Opening day of the lowland trout put-n-take turd fish season.

Imagine the dude who is out in his garage last night, tying up leaders, sharpening the hooks on his spoons, or re-tying the knots on his plug rods, gazing happily at his fully equipped $7,000.00 drift boat...and dreaming of ending up the season with a couple of big silver bullets while sipping on a nice beer...

...and then Wife, along with reality comes crashing in.

Wife: You're not going steelhead fishing again!

Husband: WTF are you talking about, woman?!

Wife: You've been steelhead fishing for three months...[blah, blah, blah, blah]...and you are taking our two kids that I have had to stay home with every weekend for the past three months while you've been out floating around catching steelhead and not even bringing home any to eat!!

Husband: [burble, burble] (Can't speak, is choking on a smooth microbrew that has all of a sudden became very, very bitter)

*Cut to Saturday morning*

$7,000.00 driftboat is now floating four feet from the boat launch on Pine Lake...there are 27 other boats within easy casting distance, and at least 300 boats on the lake.

Kid tosses out spinner approximately 27 inches from boat...Husband pulls once on the oar, and it is fish on...a wily 5.7 incher that was hosed out of a WDFW truck about four hours earlier hoists its tiny body 2 inches out of the water, and then is in the boat.

Husband: Nice one. (and takes a deep pull off the 36 oz. coffee cup that is full of bourbon)

Thirty eight minutes later the boat has "limited" on 4 to 7 inch "rainbows"...and four hours later there is room at the launch to get his $7,000.00 drift boat back on the trailer.

During the three and half hour wait at the launch to get the boat out of the water, Husband daydreams about the childless members of the steelhead fraternity...those who are floating down a river somewhere using lures bigger than the flopping pond rats that are strung on the stringer and floating belly up beside his boat...he envisions them catching half a dozen beautiful and big sea run rainbows, fish that have never seen the inside of a cement pond, much less been trucked around and hosed into a muddy cesspool of a lake.

The coffee cup is now empty of bourbon, but thankfully he found four old beers stowed under the seat from last week's steelhead trip...a trip that seems years ago, and thousands of miles away.

Happy Opening Day!! I'm outta here in an hour and a half for the river...see ya on Tuesday!



Fish on...

Todd

HAHAHAHAHAH dude.....that is awesome. i was sipping my coffee at work as i was reading it...spewed coffee everywhere when the dad said "nice one" hahahahahh then the boss leaned over and said " you alright?"

i was like " yeah just choked at the price this guy thinks he is going to get grantie at"

he was like " i know it....some people just htink its free"


close call. entertaining stuff todd

Very funny! Thanks!

God damm....I was just dealing with this promblem...I want to go get some springers and late steel on the cowlitz while the girl friend wants to go to the pond...YUCK Guess im going to the pond..There are two good things that are gona come out of this 1st being she said i can go to the Brooklyn tav...Yawhooo that place rocks...2nd I got a chance to win the $500 first prize for the biggest fish... YA right you know some tweeker has been growin a trout in the swimming pool all winter long to get that prize...

oh, Trout season opens Saturday?
Scratch my trip this weekend, I'm gonna go stand on the shores of Martha lake in Lynnwood instead.....

Yeah Todd, some guy at work who know I fish a lot walked over to ask me what I was doing for Opening Day.

I asked him, "Opening Day of WHAT?? Season closes next week!"

He walked away shaking his head

Substitute $7000 drift boat for bare bones Lavro and Pine for Flowing Lake, micro brew for Coors and I think your talking about me.

Actually I'm looking forward to taking kids fishing. Should be a hoot. Even though Flowing is open year round I'm sure it will be a zoo. I noticed Kruse had it on his top ten list for opening day. Fortunately I've got connections on the lake so I won't have to deal with the public boat launch. Those wild steelhead are over rated anyways:)

My feelings towards "The Opener" have been clearly written down in The Lakes Forum.

Now that was some funny $hit there,and sounds like me this coming saturday.It's been 12 years since i fished an opener for trout or even trout @ all.Some things change.Todd have fun as I'm sure i will also, spending time with the 10 year old daughter in my $6,500.00 drift boat.Instead of Pine lake or beaver lake it will atleast be out on the coast in Grays harbor.I've talked it over with the little one and she has agreed to C-n-R all our fish this weekend and if there is a bleeder that we would donate it to some family members who still thinks it's cool to fish & kill 8" trout.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Just to be clear, the above is a bit of humor, so take it for what it is...

If this is your day to go out and fish with your kids, then go out and do it, and make sure that you and they have as much fun as possible...they are, after all, the future of our sport.

It would be lame to work so hard to protect and restore our fishing runs, and not have anyone to either hand the torch over to or to fish for 'em in a few decades.

Fish on...

Todd

Todd, please pack or something and stop tormenting us. I got bass fishing to look forward to this weekend.. and well, that sorta sucks

Yes. I try to get my kids excited about fishing any chance I get. That usually means actually catching fish! Saturday afternoon I took the boys down to the river and putzed around. I hooked a big fish that I played for about ten minutes and never even saw it. I was pretty excited and asked my oldest son (7) to grab the camera out of the rig which was parked about 20 feet away. He's farting around trying to tie a leader setup he found on the beach to a stick (Huck Finn steelheader). He looks at me and says "not now Dad, I'm busy. Ended up losing the fish anyway.

Opening day for the last few years has been the Fortson Pond Derby. Talk about a fiasco!

Todd,
If you see a blue Clack up there, say Hi. We'll be up there Saturday and Sunday from the Mill down. Early bird gets the worm, literally.

Crap. I just got a call from my Cracker friend.

Exact transcript:

"Hello?"

"Ya gonna be there this weekend?"

"Where?"

"The lake for opening day!"

"Umm...sure...when ya want hit it?"

"I dunno."

"Lets git 'er done. Ill pick you up at 5:30"

"Uhh..OK see you at 5:30"

"Git er Done!"

*click*

"Oh, F*ck!!"

Amen Brother Amen!

OK...how's this....
Pine Lake boat launch....
Substitue INFLATABLE 12 footer for 7k DB.
Picture a guy using a hand pump to inflate said boat while an impatient 3 yr old tries his best to damage equipment before we get started.
Did I mention 3 yr old is in week 2 of potty training?
Yeah, good times....

In reality, I am so lucky and proud to have a 3 yr old that thinks his dad is cool and smart and fun to do things with.
I am looking forward to it.
Say hello to the 12' inflatable fishhunter with Jack and I in it... and throw me a beer.

Todd,

You are tainting the illusion that WDFW works so hard to create.

It seems that whenever WDFW has a press release or photo op, it is to reinforce their vision of citizens who: buy a license, take the kids out on opening day, then stow their rods til next year.

Sport anglers are supposed to "know their place" and be totally satisfied with fishing in trout ponds and leaving steelhead and saltwater fish to the "big boys". People like us are just trouble makers, don'tcha know.

Friends always ask "so, when does fishing season start?" And to them I say it's the last Saturday in April.

Tight lines this weekend. I'll still be swinging with the two-hander, with a big PW on the end of course.

i'll be out on the lake, anchored up out of casting distance from the boat launch with my favorite malt beverage. some of you just don't know how to sit back and enjoy the mob's boat launch antics.

maybe i'll go home with a couple of nice holdover browns, or better yet a stringer of perch.

This is why I have been on the river for the last 6-7 openers. No regrets and some big fish.