Spooled: A Fishing Blog

I like fish that can inspire awe and fascination among the most stalwart non-anglers I know. These fish tend to be large, or cool looking, or have any desirable trait that makes them interesting to those not normally involved in the sport. As you might guess, I have caught very few of these kinds of fish. The fish I generally target tend to be small and from some muddy ditch next to an inner-city freeway. To be honest, there aren't many species in the Pacific Northwest that can really inspire "awe." Salmon and Steelhead are recognizable and beautiful, but people are used to seeing them in grocery stores on a daily basis. Bottomfish look like Spongebob rejects. Many freshwater fish are colorful and/or fun to catch, but tend to fall in the "cute" category. Except one. I honestly cannot fathom pictures like the one above. To imagine that a predominately freshwater (many live in saltwater for parts of their lives) fish can grow to the size of a small whale is...

When most people think of spring break, what comes to mind is drunken teenagers flailing at one another at raves while blasting out electronic dance music that can barely be heard over the incoming police sirens. The closest I've been to participating in a "rave" was the smelt fishing incident a few weeks ago, and the memories from that are ones I would like to permanently suppress. Speaking of suppressing memories, it seems as if most of my spring breaks consist of getting skunked in the cold. One particular memory was from practically getting skunked into the next time zone while salmon fishing in Seattle with some guide whose name I "forgot." First, I'd like to say that getting skunked with a guide is far worse than getting skunked by yourself. With guides, you expect to catch fish, and the fact that no fish ever continuously bite 24/7 skips your mind while you're enduring what turned out to be a cold, expensive boat ride. However, getting skunked by ...