“Slam” Juan Island Salmon Opener!!!

July 2, 2009

After having to listen -year after year- of my friends stories of the tremendous chinook fishing in the San Juans during the first days of the chinook season… I finally said “enough! I’m in!   Jay Field of the Anacortes Salmon Derby and now “Dash One” Charters invited my son and I to raft up […]

Twenty Days: Ten Openers!!!

June 29, 2009

It started Saturday June 27 with the Neah bay and LaPush lid lifters in Marine Areas 3 & 4. We talked to John Keizer on air, on the opener and he had no less than three strikes in the nine minutes we spoke with him! Early word is that the coho are thick, almost bothersome […]

Smoking Salmon Simplified!!!

June 22, 2009

If there is a food that is more uniquely “Northwest” than smoked salmon I don’t know what it is… But, I would like to find out! I love salmon, I grew up eating it, it’s good for you and If you give me the choice of a USDA Prime Rib Eye steak or an alder […]

Sitka 09: Chinook return to Southeast AK in force!

June 13, 2009

Our first year fishing Sitka was 1993. In the seventeen years of this annual adventure for my group of friends, expectations vary year to year. However, after the brutal 2008 Southeast Alaska chinook season we didn’t know what to think about Sitka salmon fishing in 2009.    Sure, we saw the oceanic productivity indications, the […]

The Summer Salmon Seminar and Tuna Clinic at Bayside Marine!

May 28, 2009

   Thanks to all who attended this event! We had a great time and we're pleasantly surprised by the turnout. The Second Annual Summer Salmon Seminar and Tuna Clinic at Bayside Marine doubled in size from the previous year with over 200 in attendance! We started off with introductions and thanking our gracious hosts…   […]

The “Opening Day” Effect

May 27, 2009

  I have been affected by opening day…   I don’t care what kind of opener it is Brother, but I am there!!!   River opener, shrimp opener, crab opener, Marine area opener, deer opener, elk opener, duck opener…   Well, you get the picture…    Sorry, I kinda went all “Bubba Gump shrimp” on you […]

Tiger Muskies, Tobeck, Tarps and Trees

May 18, 2009

   My first experience with the pike family was in a backwater of Alaska’s Lake Illiamna. I was a UW fisheries student assisting with an ongoing sockeye salmon research project. On a free afternoon, some compadres and I absconded with a research boat and went exploring. What we found was a seemingly endless maze of […]

Get in, Sit down, Buckle up and hold on!

April 27, 2009

Our first day in the studio: April 11, 2009.  I’ll never forget it…  As 6:02am approached, the time that we all had anticipated for literally weeks, I couldn’t help but reflect on the event as the culmination of a whole lot of work and an even bigger stroke of luck. The work? Well, have you […]