Conference wahoo::fishing

    Well Russ, you're in good shape.  I moved to Bellevue a year ago
    and have never been happier at fishing in my life...even when I
    lived in Florida.  The bass fishing here is maybe the same to a
    little bit better than New England, but I've never been totally
    into that.  I'm more of a meat fisherman than a catch and release
    type, although I do enjoy bass fishing when I get the chance.
    
    You will have a myriad of fish to choose from here.
    
    First, the ultimate challenge is the almighty Steelhead.  The Steelhead
    is an anadromous trout.  They will reach the 30 lbs size in 3 years!
    I haven't nailed one yet, but I have fought a couple.  My friends
    have caught some and there is another noter in this file who has
    expertise in this area.  You need a Steelhead punchcard and a fishing
    license to be legal.  You can get them in the Snohomish and Skykomish
    (closest) among other rivers in WA and OR.  The rigs one uses for
    Steelheading are strange.  You'll need to talk to some people to
    get the right ideas.
    
    Trout in general are great.  There are Rainbows and Browns as well
    as Cutthroats.  The rainbows get huge here, frequently measured
    in pounds and not inches.  The cutthroat is the biggest that you
    will find around here.  Lake Sammamish (near Bellevue) is one of
    the best spots in the state for Cutthroats.  I've seen pictures
    os them that are over 10 lbs.
    
    The reel thing, though, is Salmon.  I love them.  To see these monsters
    jump out of the water and dance is just exhilerating.  To see your
    line go slack as they swim at you at top speed is just such a thrill.
    You reel in as fast as you can, but you can't catch up with the
    slack until they pull up and run out again!  
    
    You can get Salmon from boat or in river.  I'll bet you right now
    that you will have a boat before June.  If you live in Seattle
    and you own a fishing rod, you own a boat.  
    
    Why don't you contact me off line and tell me when you are coming,
    where you are going to be working etc.  I'll be glad to get together
    with you and share what I've learned so far with you.  
    
    Also, there is a weekly publication here called Hunting and Fishing
    News.  (Many call it Hunting and Fishing Lies)  The magazine has
    been great for me.  It has introduced me to all the lakes and rivers
    in the state and given me an idea of what to fish for when.  If
    you want to subscribe, let me know and I will sign you up.  It costs
    around 35 bucks a year, but if you are new in the area, it is worth
    it.  I'll renew it when my subscription runs out.
    
    Hope this helps.
    
    Brett.

    thanks Brett .I sure will look you up. Do you work for field service
    in Bellevue or where.I am a network project manager. Last year I
    got into fly fishing and I love it even thought I am green.
    Thanks for the reply.
    Russ

    
    Yow! Let's all move out there! Sounds great! I know that the weather's
    a lot more agreeable (temperate) throughout the year, too.
    
    One thing...
    >    The Steelhead is an anadromous trout.  
    
    What does "anadromous" mean??? (sounds like 'enormous')
    
    Ed

    The Steelhead is actually closely related to a Rainbow Trout.
    They anadromous means that they are born in fresh water, and
    then swim out into the ocean.  After a given period of time, they
    swim back to the exact same place they were born (fresh water river)
    to spawn.  The Steelhead comes back to spawn after one year and
    after three years.  At 1 year, they typically come back weighing
    in around 10 lbs.  At three years they come back at about 30 lbs.
                                                      
    If you are interested, I read an article in the Seattle Times this
    past Spring.  A Steelhead had been caught in Southern Washington.
    It had entered the river in Oregon.  To drive the inland distance
    the fish swam is about 3+ hours highway.  The Steelhead had a tag,
    but the angler could not read the tag....it was in foreign
    language/print.  He sent it to the Washington F&W.  They spent 2
    months tracking it down.  It turns out that the fish had been 
    tagged in Japan about 3 months before it was caught in Washington!!!!
    
    Before this, no one had supsected that Steelies swam clear across
    the Pacific and they were surprised that the fish could cover so
    much ground so fast, even if it swam the currents.
                                                      
    Brett.

    Russ Battaglia asked me if I knew of anyplace that specialized in
    Flyfishing in Washington State.  I thought I would list it here
    just in case.
    
