I got my first, a small buck, on the Puyallup at Anton's. Must have been 1970 because I think I was 7. Not really much of a story, but I remember it bit a pink pearl corkie and I beached it pretty quickly with a heavy spinning rod and green Penn Spin-Fisher reel that my dad used for plunking.

The next year or so we started going to the Cowlitz with my considerably older bro who moved down outside of Centralia specifically to be closer to the Cowlitz. We would drive down what became the Blue Creek trail as far as we could then cross the creek by walking on a couple old car bodies. There were typically more fish on the bank than there were fishermen. Simply crazy by today's standards.

Originally Posted By: WDFW X 1 = 0
Originally Posted By: Spoonfedhead
Anybody remember when they used to plant skate and the Tilton with trout?

I sure do miss runnin a crawler or a single ball-o-fire (green label) under the smallest float I had in my arsenal.

That's what all started it for me right there.


Remember when they trucked the Tilton full of steehead??


We used to hit the Tilton a lot, mostly in the summer. Caught a few winterruns on the way to or back from the Cowlitz. One summer (pre-'80...?) I was trout fishing way up the road from my brother when the hatchery truck pulled in right in front of me and dumped in a couple hundred springers. It took a while, and about all the gear I had, but I finally beached two. Had to scrounge up some heavier line scraps from the riverbank after several spoolings. God I'd love to have a video of that.



Edited by GPS (03/01/20 10:59 PM)