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