    There is a place that I have seen in Lynnwood, which is just north
    of Seattle.  It is a flyfisherman's paradise:
    
    The Western Flyfisher	(206) 775 4496
    19512 37th West Lynnwood, WA
    
    
    Their add in the yellow pages simply states:
    
    	Fly fishing Equipment
    	Fly tying materials
    	Fly casting instruction classes
    	Fly fishing guide services
    	Both beginners and experienced flyfishers
    
                                
    I have never dealt with them, but they look pretty interesting from
    the outside.....like you could spend a long time snooping around
    in there.
    
    Brett.
    

    In Washington, the state department of fisheries has done a fairly
    decent job in the past ten years.  One of their big challenges
    has been keeping the Steelhead population up to snuff.  The main
    problem seems to now be Sea Lions.  Over the last few seasons the
    F&W boys have come up with some interesting methods of fighting
    the sea lions off.  This is something I have been watching for a
    couple of years now and I find it interesting and almost comical.  
                            
    Many of the Steelhead that sportsmen fish for are in Lake Washington
    and the "Lake Washington Tributaries".  Lake Washington meets the
    Puget Sound through a set of locks that are at the north end of
    Seattle.  The cut that connects the Sound and Lake Washington was
    dug somewhere in the first half of this century.  
    
    At the locks is a fish ladder.  It is really great to go there when
    the silvers are running through or the when the larger Kings come
    through in the fall.  You have this funnel effect where I would
    guess millions of salmon  and steelhead swim through.  The sea lions, 
    being somewhat observant, have noticed this. 
    
    I first saw where a single sea lion named "Herschel" was sitting
    outside the locks in 1986.  He would just sit there and suck up
    all the steelhead he could eat.  The boys at the F&W realized that
    he was making a dent in the steelhead population.  They got concerned
    and came up with a plan.
    
    They decided to scare him off.  So they walked out on the locks
    and threw cherry bombs in the water.  As I recall, this was done
    at the end of the steelhead run.  It was not a noted success.
    
    In 1987, the boys at the F&W went back to work and came up with
    the idea of a giant net.  The net lets fish in but nothing the
    size of a sea lion gets in.  Wrong.  Another steelhead fiesta
    was enjoyed by all the sea lions last year.
    
    1988.  The sea lions are in position.  The F&W crowd breaks the
    silence and announces the new plan!  They've got a great plan this
    year!  They're going to line the entrance walls to the locks armed
    with rifles and they are going to shoot the sea lions with rubber
    bullets.  Good plan!
    
    Sop just to be on the safe side, they've decided to close steelhead
    fishing on Lkae Washington and the tributaries for 1988-89.

    Yo Brett,
    
    
    Ole Coonass be op chere in de state ob Washington fo dis week an
    dis weeken an mebbe we cud do som ob dis northern fishin.
    
    Me, I'm stayin at de Seattle Sheraton, wurkin wit dis Power Industry
    Computor Application Conference an we be don by Friday. I don hab
    to leave until Sonday mornin, so let me know if deres a chance.
    
    Coonass

    
    
    Hey Beazley........
    
    Put in a call to ole NIGHTCRAWLER~~~~~~~~~~~~
    
    He's up in that area and will take you fishin.
    
    505-893-1594
    503-642-6186
    
    TBDW
    

    yo beazley,
    
    I know Brett and he is a nice guy however
    
    Brett is on jury duty and he may not be reading this notes file
    for a while but I did raise him through mail. It seems he 
    does get in his mail account to check it out.
    
     try mail  decwet::helsel
    
    Bear  
    

    Bear is right.
    
    I was on jury duty and was dismissed last night.  I didn't read any
    notes from home.....just mail.
    
    I'll call the Seattle Sheraton in a couple seconds here, but I'll
    bet you're gone.  I guess it was last week.
    
    Shoot.  The weather was real nice last weekend and it is supposed
    to be real nice this weekend.  I was going to go out this weekend.
    
    Why the heck didn't ya call???
    
    /brett

    Dat OK Brett,
    
    Ole Coonass met som mity nice people frum DECwest an had a fun weeken
    an caught som "Kutthroats", a nice lookin, fightin, an eatin fish.
    
    Mebbe nex time we get together, OK. In de meantime, if chew shud
    com don south, look me op an we go to my place, OK??
    
    Coonass

    re: .11  
    
    >Ole Coonass met som mity nice people frum DECwest an had a fun weeken
    >an caught som "Kutthroats", a nice lookin, fightin, an eatin fish.
     
    Hey Coonass, you really crack me up!
    
