating the Sol Duc when fishing was tapering off. By the end we had caught 4 natives that were 24, 21 and two other teeners. All were chrome bright and gave up the hardest fights I've ever had. The temps were in the fifties too!

Upper quinnalt in late march '03, and Blue Dot off of Neah Bay also in aug. '03. Two totally different days, techniques, and locales but I can't decide which was better. Catching large numbers of large Chinook in the salt or numbers of large steelies in a stream. Best two days of fishing I've ever had in this state.

Lots of great days to choose from, but if you go by numbers of fish hooked it would have to be a late febuary day on the Grand Ronde. A good budy of mine and myself hooked 27 steelies in just over three hours of fishing, all on the fly. The temp reached almost sixty that day and we were in short sleeves, almost unheard of for that time of year. I don't think I will ever see that kind of fishing again without spending a ton of cash.

Neah Bay this last summer. We caught limits of big Kings,Silvers and bottem fish. I swear you couldn't get a jig to the bottem and then back to the surface without catching a fish.
We also had close encounters with about 20 whales. The best three days CATCHING I've ever had.

A day on a river in Alaska, where we caught 20 to 30 inch rainbows nearly nonstop. I probably landed over 200 lbs of rainbow, plus 200 lbs of char that day.

First trip to Sekiu. Did two days. Never thought you could catch that many salmon!

Three hatchery steelies in about 6 hours of fishing on a local streams that lacks a great run of fish! Also caught them on three different techniques.

There are 2 trips that will always rate high in my book and both include my dad who passed away a couple years ago,

1) my dads first trip to Ak. to fish with me, the weather was brutal but the fishing was good. He had caught alot of kings in Wa. but never cracked 30lbs, he got 2 mid 30's and 2 high 20's.

2) We both placed in the top 15 in the P.A. derby and won about $750

First trip to Cabo with my boys. First marlin trip ever and had an incredible day! Started out with the skipper taking the cruiser thru the arch on the way out. 10 marlin sighted and tried for. The whales with calfs and the porpoise(7 in a line) surfing on the waves right up to the side of the boat before they submerged and went under the boat. I was hooked!

I know this is probably not all that unusual, but it's the only time that I've been able to pull it off.
Parked the rig and walked out to the river right at day break. First cast...bam! Dark buck, released. Second cast....bam! Chrome hen, bonk. Third cast...bam! Chrome hen, hesitate, hesitate, hestitate, bonk. Done.
I really wanted to release that second hen, but I didn't want to mess up the only time I have ever hooked three steelhead on my first three casts, my only casts of the day. I have had a half dozen or so back to back, but only one day like that one.

my best day was this summer out at freshwater bay trolling of the campground with my dad, we hooked 19 kings and landed 16.

Well, my best trip was during the worst days of my life. To make a long story short. Was about to get a divorce. Life was in turmoil (way too much to explain lol). My yearly salmon trip with my Dad hit. Went reluctantly with a ton of stuff on my mind (my Dad had no idea what was going on when I went, well, my exwife didn't either, long story I said). After I told my Dad that night (I didn't make it down to the Nooch until sun went down so didn't fish until next day). We sat around the campfire and spoke about what was going on and I told him I might leave. He told me that this could be last trip I go on with him (another long story) and I opted to stay. That next day I woke up and had my coffee. Woke up with instant headache from the stress. Got out on the river, started BS'n with my Dad, started catching fish, and forgot about my problems for the day. Can't remember how many, just know I had fun, had good company, and forgot about life for the day. Went back to the cabana, started a fire, had some coffee, had dinner, and started talking about the old days when I was little on our first trips. Was a good day, one of my all time toppers.

Guess it went longer, but this is the SHORT version. LOL

Best day of fishing was Aug 10 2002 on the lower Kenai (where else?) when my 10 yr old daughter Marci graduated from tossing spinners for pinks to backbouncing eggs for silvers. We were anchored in tidewater at the Bluffs along with her grandfather who was also being baptised into the art of backbouncing. Needless to say, the kid quickly developed perfect form, and before long, it was obvious she had "the touch".... while grandpa just struggled, never quite getting the knack of maintaining contact with the bottom and walking that bait downriver.

We limited in less than two hours, with Marci hooking both of grandpa's fish. The first pic says it all! In the second one, a very proud dad helps to display her first silver limit.

