I’ve put electrics and very small gas motors (1.5 hp) on canoes and a Fulboat with no issues. Side mounted. Remember that the stability of any such craft depends on the center of gravity. The more weight up high, the more unstable. Keep such mounts close to the boats side and center line and as low above the boat as possible. Don’t stand up. Counter balance with battery and such heavy items on the opposite side of center.

I’ve had a wood handled Rapala for fourth years and love it.

I’ve stuck a very sharp fly in my thumb as well. Im sure glad I crushed the barb down first. Love barbless hooks. Even if they aren’t required.

I practice C&R almost exclusively any more. It’s required in many of the fisheries I participate in and even fish some locations were fish are planted and there for the taking. But even there as most states require you are to quit fishing once you’ve retained your permitted limit. Well, if I’m on a meat gathering expedition I don’t want to quit once I’m knocking them dead. So I use barbless hooks to release the last fish or two of my limit safely back into the water if that is permitted. It usually just takes a quick twist of a lip caught trout with my forceps to let them loose. Of course if they are hooked badly then I’ve just caught my limit and my fishing is over..

There’s certainly nothing wrong with being sensitive to the pain or discomfort that a hook does to a fish and the question of whether you need to think about fishing at all is something to contemplate. It’s not an accusation just a thought you or anyone needs to resolve. Any kind of consumptive action we do in nature causes pain even if it’s momentary. But consuming any wildlife is a part of conservation and beneficial to that resource.

Karen, I’m sure that even if you can’t come up with a partner, you could ask more specific questions on how to rig for different conditions, streasm structure. Along with different bait strategies or lures to use. Much of all that is commonly floating around the web in different blogs but you kinda have to trip over them to find them. While this group has a large following, most questions and experience is dealing with other parts of the country than our little corner.

Basically steelheaders dance between several methods from pined beads, to egg clusters, plugs, lures, yarn balls, shrimp under a bobber, etc. and of course methods depend on water conditions. Still water, fast water. Etc.

You might search the web for fishing in Washington, PNW fishing, Steelhad fishing to come across more specific groups.

I use snap swivels and always have to make it easy to change lures etc. I use the smallest I can and don’t like the ones that snap or lock like a safety pin. I like the ones that actually hook over the standing part of the swivel. Barrel swivels are handy in rigs to eliminate line twisting. They are just a bearing of some sort between two eyes. The Bering can actually be like other bearings with ball bearings or more like the links of a neck chain we used for our dog tags or keys. But stronger.

There was a guy fishing in the Salish Sea that hooked an Orca. He was out for the first time with his Halibut rig, brand new high end rod and reel loaded with 200 lb braid and two hundred pound leader. The Orca took off west and he was advised to let go of everything but just couldn’t deal with loosing that new rig. He was last seen trying to stay on his feet as he passed out through the mouth of the straights of Juan De Fuca There was a report by a factory Ship out past the 200 mile limit of a guy water skiing barefoot headed west. Nothing more was ever seen of him.

No river or lake is too cold for most any fish we are talking about.if they aren’t there, they just aren’t there. Never were or weren’t planted. But it’s not the cold. Heck, people fish through ice after all.

I’m sure they do. I’m assuming your talking about the Waste way that dumps in near Potholes Reservoir Dam on the east side? One of the basic hot spots. If not, most any of the waste ways up there have fish in them all year. The fish may change locations a little by season but I’d still fish anywhere up there I could. You might be surprised what you catch. Frenchman’s, Winchester, Crab Creek, etc. all have fish.

If you do hook one it won’t be for long. Not something to waste time worrying about.

If you find some, they are as good as or better to eat than shrimp.

I asked the same basic question of my local fishery biologist last year after massive flooding on a local trout stream. His answer was that they just get out of the way. This flood changed channels overflowed it’s banks by quit a bit. But trout, salmon fry and smolts find places to hide from the greater courses of current. Remember that the current is much slower along the bottom of any stream than it is at the surface. What you see at the surface is not what’s going on towards the bottom.

Whether jacks should be removed or not by commercial fishing or by other sportsman means it is a fact that jacks have a purpose. Because they come early in their life and not at their future adult stage they provide a safety valve for bad years when adults don’t come back because of various factors like unfavorable environmental conditions. It’s a way for nature to keep runs from disappearing.

I’m on the east side from you but I’d suggest you just check the regs to see what’s open and where. Salt regs are complicated from what I see. But I’ve heard talk on line about black mouth fishing opening and I suppose there are some bottom fishing available. Same for lakes and rivers. They open, close, etc. some for salmon in rivers, some for trout, bass,, etc. in rivers and lakes.

I too go with predator. I don’t recall any information that trout scavenge. What they eat naturally and the baits they take all in some way represent what they feed on in nature. They aren’t the only fish in that category. All the spiny rays are predators with the exception of maybe perch. On the other hand catfish and sturgeon and similar fish do scavenge dead fish and perhaps other animals.