great topic, its amazing how diverse we are when I start reading about people who grew up with strippers and barracuda. I myself never left washington until I joined the military except for a couple of school trips but no fishing. now I fish where ever I am stationed, the highlight being cuba. anyhow, I grew up o the kettle river in eastern washington. fishing for walleye and the occasional brown. I did pretty good for rainbows and smallmouth with a flyrod to. I still try to make it back there every summer for a week or so to fish with my brothers. no real tear jerker father son experiences as he prefered to work and I think we only went fishing together once in a beaver pond. anyhow, now I have two boys of my own and my oldest goes with me at least a couple times a week mainly just catch flounder but he still gets a kick out of the boat and being on the water. I think that the water is one of the most powerful influences that anyone can bring to a child. if more people fished with thier kids, we would have a society with far more tolerant people not counting tangled lines I kinda just hate to even read the papers now, all you see is raping robbing and pilaging, and ironically alot of it happens right in the middle of salmon season, there has got to be a higher priority during the silver run than knocking over a 7-11, but then I guess not everyone can find happiness floating in a boat or wading the shallows of the thousands of rivers and streams we have in washington. I wish I could stay, but most likely I will be stationed in some god-forsaken desert with no fishing.