    I'm sitting here thinking DECwest.  I know everybody at DECwest and I'm
    positive that no one here at DECwest took you cuthroat fishing.  I'm
    thinking it had to be someone from the local office and you're just
    calling that DECwest.
    
    Then I see Pat Burfening in the hall today and she informs me that you
    came out and stayed at her ranch for the weekend.  (Pat is an
    accomplished fisherman (fisherperson sounds stupid to me, sorry Pat)
    and happens to have access to her own lake....there is no public
    fishing pressure) Here, I am trying to picture you floating around Lake
    Washington with somebody I don't even know when in reality you're out 
    fishing a private secret spot with one of my own dog's puppies.
    
    Furthermore, ole Coonass goes out andcatches this monster 24"
    cutthroat.  You modest damn southerners......Pat told you it was the
    biggest cutthroat she ever saw come outta that lake and the lake's been
    in the family for years. 
    
    Next time you come to Washington, you can brought cherself over here
    and take me fishing.  Howzat grabya?
    
    /brett
    
    p.s.  Turns out Pat's been reading this file all along in read-only
          mode.  Fact is, she's the one that knows how to fish this state,
          not me.  I suggest you look *her* up when you're out here and not
          me.  I don't know why she doesn't write in here.  maybe she needs
          some encouragement????   

    re: last
    
    Pat asked me to point out that Coonass stayed with Pat *and* Ron.
    Sorry.  Didn't want anybody to get the wrong idea.  Of course
    none of you upstanding people had any wrong ideas.
    
    /brett

    Brett,
    	Who said we were "upstanding"?  Some of us can't even stand
    up!  HIC!  HIC!  :-)
    
    

    Brett,
    
    Dots whot we call "beginnings luck"....
    
    Coonass

�Pat is an accomplished fisherman (fisherperson sounds stupid to me, sorry Pat)

Finally, someone has the nerve to just say it! Hey Brett, I think it 
sounds stupid, too!! How long must we continue pandering to the kind of
kooky feminism that wants to emasculate our language to suit their unisex
mentality? I was over in England a few years ago, and I heard some
woman on TV say that they believed in equality between men and women
too, but not the foolishness of changing words like chairman to
"chairperson", and so forth. They know that a woman can be a chairman as
well as a man, (and fisherman and fireman and so forth) and don't need to
change the language to prove it. 

My wife is a pretty good fisherman, too..!

Ed

(Boy, a good, upstanding tirade once in a while is good for the soul!)

    

    Well, Ed, I guess that just about raps it up for the term fisherperson.
    
    My wife is a good fisherman too.  She is also a *great* "netsman".
    That is, she has never lost any of my fish due to poor netting
    tecnique.
    
    /brett

    
    
    
    
    
    			Woperson=woman??

    Boy, what a thrill.  I picked up my June issue of Sports Afield 
    last night and was paging through it half paying attention.  About
    3/4 of the way through was an article on fishing Kings in Puget Sound.
    
    "Hey, look at that!"
    
    The article had picturwes from Fresh Water Bay near Port Angeles, which
    is one of our favorite spots, and a picture of Point No Point, which is
    hands down my favorite spot and my most visited area.  Point No Point
    is about a 10 minute run from where I put in at Edmonds, which is
    also described in the article.  I got pretty excited reading the
    article.
    
    All-in-all, I found it to be very accurate and well written.  Now, if
    I can only concentrate on work till Saturday......
    
    /brett

    Hi,
    
    I'll be heading up to Seattle in the middle of August and would
    like to get in a day of fishing while I'm there. Could anybody refer
    me to a charter boat in that area as I have never fished the West
    Coast. Thanks in advance.
    
    						  Big Jack 

    There are a bunch that put out of Edmonds, which is just north of
    the Bellevue-Seattle area.  I can look for a name for you.  I know
    the names of the boats but I have no idea how to call them on land.
    
    When in August?
    
    We may have visitors coming, but if it fits into my schedule I might be
    talked into going out.  It's too early for me to know what our plans
    are exactly.
    
    /brett

    
    
    hey Brett,
    
    Look up the ~~~~~~~~~~~W O R M  he's up there with Intel.
    
    

    I noticed INTEL was in his address that time he sent mail.  Intel is
    down near Portland, OR, which is about 3 hours drive.  Do you know if
    he ever gets up to Seattle area?
    
    /brett