1) A couple of years ago going 13 for 14 on summer runs standing in the same spot, getting 4 fish on 4 casts in one stretch.
2) A buddy of mine took me to the coast to a river I had never fished and between the 2 of us that morning we landed 20 winter fish and lost a bunch of other ones.
3) 2 winters ago getting an 18 and 20+ pound natives in back to back casts on the same leader. Went 5 for 7 that morning. That was fun!

This November fishing with my son, catching so many doggies on the Satsop that we lost count. The first trip with my son that we spent more time catching than fishing!!!

Too many to list,

The best day: the day we caught 44.5" native, or the day we hooked twenty nats, or the day I went 12 for 17 on summers. No those aren't the best days. The best day ever was when I caught my first steelie, all 4.5 lbs. of her. I was the happiest man alive.

My best day fishing was when i took my sister out to deception pass for humpies. I got her up at day break, ran over to the fishing spot then told her how deep to put her rig, then after that it was non stop smiles and laughs. She was having a blast duno if it was from catchin her first limit of salmon or the fact that she was out fishing me 3 to1. All in all that was probably the best day fishing i have ever had.
My other best day fishing was when i got my first steelie. I had been fishing my zipper for a few weeks and saw people catching steelies and wanted to be one of those guys who gets asked where did you get that nice brat. And finally that day came. while i was float fishing a head hunter jig tipped with sand shrimp my float went down and then up came a 8-9 pound chrome bright winter run buck. ever since then i have been hooked ( i was hooked before that but now i am really hooked).

Lower madison in Montana salmonfly hatch 9-noon fishing big dry flies I caught over 40 trout the smallest measured 16 inches most of them were 18-20 with two brute brown trout caught back to back that measured 24 inches.

There was another day on th Washougal when i was a kid where i got into a pod of fall steelhead ( not late summers) an actual fall run. chrome bright the day before thanksgiving water was in summer flows and i nailed 5 out of that pod in about 15 minutes. every single one of them chrome bright with lice all on eggs. The largest about 12 pounds was a buck that i missed once and took violently on the next cast.. Here's a tip if you miss a bite with eggs try covering the same spot with a bait of eggs on the swing. but whatch out you don't get your arms ripped off..
dang i miss havning lots of wild fish in the Washougal

Lots of good trips but two that I won't forget.

1. Nisqually years ago when the crowds were small and the fishing hot. Three casts for three Steelhead. One chrome bright, one with a strip and one that had spawned. That was one hot river years ago.

2. South Fork Nooksack when it was open for Summer Run Steelhead. Hooked eighteen Chrome bright fish and landed thirteen of them. All in about two hours or less. Just got lucky and hit a big school of them. Was getting a fish on almost every cast. My heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to have a heart attack. As sore as my arm was and my heart was beating I just couldn't help myself by stopping. I finally forced myself to stop and take a break after about two hours!

My first day back on the North Fork Lewis after a heart attack. Never caught a thing. Sure felt good to just be there breathing. Still does.

1982 on a business trip to Australia. Went out on a charter for Marlin and the 1st hookup was a grander (1,000 lb) fish. I have never worked so hard or sweated so much. I ached for a week.

Humptulips this fall with my wife at the end of the day she looked at me and said , that was the most fun I have ever had in my life I would have to agree .priceless!!!PEACE!!!

On my "best" day fishing ever, I only hooked one fish.

I just got my driver's license, and my buddy bagged on me so I decided to go alone to a nearby river. I fished hard for several hours without a bite........and walked a long ways.

I was enjoying the day but wishing I could hunt up a fish. I was looking over a nice piece of water, and saw a gray ghost cruising the tailout. I put on a fresh egg bait and casted in the slot. As soon as my bait lifted up off the bottom in the tailout, that fish clobbered it and blazed upstream so fast the line made a ripping sound through the water.

That fish had me running the river bank like a tennis player.....back and forth. After a phenomenal fight I brough the native hen up to the shore. It was a perfect fish. About 10 lbs of chrome and black, without a scale out of place. And no camera, and no buddy to take the picture.

For some reason, I let that fish go. I hadn't done that before, and didn't have any particular reason for doing it then. Except that fish was so awesome, and fought so hard, that I figured it was better to let it swim. I think about that day all the time when I'm fishing today.

I headed home fishless..........

This last fall. Got 5 nates to the bank + 1 silver. Had another break me off and many other take downs. What a great day it was.

Mine was a day on the Humptulips back in the day. We lost count of the number of kings landed, but I remember quitting because my arms were sore and I had my fill. Beautiful sunny day, a herd of elk crossed downstream of us, the water was on thedrop with just a tinge of color, the fish were bright and fishing was fantastic. You just can't ask for anything better!

