I get these all the time.



A friend's mother-in-law lived near Vanderhoof, British Columbia, Canada which is 600 plus miles north of Seattle. We fished Nulki Lake for Rainbow trout. There were 5 of us in two boats. Various lures/bait would work but the best was trolling with a large Ford Fender and a worm. One time my buddy and I were in my boat. I had caught 3 nice 14-16" trout. Then I caught a 22" trout. I put the trout on my stringer and for some reason the stringer came loose and all 4 fish went overboard. I was sick. Biggest trout I have ever caught. I ended up getting another 5 trout all in the 14-16" range. My buddy caught 1 fish. The other 3 people in another boat caught their limits.

We watched an eagle catch a fish. After a while it dropped the fish and started to fly away. An Osprey saw the fish and decided he wanted it. The Eagle saw that and said "Hey, what are you doing?". The eagle started chasing the Osprey. They were fighting and screeching directly over us. Finally the Osprey started flying away with the eagle chasing it. Then a second eagle got into the chase. Shortly after, we saw the Osprey drop the fish and fly off. Cool to watch.

Back in the 60's, 70's we fished the Deschutes River between Olympia and Tenino WA. For bait, we would catch crawdads in China Creek that flowed under Centralia's streets. Then about 7-8 PM we would head to the Deschutes and fish until midnight. We would go our separate ways and fish. Caught a lot of Cutthroat trout. Sometimes after not getting a bite for a while, I would reel in only to find that I had been fishing with my hook up in a tree! Sometimes got spooked by noises in the dark.

I remember another time I, my brother, and 3 friends camped there. We did a lot of fishing during day and early night. Didn't catch too many, but had a good time. One day we were skinny dipping and heard a noise across the river. Turned out to be a teenage gal with her parents on horses. Most of us stayed standing up and my brother was the only one that was smart and ducked in the water?

On the third night it started raining hard. We didn't have tents. Walked to a farmhouse at 2:00 AM and called my Dad to pick us up. He never let me forget that.

Another time my Dad, wife, and I fished further up the river during the daytime. My wife and I walked to the river while my Dad was getting his gear ready. First cast, I caught an 18" trout. I walked back up to the truck and held the fish up and told my Dad "See how big the fish are here"? That portion of the river didn't have a lot of good banks to fish from and that was the only fish we caught.

I used to fish the Cowlitz River for Salmon in the Fall. One Labor day two friend and I were trolling for Salmon in the Columbia River just past the mouth of the Cowlitz. I caught a 19# salmon. My two friends had got their lines tangled up and were trying to get them untangled. Meanwhile I started trolling again and a few minutes later I caught a 27# salmon. They still were getting the gear untangled. Not too many salmon caught by fisherman that day but I got lucky and caught 46#'s of salmon in 1/2 hour! Back at the boat launch we met a couple from Minnesota. While the husband went to get the trailer, I used her camera to take a picture of her holding up my two salmon She wasn't going to tell him until the got the film developed. I wonder what he thought when he saw the pictures.

The worst I had was when it was so cold we had to wait until spring to get a fire going.

Years ago I worked on a drawbridge over the Cowlitz River near Kelso WA. I fished from that bridge while I was working (tough job but someone had to do it). While i was fishing for harvest trout, a boat towing a skier kept getting closer and closer to my line. I told them nicely that I was fishing and they were getting too close. Each time they came by they would get closer until finally the skier caught the line and ended up getting a treble hook in his side. i thought of setting the hook, but realized he wasn't a keeper! I quickly released the bail on the reel and luckily the boat driver was watching and stopped the boat.

These harvest trout are is a searun cutthroat trout. The meat is pink and the ones I caught were 14-21". Sometimes I would use a lure but the best luck was when i used a worm with a little bit of white meat from a chub.

Wow. I am impressed. I can't believe what some people can do when they are disabled. The mental attitude is what it is all about. I guess I shouldn't complain as much when I don't feel like doing something. I'll just think of what he is capable of doing and hope it encourages me.

Sorry to hear that.

Food is essential for survival.

Back in the early 70's a teacher that I had had in college left Tacoma in a trimaran with his wife and brother-in-law. The were headed to somewhere in Mexico where the Bro-in-law was going to do some missionary work. Ran into a storm off California coast and their boat flipped. The boat stayed afloat upside down. They were able to open a hatch that was on the bottom of the boat. The next day the Bro-in-law threw most of the food overboard because the Lord was going to save them! The wife died a month or so later. 72 days later the two men were rescued and taken to Hawaii. The Bro-in-law died a week later. You can read about this harrowing journey in a book called "Lost!: A Harrowing True Story of Disaster at Sea".

Back in the 80's i started fishing for sockeye salmon in the south part of Lake Wasington near Seattle. At first, you had to be there at daylight with $30 worth of terminal gear. Then someone found out you could use a bare hook about 16" behind a small silver or white flasher. the bare hooks are red or blue or black. Someone mentioned that the hooks may be similar to the bloodline of a shrimp. I worked close by and i had my boat at a marina nearby. We would go out, catch our limit of 6 fish each, go home and process the fish, and I would be at work by 11 AM. That year there were estmated 600,000 fish returning. Some years there weren't enough fish returning so they wouldn't have a sockeye season or the limits were lowered.

One year i fished for chinook salmon in the north part of the same lake. I used a red hook with a larger flasher and got two salmon. One was about 15# and the other was about 25#. the big one stuck out both ends of my ice chest. It was 40" long but not super thick. people that saw it said that it probably would have been over 35-40# when it first came into the lake. it hadn't rained for a while and the fish weren' going into the river because of low water so it probably had been in the lake a while. i should have released it. the meat was almost white instead of the normal red/pink color.

i was computer system administrator and systems technician for most of my career. my regret is that i traveled a lot. if had to do it again i would get a job that involved little travel. it started out "when you going to be home daddy?". then it became "see you Friday". missed out on a lot of my kids growing up.

Reminds me of when our two adopted kids were 5 and 2 years old. My wife, daughter, and myself have a little Native American in our heritage. Since we were part indians and our son wasn't, he thought he was part cowboy. We had a good laugh.

Reminds me of our 4 year old granddaughter when my wife was in her early 40's.
Grand daughter says to my wife "You're old."
My wife says "No I am not"
Grand daughter say " Yes you are, look at your face!"

Current 4 yr old granddaughter:
She is looking at my wife's head with a magnifying glass and says "Grandma you have a big head"
Her mother says "That must mean that grandma has a big brain."
My wife says "That must mean that I am very smart"
Grand daughter looks at my wife's head again with the magnifying glass and says "Your head is not really that big you must not be very smart!"

Swinomish channel at LaConner, wa. we used to have a boat at the shelter bay marina.

Three geese hunters were hunting near the Canadian border. Each of them had shot one goose.
As they were leaving a Game Warden came up to them.
He asked the first hunter where he was from.
"Washington State" the man said.
The Game Warden took the goose and blew into its butt. He said "this goose is from Canada and I'll give you a ticket for not have the proper license".
He asked the second hunter where he was from.
The hunter said he was from Canada.
The Game Warden took the goose and blew into its butt. He said this goose is from the USA so I'll give you a ticket for not have the proper license.
He asked the third hunter where he was from.
The third hunter bent over and said "you tell me".