He did have a mind of his own. But I learned a lot of fly tying and bowhunting from him. Do miss him a lot.

Important distinction to make in these parts.


I don’t mind eating pinks fresh if they’ve been bled, on ice, and are saltwater caught as close to the ocean as possible. I encounter quite a few in Ma11 and I look at if they are starting to turn and how firm the meat is. Some hit the cooler and some are released. The quality varies and matters.

Spring chinook, summer steelhead, summer/fall chinook, fresh coho and lastly sockeye are the preferences for me respectively.

But I definitely won’t turn down any fresh and firm pink to be cooked that day on the BBQ.


Streamer

Since we're piling on to pinks on the table, at least at times, I was on a Fraser Panel trip to Lilloet for the end of the season meeting and visit to a prime spawning area. We took the the train (BC Rail) which was a fantastic ride. On the way back to North Van we had dinner. Essentially an airline dinner of salmon. Turns out it was pinks. This is probably not the best fish to serve to a group of professional fishermen. Some of them claimed that they recognized the fish as ones they had caught in the River earlier that year. Was quite funny, actually. To my very unsophisticated palate it was dinner and I was hungry. But we sure laughed a lot.

One year at the annual Fishcop week long training in Issaquah, they served us chum! And it wasn't very good, either. But we got even. We drank the entire liquor supply they had planned for the week in two days!

If memory serves, and it's not too fogged, any time WDF or WDG staff got together for a not-at-home meeting the local alcohol supply was in grave danger.