If you've ever travelled anywhere with Zog - never, ever will I forget the first 1 a.m. flame-run with Herzog, Judas Priest, volume 11 jellifying my eardrums - you know of his affinity for metal.

Entertaining read: Of Metal and Metalheads: The Rise and Fall ...

Now that was a good read...hard to find much in there that I'd disagree with, either.

Fish on...

Todd

I would like to read something positive from him once in a while...
I love Bills' writing but, his latest reads are nohing but, a soap box for him to stand on to say look at me... I am holier than thou.

I understand He doenst like Side-drifting??? Well guess what?
He should practice what you preachs! He is not apart of anykind of solution. In his book Drift-fishing for Steelhead he describes the technqiue in its extent for anglers to follow. Yet turns his nose down to it. Maybe you should take that page out of your book.. Cause look what happens!

herzog wrote his book back in the early '90s if i'm not mistaken. back then(coincidentally, also when i started steelhead fishing) it was pretty uncommon to see many folks boondogging, much less choosing it as the only way they fish like is so common now.

Thanks for posting that! Now I'm gonna have to explain to the wife why I'm smiling all night! .........and he didn't even mention float and jig!

Good read. So is it better if you do it with a fly rod, a float, and pretty orange pink green purple black blue balls "flies" of yarn? Mebbe with a touch of scent? Is it bait that makes it bad? The boat? If I use a spoon is it better? Spoondogging? How about float fishing? Is float fishing really any different from shore or in a boat?
I don't know...... I don't disagree with him on the music part, and all due respect to a guy who has been at it a long time. If everyone were swinging spoons, it just wouldn't be as cool anymore With the kind of spoons rvrfshr is makin, it won't be long until metal rules the world once again!.
Cheers,
Neal

Even though Bill wrote that in the early nineties, boondogging has been around since the sixties on the Skagit. If you ask any old timer up this way, he will describe this style of fishing to the "T". Thats just how they fished.


If Zog wants to see some innovation... he's got an open seat with me anyday:)

Sooooooo.

Bill's not a fan of sidedrifting, huh?

The Kip Winger of steelhead fishing... That's funny!

Boondoggin started down on The "Sac" in Cali, not the skagit. The preferred method on the skagit back in the day was anchoring up in your grandpa's skagit boat, and dropping out your plugs, or your plunking set up with a spin and glow and a shrimp and all the while gramps cooked breakfast on the camp stove.

peace Fly

But Sac style boondoggin was straight upstream from the boat, literally dragging your goods past all the fish you just ran over with your free-drifting boat.

Same style of boondoggin' they do on the Kenai... literally "draggin' bait" as they like to say. Works OK in the glacial flows as the fish are probably unaware of the boatwith the limited viz. But it sure is a fast presentation... fish gotta grab and go NOW or miss out on the bling that just went by, as in bye bye.

The Skagit guys are the ones that discovered the merits of presenting to the fish running the slots away from the not-quite-free-drifting boat.

Zog may be down on side-drifting as a brainless technique, but it's NOT brainless for the boat operator... just the guy hangin' onto to the rod while the guy on the tiller (or the oars) puts him over all the willing biters.

Definitely two different camps on the history of "boondogging", as FNP points out. The old Oregon technique would best be described as "boondragging" - matter of fact, if you fish the Tillamook streams, you'll still see guys dragging baits downstream like they were bassakwards back-bouncing ...

I don't always agree with Zog (if I did it would be boring) but I respect him and his writing style. He can inflict feelings that don't easily go away. I still vividly remember a story he did years ago on Hood Canal coho. He brought tears to my eyes but at the same time I was filled with rage as he wrote about the total demise of a great fish and how the fishery managers sat back and watched it happen. I still get pissed thinking about it.

As far as boondogging, I still see a place for it. Zog encourages us to learn many techniques and then use the best one for the current conditions or the one that you get the most satisfaction from using.

The old man caught more steelhead while guiding and fishing on the Skagit in its hey-day than I'll ever see but yet boondogging out of his home made boats is the only steelhead method he ever learned. He wouldn't know how to catch a fish from shore if it bit him in the arse. I on the other hand had to learn multiple techniques in rivers devoid of fish, pretty much as a bank maggot. Therefore, I love side drifting out of a flat bottom sled because the boat operator does all the work and I can sit back and enjoy the fishing. Only problem is this only occurs about once every three or four years but yet its my all-time favorite technique, except for maybe hooking fish on a swinging dry.

As far as music, I grew up listening to my older brothers' music from the late 70s and then my music from the 80s and love it. I can't tell if the music was better then than now because of my biased opinion but it sure seems like it was better then, just like the fishing.

Hey for those of you music who like oldies, you need to log onto internet "radio" by Pandora.

PANDORA

Just put in the genre or artist you want and it automatically creates a "radio station" with an assortment of songs representative of that artist/genre.

Great stuff when you are stuck at the sink cleaning a mess of clams.

The Zog likes to catch fish and will do what ever techniqueit takes to get a wiggle on the end of his stick. He might have his favorite ways to catch fish but he's not dumb, he will do what ever it takes.

I love it. You can create dozens of different stations, which Pandora saves for you. I can switch from Tool radio, to Bob Marley radio, to Randy Travis, etc. depending on the weather.

And say a Nickelback song somehow shows up on one of my stations.....give it a thumbs down, and it goes away!

Amen.

Good article. The only statement I disagree with was

"The new “gurus” of side drifting catching 400 fish a year are no more steelheaders than some guy who consistently makes holes in one on a putt-putt course is a PGA pro."

I don't care *what* technique you are using, but if you can personally catch 400 steelhead in a year, you ARE a steelheader. Someone of that skill can read water like there's no tomorrow. Correctly reading and interpreting water is 99% of the "skill" of being a good steelheader, IMO.

I've never cared for heavy metal music or for calling steelhead metalheads. It's undignified. It seems like Bill is criticizing fishermen who are "one dimensional," who know no method of steelheading other than boondogging. I think that's legitimate. A well rounded angler is one who can employ a variety of gear and methods under varying conditions and catch fish.

As for sheer quantity, Bill's right, and Parker is wrong. When steelhead runs are, or were, abundant, a one-dimensional angler could stand on a select rock at some hatchery blood hole (Cook Ck, Salmon R, Fortson, etc.) and repeat the same cast for as many hours and days as necessary and catch 400 steelhead a year. That makes him a successful fisherman in one place under one set of conditions, but not necessarily a skilled angler. Drop him off on a wilderness river containing only wild fish and he may catch fish only by random accident when there is no blood hole. It's all part of the difference between an evolved and a not-so-evolved fisherman.

Sg

He wrote it, not me.

400.

I wouldn't have said anything if he'd put down a *realistic* number......