Snoopy Rod Classic 2009 1

I just returned relatively unscathed from another eventful Snoopy Rod Classic on Washington's Bogachiel River. Every year a bunch of us knuckle dragging, mouth breathing, cross eyed steelheaders get together in early December to fish for hatchery steelhead with Snoopy rods. Snoopy doesn't get all the glory…there's also Tweety, Spiderman, Dora, Scooby Doo, Mickey Mouse, and someone even found a Star Wars rod a few years back.

Why do we do this? Our good friend and long time Olympic Peninsula river guide Gordon Gracey had a terrible accident a few years leaving he and his beautiful wife Kim with an insurmountable pile of medical bills. Gordon was one of the most generous human beings you'd ever want to meet and helped anyone he ran into, whether they needed it or not. I grabbed his driftboat and raft on several occasions, no questions asked, and his tackle shop garage was always open for the pickin's. Again, no questions asked!

We round up a bunch of half wits (myself included) and everyone throws a few bucks in the hat for Gordo and Kim. I developed the rules ten years ago and they're pretty simple really. Everyone is limited to just two cartoon rods, you have to use monofilament line, and any and all fish hooked are up for grabs. If you hook a steelhead on your precious little Barbie rod and someone else nets it, well tough luck there sister!

The SRC is always held on the first Friday of December to reduce the impact on other anglers and to keep the hooking of wild steelhead to a minimum. They do get caught on occasion and, in fact, we caught and landed a chrome bright 7 pound wild steelhead today. Over the last decade of the SRC, however, very few wild fish have been caught.

I fished the SRC this year with one of my longtime fishing partners Kevin Kent. We grabbed this 8 pound-ish hatchery brat right out of the gate first thing this morning back trolling plugs. Dora the Explorer was the lucky rod in our boat today. Hey, steelheading is serious business…quit laffing!

Our boat caught another hatchery fish and released the small wild steelhead before the gorilla showed up. Vampires, werewoofs, and now Gorillas. What other marketing scheme will Forks, Washington come up with to draw in tourists. Sheesh!

And then a party broke out in the tailout when Kaiser D. showed up with a keg of Boundary Bay! The tailout bash even attracted a few non-participants to the anchor session.

Kaiser D. fills'em to the rim!

Canyon Man, who's real name will remain anonymous for now, is the first to bring a date along on the SRC. She was a trooper and I'm sure wondered more than once how she got gaffed into this mess. 

Brian Fleming hammered this chrome hen in the SRC. Boys and girls, the Bogey is fishing really well right now! 

I even managed to get in on the action on a couple of SRC fish today. Plugs were the ticket for these fish.

Phil Gray took top honors today with this 12.15 pound brute. Phil pocketed $150 dollars for this metalhawg, which promptly bought a round of drinks for the dinner party at the Mexican joint in Forks. Note the t-shirt. He fished in it all day…pretty sure it didn't get above 45 degrees on the Oly Pen all day. Feeling no pain!

The ringers from Piscatorial Pursuits, Bob Ball (and Rowan), Mike Parker, and Carl Windle walked away with top total weight for the day and $100. These guys didn't buy drinks for winning the whole enchilada last year. That'd be two rounds for dinner boys! If you're in Forks and it's getting dark stop in at the Mill Creek Bar and Grill and say hello to Forks area guide Brett Lowe, pictured on the left in the photo.

Beezer put the whoopin on this cute little 3 pound brat, grabbing the smallest steelhead in the history of the world award and fifty bones.

Now that this is over with we can all get back to the serious business of steelhead fishing! There really were a lot of fish in the Bogey and it's only going to get better. Our floatilla of boats hit fish from the hatchery all the way down to Wilsons today and more are on the way. The next couple of weeks are going to be good on the Oly Pen!

Our best wishes to Kim and Gordon Gracey!