Hooked 10 nice steelhead on bobber and jig and landed 8 of them in about 5 or 6 hours with absolutly no one around. I thought I was in Heaven!!!!!!!!.

Great story Dan.... wish I could have been there to take the picture for you.

Couple of nice little Kings on the Fraser last sept.

Dan, I really appreciate your story.

I certainly have been blessed with some incredible days of fishing, in both quantity and quality, but it seems to me now that the best days I had were the ones I let the fish get away too.

Sadly, what could have been one of my better fishing days turned out to my most bittersweet instead.

Presidents Day many years ago, Bill Herzog took a couple of friends and me along to leap-frog down a long remote stretch of river that I had no idea could be floated. We had an awesome day of fishing in absolutely pristine surroundings with no one else around. Along the way I landed a beautiful 20# wild steelhead hen. The biggest hen and most perfect fish I have ever seen. Although I had seen many big trophy bucks, including a 30# Quinault (mounted), none were more beautiful to me than this immaculate and immense hen. Even though CNR was not that widely practiced back then, Bill, God bless his spoons, was actively encouraging wild release among his peers. And certainly by that time I had joined the cause myself. But in that moment of weakness, I selfishly decided that this would be the one and only trophy wild steelhead that I had previously said I would allow myself to have mounted. Ironically, my wife loves the mount and prominently displays it for all to see, but even now I can hardly look at it without having mixed emotions.

Suffice it to say, it’s better if you don’t have to kill such a beautiful creature to know the joy of letting the others go.

My partner and I slept in and got started well after sunrise while letting three other boats get well down river. We landed and released 8 natives in March 2000 on the upper Hoh. The last one I tailed for my partner was a thick bodied double red bar 44" buck I had to cradle because the tail was so thick. This was after being skunked the day before!

She was a beauty, Mooch! And what better way to show why C&R is a grand idea! It's not the mistakes we make that matter so much as the lessons we learn from them. Great story. Thanks!

It took me 3 tries to get into a little piece of heavan called Haggen lakes.These lakes are protected by some very forboding country and are the head waters of my favorite river.The drainage is apropriatly called Crazy creek.

The trout fishing was absolutely phenomanal.I spent three days up there by myself catching fish after fish.A casting bubble and a dryfly was the method.The grasshopper fly would sit out there for maybe five seconds and "slurp" you were into another.These fish were so pristine humans meant nothing to them.While fighting one, the rest would scurry around it looking for the source of its excitement,which had to be food,it could by no means be a death fight with a predator.I would fight a sixteen only to watch two or three eighteens franticly trying to find a piece of the imaginary pie.

It was a truely humbling experience just getting there.It is enough of a challenge that I felt privelaged to be there.Like I was the guest of god almighty and I had better behave as such.

Some of you that know me have asked why I spend so much time fishing my favorite river, when there are other rivers with more fish in them.You would understand if you had experienced the magic I did on that trip.

During the spring when my daughter was 3, I took her to Clear Lake in Pierce County for her first fishing trip. She had a little "Land Before Time" fishing pole. I helped her bait the hook with Power Bait under a float, and told her to reel in when the bobber goes under. I helped her toss the rig out, and started to set up my rod. Before I could get my line through 2 guides, she said, "Daddy, I got one!", I took the fish off her hook, put it on a stringer, rebaited the hook, and helped her cast it out again. Wouldn't you know it, the bobber went down about the time I picked up my pole to set up again. She caught another fish! That's how it went for the next 15 minutes. I did manage to catch 2 fish by the time she got her limit. She out fished me on her very first outing, and I will never forget it!

Welcome Bag'em

Ive posted this before and its not salmon/steelhead but how about over 200 bass in one day, fishing crank baits in the dead of winter at the peach bottom power plant warm water discharge....DJ

DXFISH2X???

Did you say the "b" word? OOOOOOH!
My ears are still ringing.....


Just kidding

I, like most of you have been blessed with many great fishing days...

Many days of too many to count salmon fishing in the salt.... several days of steelheading to die for.... but for some reason, one trip sticks out above the rest.

While living in the tri-cities I used to steelhead the hanford reach in the summers. One day I travelled from Ringold to the very beginning of white bluffs to try and pick up a fish. It is about a half hour to 45 minutes of twisting and turning upstream trying not to lose a prop to get there. When I got to the top, I cast my spinner to shore made about 3 cranks and BAM! Nice, 10 lb hatch in the boat. I turned back and headed up to the front of the run. cast to the same spot, bam! another matching fish.... 2 fish in two casts doesn't happen much over there. I also picked up a 20lb'er over there on a different trip, not my first 20, but a really big fish for the reach.

