Billfish Bonanza 2012!

March 18, 2012

The second edition of The Outdoor Line Billfish Bonanza in Los Suenos Resort in Costa Rica had some new faces in the same sunny, warm places and the sailfish were in a biting mood! Over the three days of the event, 42 sails were landed along with three marlin and several dorado! We got into […]

Float Doggin with the “Stick Weight”

March 10, 2012

Float Doggin with “The Stick Weight” Call it Float Doggin, Bobber Doggin, or even Float Drifting; it’s basically all the same. The biggest difference between, Float Doggin and Float Drifting is as simple as, are you in the boat or on the bank. When you are in the boat, and for me it’s the Drift […]

The 2012 Salmon Forecasts!!!

February 29, 2012

I know, I've got issues..I await the salmon forecast numbers like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. Hello, my name is Tom and I am a "salmon sicko". After watching the numbers for a number of years (never mind how many…) I've found that you can "call some shots" by digging into the forecast numbers. The […]

Gear Review: Swivellock Oar Locks

February 29, 2012

I ran into Ron Reed at the Washington Sportsmans Show in Puyallup back in January and he was kind enough to hand me a set of his spiffy new oar locks to try out. Ron is the maker of Swivellock Oar Locks, an innovative driftboat oar lock that pivots, swivels, and has an oar-right built […]

Fishing the 2012 “Iron Man” Derby!

February 21, 2012

On Presidents Day Weekend, we got to see… firsthand… why the Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby was nicknamed “The Iron Man”. Personally, until this year, I had never competed in this event, I simply admired the guys who worked the water for those days in February when the winds can whip the Straits of Juan de Fuca into […]

How to Cure Shrimp

February 21, 2012

Fishing coon shrimp for salmon and steelhead isn't a new technique. Pacific Northwest Anglers have been employing the procedure for decades. Nonetheless, in the last few years the application has seen an influx in interest, likely a reflection of modern formulas that make brining the shrimp easier and more efficient than in the past. There […]

It’s Oyster:30 in G-Town!

February 21, 2012

It didn't take long to polish off 6 dozen oysters at my good buddy Geoff's going away party last night here in Gig Harbor. Geoff just got called up for 400 days of active duty in Afghanistan and what better way to send him off than with a bunch of fresh Hood Canal oysters cooked […]

One Day in February

February 16, 2012

It's no secret that I get the steelhead bug bad, real bad in February. This is the time of year when those big bruiser wild steelhead enter the rivers in Washington and for some reason I absolutely geek out when that happens. It could be that they have a reputation as being the hardest fighting […]

Tobeck’s Christmas Crab

December 22, 2011

Ever since former Seattle Seahawk and WSU Cougar lineman Robbie Tobeck stepped away from The Outdoor Line, I've had to listen to the "Cantankerous Cougar's" complaints: "Boy, I never hear from you anymore,… We haven't been out fishing since I left the show"… etc,etc… you get the drift. So, after hearing fairly solid crabbing and blackmouth […]

Rigging a Slip Float for Low Water Winter Steelhead

December 22, 2011

We're in the middle of our second La Nina winter in a row here in Washington and the weather maelstrom that many of the meteorologists predicted, well, it hasn't materialized yet. Knock on wood! This has been the driest December on record and that's dropped many of the cricks in Western Washington to near summer […]