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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Football nuts have their NFL Combine and Draft, while us “salmon sickos” have the salmon run projections and the season setting process. If you’re a football fan fisherman…you’ve got a whole lot of “pre-seasoning” to do. So, in an effort to apply some “salmonid salve” to your off-season itch lets take a peek at the process of […]
To simply state that there is water everywhere just doesn't do justice to our current state of affairs. At least we are armed with more information for this season's series of November drenchers. Thanks to the new Langley Hill radar we have a better view of incoming fronts. This new view is particularly helpful to […]
For the second year in a row, I've had the opportunity to fish the Marine Area 8 & 9 opener to "scout" or pre-fish the opening event of the Northwest Salmon Derby Series, the Bayside Marine Derby. Usually, there are a few "easy" fish available on opening day and you get a good read on […]
OLYMPIA – Clam diggers today got a green light to proceed with a two-day razor clam dig Nov. 11-12 at three ocean beaches. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) approved the dig after marine toxin tests showed that the clams on the three beaches are safe to eat. Beaches scheduled to open for […]
Throughout all this talk of budget cuts, ocean survival and La Nina the fact remains that the hatchery steelhead are on their way! Here's why I'm looking at this year's hatchery runs more positively that the last couple years: Look at the "bumper crop" of pinks & coho we've seen this year! There couldn't be […]
I was talking to guide Phil Stephens of Mystical Legends Guide Service last week about how the fishing had been recently on the Humptulips River and he exclaimed, "There's plenty of kings and silvers in there but you can't get past the infestation of chums to get to them!" Eeek…tough duty Phil! I'm still chuckling […]
