Eric Vanhofwegen with a chrome Southeast Alaska chinook he caught underneath a flock of diving birds. Bird Activity Weren’t they a band back in the 60’s? And now they eat fish, go figure. Watching bird behavior on the saltwater can be a good indicator of what’s going on below the surface. The most obvious of…
It's been a whirlwind since I left Washington on May 24th for my annual journey to Southeast Alaska where I run saltwater charters for the summer. The drive north this year was easy and thankfully uneventful. I did run into some wildlife along the way, including this good sized black bear that was grazing in…
Getting up early on June first is something of a Northwesterners rite of passage and if you're going to launch your boat or get a good spot on the banks of the Sky…. the earlier the better! With a forecast of 15,500 chinook heading for the Snohomish system and the Skykomish's usual complement of summer…
With chinook fisheries opening up in Puget Sound, out on the coast and going strong in British Columbia and Alaska, a technique refresher is definitely in order. Known as the "remote" or "dummy flasher" rig, this downrigger setup is a great way to reap all the fish attraction benefits of a flasher while enjoying the…
I wish I could claim this angling feat as my own…. but alas…. or rather ALASKA! It took a couple of friends of mine in Sitka, Alaska all of 600 seconds to hook and land this dandy load of South East chrome! The word from up north right now is unanimous… We are looking at…
By Jeff Lund. Making lists is the first step in missing the point, because it only increases the chances of looking back, judging based on check marks and failing to realize that life had its own plan and it would have been pretty great if you wouldn’t have been so preoccupied. Same goes for results….
I had the privilege of joining Robbie Tobeck this past Sunday for the 4th Annual C.A.S.T. for Kids Fish and Feast charity fundraiser at the VMAC in Renton, Washington. Jim Owens and the staff at C.A.S.T. once again put on a first class event for the kids, rounding up a bunch of the Seahawk players…
It was 1915 when "Grandpa" Wooldridge (1896-1986) built his first river boat to make that first-ever float down Oregon's Rogue River. The evolution of Wooldridge Boats from the past to the present was laced with many firsts,… …like the first-ever trip UP the Rogue River in 1947 … with a prop, of course, no jets…
Washington halibut fisherman were streaming into Neah Bay today with a sense of urgency. Fisherman get just four days to land halibut this year in Area 4 with openers on May 13th, 15th, 20th, and 22nd and the possibility of additional days on June 3rd and 5th if any of the May days get weathered…
Early in the run Bill Swann of Swanny’s Fishing was fishing cut plug herring and knocking the daylights out of Chinook below the I-5 bridge on the Columbia near Portland. Now that the lower river is closed, however, Bill has shifted into switch-a-rooni mode and his bait cooler holds something else besides herring. The…