Welcome Joe, try the river itself, there are lots of information to gather. it is always a learning experience. also just ask people and observe what others are doing. far as tackle there is a few places in olympia not much, but here go's tom.s outboard has some good tackle and helpful people there downtown oly behind the am/pm also tumwater spoets has some good gear, fredy meyer can keep you stocked up too. oh yeah boatersworld on the west side has some real helpful people Andy if you can catch him working, hope this helps you out and good luck to you.