My son and I are camping at Riverside State Park in Spokane Washington next Tuesday thru Sunday. Anyone have information about fishing at the park...like where and what gear for what kind of fish? Also have Monday to go somewhere else and fish. Kettle Falls for Northern Pike sounds cool but we don't have a boat and the marina is closed according to the website. Anyone around there want to take a couple guys out for 1 day? I believe the Colville nation is still paying a bounty of $10 a head for pike; you could keep it all as a thank you (or we could kick you a couple bucks).

Barbless hooks makes releaseing fish pretty easy. It also makes you a better fisher by teaching you to keep tension on the line. Switching to artificials will also help; fish tend to take these more in the mouth than swallowing. If you stay with bait and they are hooked behind the back of the mouth, cut the line and leave the hook in. There is much solid evidence that the survival rate is pretty good.

With many things in life, experience has shown me that if I keep doing the same thing the same way I'm going to get the same results. This is good if I like the results I'm getting; but in a case like this, I would try something different. Clearly you can get around a bit on the computer...watch some YouTube videos. There are thousands of them and they all have potential to teach you something. Sometimes they'll show you what to do and sometimes what not to do. But either way you will have some options to change up what you're doing and how you do it. Good luck and I bet we'll soon see a photo of your first catch!

Back in the mid-90's wife number 2 and I took a week vacation at Twin Lakes near Republic in Eastern Washington. While fishing from a boat we had rented, she made a cast and as it arced through the air a sparrow flew under it and was captured as the lead hit the water and brought the line down. She hauled it into the boat half drowned but alive; we got it untangled from the line and set it on the little shelf in the bow where it sat for 30 minutes before it recovered enough to fly away.

I still sometimes wonder what the odds are of crossing something the diameter of 6# test over a 4 inch bird in flight 50 or 60 feet away. Just goes to show that even if the odds are infinitesimal...it is still possible!

Just for the record, this is the same woman who hooked a seal while trolling for salmon in the San Juan Islands of Washington. A slightly differrent ending...long-line release.

That's very cool. I've been thinking of doing the same kind of thing for some while now. Maybe I'll get to it now that I'm retired...