Author: The Troutist

Posted: 7/6/2012

These past few weeks have been very busy and yes productive I might add. I will say that surprises me a bit because it seems like I’ve been chasing my tail. Promoting my book has turned into a full time job and has taken on a life of its own. I will get my reviews sometime this week and I am hoping for the best, the preliminary reviews have been very good and book sales are doing very well th...

Author: Pete Heley

Posted: 6/28/2012

The last fishing days of the spring all-depth halibut season will be Friday and Saturday (June 29th and 30th). By choosing Thursday as the day to drop when all indications were that the quota would be exceded by allowing three days of fishing, the ODFW only gave retired and non-working anglers twice the chance to get a halibut trip in that someone working a normal Monday through Friday job would h...

Author: Dave Graybill

Posted: 6/16/2012

We’ve had some wild weather in our region and that has made it tough on anglers trying to take advantage of the many fishing opportunities. I have been lucky, dodging most of the rain and wind storms, and have put more of those big Lake Chelan kokanee in my Jetcraft. I got out twice for kokanee last week, and last Friday with my dentist and fishing buddy Brian and his brother-in-law Dave was...

Author: Pete Heley

Posted: 6/14/2012

Another all-depth halibut opener will run beginning this Thursday (June14-16). Since only 52 percent of the central Oregon coast quota has been landed, there should be more openers coming up. The few Umpqua River spring chinook anglers still trying for them caught some fish last week - including a 41 pounder. The amount of suspended moss floating down the river allows only a few minutes of fish...

Author: Pete Heley

Posted: 6/8/2012

Over the last several years, the crappie fishing along the Oregon Coast has gone from fairly bad to really, really bad. There are undoubtedly a number of factors for this decline, but the major one is probably that when it comes to crappie fisheries near the Oregon Coast, yellow perch tend to outcomplete them in almost every case. As warmwater fish go, crappies are relatively poor swimmers and...

Author: Pete Heley

Posted: 6/8/2012

Although a few diehard spring chinook fishermen, willing to deal with the increasing amount of moss in the Umpqua River, are still catching some fish, the best recent salmon-fishing news has been a rather consistent bite in the ocean between the Umpqua River Bar and Charleston. Over last weekend, when sport anglers could get out, they had consistent chinook action as long as they were fishing in w...

Author: Dave Graybill

Posted: 6/4/2012

I’ve had a busy week sampling some of the fishing opportunities here in our region. My travels took me from Fish Lake near Lake Wenatchee to the Columbia below Chief Joseph Dam and finally to Lake Chelan. I had great fishing at all of these locations, but the big news for anglers is the fantastic kokanee fishing at Lake Chelan. Not only are the kokanee plentiful they are consistently bigger tha...

Author: Dave Graybill

Posted: 5/19/2012

My road trip down to the lower Columbia River was great. I had the best weather ever for my visit to fish for spring salmon. I got to fish both at Drano Lake and off the mouth of the Wind River this time. The springer run is arriving very late this year, but there were enough fish around for fair to good fishing for the hundreds of anglers that turn out to try for this first salmon run of the ...

Author: Bob Johansen

Posted: 5/19/2012

WESTERN WASHINGTON’S THURSTON COUNTY, HOME OF THE STATE CAPITOL AND THE GOVENOR’S MANSON, IS ALSO HOME TO 108 LAKES, MANY OF THEM WITH PUBLIC ACCESS AND POPULATIONS OF BLACK BASS For the bass aficionado, with the urge to explore, Washington’s Thurston County may be a good place to start. With 108 lowland lakes, many with public access and thriving populations of largemouth bass, it may be enou...

Author: Dave Graybill

Posted: 5/4/2012

The weather that greeted opening weekend anglers on the lowland opener couldn’t have been better. Clear and calm were the words to describe the conditions throughout the region. Combined with catches of bigger than usual rainbow, this had to be one of the better openers in years. My wife, Eileen, and I left the Jetcraft at home and hit the road with our camera gear on the opening weekend. ...

Author: Dave Graybill

Posted: 4/28/2012

I haven’t said much about it yet, but there is an effort on the part of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to improve the experience of anglers on our inland waters. There is great potential for growth of the numbers of people who enjoy fishing at our many trout lakes, and to attract them, the department is taking steps to make it more attractive. Through surveys they have found that...

Author: Bob Johansen

Posted: 4/2/2012

DUCK LAKE LARGEMOUTH AND PACIFIC OCEAN RAZOR CLAMS March and April, in Washington, is a great time of the year for razor clams, largemouth bass and early spring camping -- especially if you are camping in a motor home, trailer or a nice warm camper. The Ocean Shores area, located on the Washington coast offers these outdoor opportunities and more. Although other camping facilities are av...