I've had plenty of days that stand out, but the best overall day was fishing with my grandpa up in Forks catching salmon until we ran out of bait and then catching bottomfish until our arms hurt.

Last summer when my daughter outfished me on Mineral Lake was a good fishing day as well. Next summer the little fella in my avatar will be old enough that he can take a stab at his ol man.

Glow

I've had way too many "best" days - probably more than I can remember

One of them happened a long time ago, on a Lake Chelan camping trip with my father and brothers when I was in high school. We stopped and fished most every sizeable creek that empties into the lake, and me being the oldest and fastest (and heavily into cross country running at the time) would pretty much take off upstream and just keep heading up, leaving my brothers down by the lake to catch fish in the easy water. I fished a dry fly all day, and in every pool or behind every big rock would be a nice trout that I would catch and release as I moved upstream. Low down near the lake would be rainbows. Mid way up I would start encountering rainbow/cutthroat hybrids, then I would hit an impassible waterfall - above that would be native cutthroat for a thousand feet or more straight up. I attempted to keep count but eventually couldn't remember which hundred I was on. A few of these creeks headed in little lakes that sounded like the one Cleo was on - huge cutts with not a clue - hook one and the rest would come running to find out what was going on. I know I fished areas probably not even visited much today, and this was in the 60's. I also know there is still no trail into some of these lakes, and you would need to be a crazy kid track star to get up to them the way I did. Nice to know something is still likely the same as it was - although I'll never find out

Like everyone else I have quite a few but I will only mention two.

#1 Alaska - on the Kanektok fishing silvers in fall of 1985, landed 177 in two days of fishing. 50 or so on flys and the rest on hardware. Never saw another fisherman the whole time accept 2 or 3 boats that motored past me up river and were never seen again. Had my tent set up on a 100 yard sand bar. Woke up the second morning and the river was like glass the bottom looking unusually dark. I put my fish locators on and was dumb founded as there were 100s if not thousands of fish sitting only a couple of feet from shore extending down river for as far as I could see. I proceeded to catch fish after fish after fish. I know I will never have fishing like that ever again.

#2 Day after Christmas on the Kalama, 2001. I was sick for several days during Christmas and finally started feeling better around noon the day after Christmas. I told my wife was going to the Kalama for the afternoon. Arrived up in my favorite area around 2:30pm. Hiked down to the river and there was virtually no one around. First cast..fish, second cast..fish, then it was a blurr after that. I ended up going 9 for 11 in 2 1/2 hours of fishing. Went down there the next day and went 8 for 9. There were 2 or 3 summers mixed in the catch but most were chrome bright winters. Ended up going 17 for 20 in about 10 hours of fishing. I doubt I will ever top that for steelhead as far as shear numbers of fish in a short period of time goes.

Either that, or you gotta know a guy with a helicopter.

Dan, I those lakes are in the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area - a dim view is taken of helicoptering into wilderness areas I understand

The best day I have had as far as sheer madness was about 12 years ago when after loaning my brother a fair amount of cash to pursue his life long dream to own/operate a charter boat in Kona HI. After a few years of learning the ropes I was invited over for a few days of night time YELLOWFIN Fishing. Many fish over 100LBs, and one jumbo of about 200+. My arms ached for a week..

#2) After selling everything I owned at about 18-19yrs old, I took off to Alaska to pursue the big bucks$$ yeah right. I got off the ferry and found a campground to set up home. I was not in Alaska for more than 1hour and I was running up and down a small river chasing big Nates on the end of my line, not one person at the campground just me and the steelhead. I had found my home....

I can think of several great trips. Best day was a small creek with lots of kings in it. Hooked them from 5-50lbs, yes 5-0lbs. Brought a 45lb home and a 6 pound silver home. Most of the fish were so dark they looked like boots, but it was still a blast. My arms hurt from fighting so many fish. Best ever was trout fishing from a boat using worms and bobber. Caught tons of fish between three of us, then landed a 3.68lb bullhead. Was a state record for three years or so. Funniest was with the "boss" on the Puyallup a couple seasons back. She hooked a "fish" and was backing up to the bank when she hit a rock and SPLASH, complete dunking. She thens stands back up and lands her "fish". A nice big "Y" shaped stick, about 3lbs or two feet long. Everyone laughed about that. Even this past season people still remembered.