About

Tom “Nelly” Nelson has spent over a half-century on the waters, uplands and mountain ranges of his beloved home, the vast Pacific Northwest. For the past decade and a half, Nelly has been the voice of Seattle Saturday morning outdoor radio where his lifetime of hunting & fishing experience and his communication skills have been put to the test. In 2019, Salmon & Steelhead Journal named Nelly to it’s list of “The 25 Most Influential Anglers In The West.” From his childhood on the rivers and bays of Puget Sound to the salmon, herring and charter fishing fleets of Alaska, Tom has taken full advantage of all that the challenging outdoor classroom has to offer.

Tom’s education as a fisherman continued at the University of Washington’s School of Fisheries, earning a Degree in Fisheries Biology. Nelly was subsequently employed by the school’s Fisheries Research Institute (F.R.I.) as a Research Assistant for several Alaskan salmon research projects allowing Tom to explore the Nushagak, Chignik, and Lake Illiamna regions.

“Nelly’s” fishing career has included guiding and writing for Salmon Trout Steelheader, Salmon and Steelhead Journal, Fishing & Hunting News, Washington Game & Fish, The REEL News as well as several websites.

A fixture at fishing clubs and the seminar circuit, “Nelly’s” fishing PowerPoint presentations are very popular and well attended. Tom spent over five years at the upstart outdoor radio show “Northwest Wild Country” before leaving in March of 2009 for a chance to co-host his own outdoor show, “The Outdoor Line” at KIRO 710 ESPN Seattle with Robbo Endsley and Robbie Tobeck. The original Outdoor Line with Bill Davis entertained and informed anglers and hunters on KIRO Radio for three decades, ending in the late 1990’s with Mr. Davis untimely passing. Tom Nelson was once a guest on Bill Davis show and it seems now that the torch has been passed.

Joe Pyburn brings a lifetime of hunting and fishing experience to the Outdoor Line radio show. He grew up in the “Ray’s Bait” family, one of the largest fishing bait processors in the Pacific Northwest. Joe’s got decades of experience plying the Puget Sound for salmon and the banks of Washington’s famed rivers for steelhead. That knowledge led him to a job guiding anglers at a destination lodge in Alaska just out of high school and eventually to Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula where he guided for trophy rainbow trout for a season.

His hunting knowledge runs just as deep and there are few hunters in the northwest with as much backcountry hunting experience as Joe. He’s taken countless mule deer and elk in the backcountry of Washington, Idaho, and Montana and in the fall that’s where you’re likely to find him, in the backcountry.

When he’s not on the Outdoor Line radio show you’ll find him at the helm of Ray’s Bait processing and distributing bait of all kinds to tackle shops and anglers throughout the Pacific Northwest.