The Way it Used to Be?

[Andrew]

I received a book entitled The Gigantic Book of Fishing Stories for Christmas. It's around 800 pages long, and I'm nowhere near finished, but over the past week I've read through a good number of historic writings on trout, tarpon, atlantic salmon, etc. I've thoroughly enjoyed the reading, more so than most fishing-related literature I've read recently. I think the reason is that the writing is all about fishing. There is occasional mention of conservation issues (e.g., the importance of releasing salmon you will not eat), but the majority of the stories I've read deal with the challenge of angling itself. There are few allusions to "the good old days" because many of these writings are from the good old days.

It's occurred to me that I never really took part in fishing without politics. I don't suppose that I should have - I've been steelhead fishing for around 10 years (catching for more like 5 or 6), and I gather many anglers were already very discouraged about the state of our fisheries by the mid 1990s. I do remember that the Green River and several other Puget Sound streams were open into March "back then" and I seem to recall seeing more fish caught when I first started than I do now (although I generally fish around fewer anglers now than I did then).

Although I enjoy my time on the water and there are a few days in memory where I've nearly been able to forget the present state of our fisheries, I spend a considerable portion of most trips either thinking about or discussing with a friend the challenges facing rivers, steelhead, and the future of angling. I don't mind this - the present challenges facing fish (and therefore fishing) are impossible to ignore anyway - but it is nice to escape the reality of angling every once in awhile.

Other than the closure of some Puget Sound seasons and other changes to regulations, I doubt angling was really much different in 2000 than it is in 2010, so I wouldn't say I've seen much change while I've been fishing. But I know some of you have been fishing for much longer than I have. So I ask, how long have you been fishing, what was it like when you started, and what changes have you seen?

[Fast- eddy]

Great call Andrew! Going to think about this one for a bit but will respond soon.

[Big Buck]

i started steelhead fishing in the early 70;s struggled real hard the first few years lost lots and lots of gear but finally started to hook fish ..at the time i had good friends who have a cabin on the upper hoh, now i have two,so i had access to what this day is still my favorite river.then the divorce,7 years between marriages my work ethic went all to heck ,but it could not have been at a better time,i started catching lots of fish and the more i caught the less i worked....then year 1985 almost every river in the st. was stuffffffed with fish. that same year i spent 3 days on some hood canal steams hamma hamma ,dosewallups,duckabush and the skok.caught one at each river and 5 on the dose.it was a hard year to find a stream in shape and not catch fish.at that time and the few years before and after a late winter float down any op river would more often than not produce double digits for two guys of big fat nates. for me and the group i fished with it slowly became harder and harder to consistently catch good numbers of fish ,but dam it was allways a blast trying. still is....in 1993 i moved to e. wa. sold my drift boat after a few long drives to the grand ronde. still enjoy some good fishing on the touchet and tucannon .the numbers are much better than the quality...and still make it over to the op.a few times a year but now i dont have to row

[Chum Man]

all i can say is, i wish i had been the age i am now, knowing what i do now, back when i started steelheading in '91.

my first couple years steelhead fishing were largely on the nisqually, since my dad didn't mind lugging me down there(being 10 minutes from the house).  if i was lucky i'd get to tag along to the cowlitz a couple times and maybe a trip to the kalama or wynoochee.

biggest thing i would go back and change is to fish all the little rivers we used to drive past on the way to the ones we fished back then.

[Juan de Fuca]

10 speed bike, Walkman with Appetite for Destruction plugged into the tape deck, acid washed jeans (probably a little highwater cause my legs were grow'n and certainly wet from the February rain), crossed the County line headed north. Rolled over and past the bridge I would soon land my first chrome bullet, off to the corner store for 10cent Lemonheads and Jawbreakers. Back to the bridge and creek, green corkie and pink yarn just as instructed by the mysterious man a year prior. One chrome bullet lost on an epic upstream run under that bridge. Second one landed in the tight brushy toilet bowling hole below the bridge. Sea lice intact, 6lb hen, to this day I do not know if it was clipped or not. I slipped it back in the water and it swam off, no photo, that was it. Back on the 10 speed to make it back in time for Growing Pains.

This was my second steelhead brought to hand.

A few years back I drove over this creek, there was a sign posted warning people that the water was polluted and unsuitable for swimming/fishing etc...WDFW closed this creek to steelheaad fishing a long time before this sign was posted. This bridge and creek shall no longer be a gateway for unusual circumstances involving steelhead and mysterious folks.

Then there was the time I heard about bigfoot......

[Finfollower]

After reading JDF's post I had to think farther back. You see I remember everything he's talking about with the exception of the river, Mallory was super hot by the way!

With sadness I must make this confession. I contributed to the destruction of fisheries as a kid with my mother and step father. Back then (early 80's) it was nothing to stand on the log jams pulling up rock fish. After a while true cod were discovered. Used to be a quick run inside the harbor line up with the hangar and drop the Mooch-a-Jig. Fill the boat with meat, even catch the occasional king salmon while fishing for cod. No such thing as a limit back then that I knew of. I remember the salmon getting farther away. I also remember the moritorium placed on fishing. Yes we used all the fish we caught. Helped with grocery bills to feed 5 kids at the time. That does not change the amount of impact we had. There's no fish like there was in the harbor. Some of that was by other actions, but we played our part. Funny thing is last year for the first time in a long time I hooked a fish I had not seen. It was a true cod, a baby, but one none the less. Had not seen one in that area for a good 20 years. Made me feel like there's hope after all.

