Yeah, I said it… I told Tobeck last week that "I almost wish we were staying home to hit the springers rather than going to Costa Rica." In retrospect, that might have been a short-sighted statement… We've all seen pictures and heard the stories of the incredible fishing, scenery and weather in Central America, but…
Decisions, decisions… Outdoor Line co-host Robbie Tobeck and I had been just dying to hit the Columbia, but by all reports fishing was just BRUTAL! Flush with our success last week on the saltwater, we had decided to just stay home, work the blackmouth over and let the big river wait a week. Enter my friend…
Robert Lee Tobeck (born March 6, 1970) is a former National Football League center who last played for the Seattle Seahawks. Tobeck played 6 seasons for Seattle after being acquired as a free agent from the Atlanta Falcons after signing as a rookie in 1993. Tobeck started his college career after accepting a scholarship to…
Every year towards the tail end of the Puget Sound blackmouth season some larger chinook enter the catch. These are the slabs we all seek on derby day but very few of us consistently catch. The situation is complicated by the fact that catches & fishing effort during the "doldrums" of winter chinook season are…
As mentioned in a previous blog post, 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…
You never know what you're gonna get when you meet someone in person that you've only seen on TV. Back a couple years ago, I had a chance to shoot a few episodes of The Outdoor Channel's "Western Sportfishing with Lee Horsley". Lee Horsley was TV's "Matt Houston" a private investigator that was something of…
Love it, hate it, look forward to it or surprised to see it come each and every January, The Western Washington Sportsman Show and Seattle Boat Show are HERE! Personally, I enjoy the shows and even though they involve a bit more work for me, there is still something I learn each and every year!…
It's been one of "those" years for local steelhead anglers. The hatchery fish were late and spring runoff -thanks to El Nino- is early. Fortunately so are the wild steelhead! After taking something of a year "off" last year, pulling a no-show on many Puget Sound streams, reports of solid numbers of wild fish are…
Winter weather… What a pain. The media has all kinds of weather buzz words: “We’re ramping up the showers and ramping up the temperatures which will ramp up the snow levels which in turn will…. Wait for it… Ramp up the river levels! My least favorite weather buzz word?… besides “ramp”… Pineapple express. We’re talking five inches…
It's no secret that several populations of chinook salmon -North Puget Sound in particular- are in trouble. Unwise land-use practices, over harvest and the ever increasing population of Western Washington have pushed the Puget Sound chinook to the point of an ESA or Endangered Species Act listing. Fortunately, efforts to save habitat for the endangered…