I've also scrounged up used lead and made my own weights for years. Plumbers and roofers have been good sources, and the lead is much cleaner. A couple of precautions - never do this in a garage or other enclosed area as the smoke can be very toxic. The biggest concern is to avoid any water in the lead, as you put it in the melted lead - even a small amount of moisture can cause very dangerous "popping" of lead. I still have some silver spots on my driveway from one such incident - and trust me, molten lead is really nasty.

Your both right. It is the marine waters south of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It is like Area 51 because it has become a desert like dead zone for fishing. I just look out my front window at it, currently choppy, but I generally travel to the coast or the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to catch fish.

Hey Hector, there are lots of beach access points between ocean shores and Moclips, any of which will get you to the surf. Mostly surf perch out there, but the occassional oddball. Large Pyramid weights and a long casting pole are required. They also make a "dropper" rig with two or more hooks. Razor clam necks are the preferred bait because they stay on well, but anything juicy works.

Langara Fishing Lodge on Hadai Gwai (Sp?)Island on the far North Island off of British Columbia. Awesome resort with a wide variety of salmon, Halibut, Lingcod and other rockfish makes a lot of memories.

The Satsop is a tributary to the Chehalis along the coast of Washington. There is a handicap fishing pier on the Chehalis just below the Satsop. Also there is a gravel bar/boat launch under the highway 101/12 bridge where you can park right next to the river.

Technically no red snapper on west coast, they are yelloweye rockfish.

They have a very dense flesh, and very easy to overcook. Because they are bottom feeders, they are really unique and not fishy tasting. Very tasty as fish and chips.

Sturgeon population was doing great until very large Stellar Sea lions learned that they were an easy meal while congregating below Bonneville dam. Even worse, they went after the older, broodstock aged fish and generally just ate the bellies. Help to get rid of the invasive sea lions.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fish+identification+chart&qpvt=fish+identification+chart&form=IGRE&first=1&scenario=ImageBasicHover

Try cutting and pasting this web link - a good place to start.

Jwid -
I finally found the post. An Ichthyologist I am not. Also a saltwater guy, not freshwater species. However, I do know that some of these "species" will interbreed in some circumstances. Rainbow Trout and Cutthroat Trout for example can interbreed and the off spring will have a wide range of characteristics from both species, making an accurate identification impossible.

Well, I guess I qualify for this (retired fisheries biologist) - I've been on and fishing Puget Sound for 70 years and have observed many changes in both the fish and the ecosystem. In the 50's and 60's, I used to fish for pogies and pile perch right off the docks. The pilings (all creosoted by the way) were loaded with barnacles, mussels and tube worms. Shortly after, many spots in Puget Sound were declared Toxic waste sites and clean-up began. Now with the water much cleaner and less toxics, there are no barnacles, mussels or tube worms left - even on the very same pilings. Basically the whole ecosystem has changed, starting with the lowest levels of the food-web. Unfortunately, this means there are fewer herring and other small fish for the big boys to eat. Bottomfish numbers have declined, Lingcod, true cod and other rockfish have all but disappeared. Salmon were slower to decline because they were largely supported by hatcheries and as long as there was enough food for the small salmon when they released them they still survived well. Fast forward to the 90's and to now and it has been a dramatic decline. Now even the hatchery fish can't find food when they are released and their survival rate has crashed. Tagged hatchery Coho salmon in the early 80's would have return rates near 20 percent. Compare that to todays rates of 1 or 2 percent and you can see that something has changed.

So what has changed that effects the entire food-web? Ocean acidification is now being looked at as the primary culprit - and in my opinion started having impacts much earlier than anyone new what it was. - For example, the mussels, barnacles and tube--worms disappearing from pilings.

Bottom line is that there is very little left to fish for in Puget Sound, except for the few returning hatchery salmon.

I love Power Pro lines and have it most of my deep water reels. It has advantages in deep water, where there is current. It is very thin for its weight limit, so there is very little drag and it does not stretch and therefore better for setting a hook at depth. The dis-advantages are that if you hook up on the bottom, it is very strong and hard to break free, and secondly it is notorious for tangling and I have learned it is easier and much quicker to just sacrifice the short piece of line and re-tie it. I do not know how it would cast, but tangling might be an issue.

Many varieties of these spoons - hammered brass is my favorite. Most also work well in Saltwater. Since they are simulating small baitfish almost every fish will bite them - including trout, salmon and rockfish.

A couple of other pictures - just because - obviously I'm a saltwater kind of guy.

My Grandson's first Chinook fishing trip

Kona, Hawaii is 70 degrees everyday and a wide variety of Marlin, Tuna and Ahi right out of the harbor.

How did you do Kerry?