[Big Buck]

two other outstanding times in the steelhead past, mother nature played a major part in..im sure some of you members will remember the summer after mt. st.helens blew, all the toutle, cowlitz,and kalama summer runs were all packed in the kalama at the same time, it was packed with fisherman but way more packed with fish....then a few years later they reopened the south fork toutle on fri. and sat. only, man what a great fishery, there were many drifts on the river, that when you arrived first thing in morning you would expect to get bit on the first cast and some times the second and even the third...and for the most part we had the hole river to our selves ..we were in steelhead heaven.

[BigCohoTom]

I started fishing for steelhead about 25 years ago.  The biggest change that I've seen are more and more "No Trespassing Signs".  Bank access is getting a lot harder than it used to be.

[Grizz]

Tom you are right about that. But, as a riverfront property owner I can say this;

If the jerks who decided to tresspass (without at least asking) and fish from my property didn't leave a pile of pop cans, bait containers, candy bar wrappers, man-poo-piles, and other random garbage I probably wouldn't have a problem with letting them fish there. Hell, at least I'd have a fishing buddy or two while I'm out there. But alas it isn't so. I've had people try everything from dumping garbage to stealing my car topper to starting bon fires. I feel like I'm constantly on watch.

The bottom line is that if people walked up, knocked on the door, and asked permission first, the chance I'd tell them no is slim to none. So long as no damage was done or no garbage was left. I'm not some mizer who thinks that the world is his and have no problem letting others enjoy a wonderful resource, so long as they respect it.

[GOFISH1]

Tom you are right about that. But, as a riverfront property owner I can say this;

If the jerks who decided to tresspass (without at least asking) and fish from my property didn't leave a pile of pop cans, bait containers, candy bar wrappers, man-poo-piles, and other random garbage I probably wouldn't have a problem with letting them fish there. Hell, at least I'd have a fishing buddy or two while I'm out there. But alas it isn't so. I've had people try everything from dumping garbage to stealing my car topper to starting bon fires. I feel like I'm constantly on watch.

The bottom line is that if people walked up, knocked on the door, and asked permission first, the chance I'd tell them no is slim to none. So long as no damage was done or no garbage was left. I'm not some mizer who thinks that the world is his and have no problem letting others enjoy a wonderful resource, so long as they respect it.

[GOFISH1]

oops...............totally agree with that Grizzly. Most of us here would be doing the same thing!

[NWRetics]

Griz you forgot 150yds of mono balled up and strung up and down the bank, ziplocks w/ rotton skains,  50 feet of braid, corkies, yarn hanging from the trees across from you

[Andrew]

Some interesting replies so far. I have heard numerous times about 1985-86 and the "can't miss" scenario that occurred on the Puyallup and Green those years. I can only imagine what some of the state's choicer waters must have been like then. Any of you more seasoned anglers care to elaborate? I gather many on this board began fishing in the '70s. A very good angler I know who started steelhead fishing in the '70s told me is that even back then the old timers were discouraged about the state of steelhead, only they talked about the '40s and '50s as the "good old days." I hate to imagine becoming an old timer and bragging about this past decade in my later years. Actually, I just hate to imagine becoming an old timer. 

On a different note, JDF has mentioned bigfoot in the past... maybe one of these days he'll cough up the full story.

Andrew

[Big Buck]

most will not believe a word of this, but here we go .yes in 85 the puyallup was one of the best rivers in the st.....a man i know who at the time lived in fife..for around 2 months he had his old wood drift boat tied up below clarks cr. bridge, he fished the tide almost every day..he and the people that fished with him boated just over 300 winter steelhead,he had many 20 fish days,,, even with the tribes netting just down stream

[Jeff]

I cannot relate any stories of the good old days steelheading, even though I qualify as an old timer - it's not so bad, Andrew - there are advantages.  I moved to the area in the summer of 1985 as Uncle Boeing for some unexplained reason hired me out of college.  My buddy Bruce and I hit a couple in the Green that year, but didn't have any mentors, and did have kids, so steelheading faded away until about 5 years ago.

I will relate the story of a couple of rivers I grew up fishing that I think are related to our current state of native fish.  I grew up in Tumalo Oregon (google it!) - it's between Bend and Redmond on the Deschutes.  I fished the local river a lot, but caught mostly stocked fish with a brown thrown in here and there for good measure.  The two rivers we fished a lot as a family were the Upper Deschutes near the headwaters and the Crooked River below Prineville reservoir.  We got dialed in to both of these streams and caught hundreds of trout.  The Upper Deschutes has brook and both native and stocked rainbow; the Crooked River is not stocked where we fish it and has rainbow and cutthroat and some hybrids of the two.  As we grew older and realized the big ones were as "pan fryable" as the small ones we began to release them, but I think the damage had been done.  We weren't the only anglers on the river, and trout really aren't that hard to catch.  By the time I graduated high school in 1981, we had stopped fishing the Upper Deschutes because once the stocked trout were gone, you would catch 3 and 4 dinks and tons of whitefish.  We used to keep a bucket full of the whitefish if it was early and put them in the garden, I think the limit was 25.  We still go to the Crooked River to this day, but a good day is a handful of fish, all released, where we used to catch 50 a day and keep 3 to 5.  We now also catch a bunch of whitefish there where we used to catch none.

So I know there are many more factors to our ocean going mykiss, but I have no doubt that we overfished the rivers I grew up on and allowed a less desirable species to take up the resources the trout used to.  So similar to Zogs story in his spoon book about the impact he felt he had on a summer run fishery, the nates have been overfished by many, the sporties included.  I was amazed that the 1 nate retention was passed and believe they should all be released.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Jeff