Left Coat Hydro Report Vol 3

[fishmonger]

I have a fishing buddy from work, and his "home" river is the Washougal River. For those of you who fish for Steelhead on Great Lakes waters, the Washougal is the birth water for Skamania Steelhead. None caught yet, but that will change. Here is a nice little run that should hold fish:
http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/101141.JPG (http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=101141&c=500&z=1)

There are smallies in the Columbia, so I sometimes go out after work for a bit:
http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/101140-big.JPG (http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=101140&c=500&z=1)

There are also White Sturgeon in the Columbia, they can get up to 15'. We went out last Saturday, and caught 36 sturgeon. There is a 45"-60" slot limit on them, smaller are called shakers, and bigger are called oversize. We caught 35 shakers, and 1 oversize. It was 7 feet long, and 250-300 lbs. It totally kicked 2 grown men's butts. One guy could only pull on it for 10 minutes before it felt like your body was going to explode. It made many unbelievable runs. It just flat out hurts to try and stop it when it is running:
http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/101136.JPG (http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=101136&c=500&z=1)

Here is my buddy John, a true Hydro candidate if there ever was one, we were on his boat. Look at the bend in this tuna rod:
http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/101134.JPG (http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=101134&c=500&z=1)

The beast:
http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/101137.JPG (http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=101137&c=500&z=1)



Summer Steelhead are here, and so are summer Chinook. Anybody want to come visit?

FM

[THE EG]

The only thing that bothered me in that "Improvements to NGTO" thread was fishmonger's specific comments that nobody replies to his threads. That made me think that I often do not show my appreciation for threads that I enjoy such as this. Or others like rbailydav's stories, Spinner's forays into the Wisconsin meadows, Coloradofisher's updates out west or a myriad of others.

So here's a little story that my father always told that is kind of appropriate for this. Our whole family could relate.
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There was a seven year old boy who since he was born had never spoke. His family had taken him to all the specialists throughout the country and nobody could determine what was wrong with him. They tested him for autism, speech deficiencies, hearing problems and mental problems but nothing ever was determined. He just wouldn't speak.

One day the family was sitting at the breakfast table when the boy looked up and said matter of factly, "You burnt the toast." His family was dumbfounded as if possibly they had imagined what they had just heard. His father looked at the boy and said hesitantly, "Did you say something?" Again the seven year old repeated, "You burnt the toast." The whole family shouted in excitement at hearing the boy speak his first words.

After a moment, the father again looked down at the boy and quizzically asked, "Son, we have had hearing tests, speech tests and even mental tests done to determine why you would not speak. Tell us what was the matter.

The boy looked up at his father and said, "Up till now, everything has been OK.";)
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The point being that if you take a look to the side there are at least 80 folks that took a look at this but nobody commented. There simply wasn't any "burnt toast".

I appreciate NGTO as a retreat from the chaos of normal life. And as an admin I can safely say there is no way we will ever be able at best to keep this message board from being anything but pumpernickel.:)

Again, I have appreciated all of your posts from out west. I still liked the sturgeon fishers launching their bait the best. It reminded me of when we used to tie on balloons to float our shark bait out with the tide into the deep holes off the St. Simons pier a very long time ago.

[hawgleg]

Nice pics fishmonger. Beautiful smallie!

[fishmonger]

Thanks guys.

Bill, I appreicate the burnt toast analogy, that was pretty good. However, being one who has drawn some fire in the past (really), it is nice to be addressed once in a while when I'm not in trouble ;) .

Thanks again,
FM