I grew up fishing the Sky and Snoqualmie. First steelhead caught at Tokul when I was seven. my dad wouldn't even fish but liked to take me there to learn because you didn't need to cast much. Summers my mom dropped me off at the old Edmonds dock and I would fish the sound all day. I'm sure she had the old timers keeping an eye on me. I also would hike the RR tracks in Mukilteo and catch lot's of piling perch and sea bass. My sisters and I grew up swimming in the sound. We were all strong swimmers. And the Sammamish Slew was loaded with Sockeye back then. I also fished hood canal out of a canoe quite a bit. My neighbor ran a Westport charter in the hey day so we fished there a lot for free. We did family outings with other families up in the Skagit flats for oysters, clam and Crab feeds. Back then you waded in the eel grass with a badmitton racket and a gunney sack and just scooped up the crab. I also hiked and fished all over the Fish lake/lake Wenatchee area. Chiwawa river, White river, Wenatchee river, Icicle river, Yakima river. When I could drive we used to fish the Skagit for Springers. Man that was a good fishery back then. And the Stilly and the Hoh and Bogey. The Kalama wasn't crowded and had huge summer runs and springers in May. Hiked in to lot's of alpine lakes. And I've been fishing Seiku for about 25 years. My parents took us car camping everywhere and I always had my fishing rod along so there are so many lakes, rivers and creeks I can't remember all the names. And not just this state...idaho, Montana the Dakota's, Minn, Wyoming, Oregon and BC.

I grew up fishing lake Michigan with my father, My first salmon and steelhead came at the age of 5 (with alittle help). I have been fishing lake michigan ever since out of the ports of Grand Haven, Port Sheldon, Saugatuck, St. Joe, Ludington, and Manistee. I started river fishing seriously about 8 years ago for steelhead and have been addicted ever since. I usually pursue river steel with a centrepin float setup and fish these rivers the most Grand, Manistee, Pere Marquette, Little Manistee, White, Betsie, and the Rogue river.
I do not have any old pics on my computer but here is a pig brown that I picked up this past fall, the fish was caught fishing float setup on 4lb flourocarbon leader and a micro roe bag. Snapped a pic and he was released to fight another day.

Got hooked fishing with my Grandpa Cooper on Lake Nahwatzel. We moved to Shelton and I fished Goldsburough Cr. and Mill Cr. mostly. Rode the bike to Island Lk. or Isabella Lk. when allowed. Fished the Satsop R., 'Nooch, Hump', and Skok' mainly after starting to drive. Had access to a cabin on the Hoh just below the Park and loved to fish that area. The last dozen or so years I've fished more in the salt, P.A. , the Sound, and out of Westport. Springers on the Columbia R. are great fun, but for me there is something primal that is stirred up by going "Coastal."

Minnesooooota

Minnesnowta

Lots lakes lots a fish eh

In da winter ya put da tip ups ouuut ----make sure ya got 2 on each end so ya can play some pond hockey while waitin for da big one. Use da tip ups as da goal dont ya know.

Lived most of my life in the redmond area. Been fishing

Snoqualmie
Sky
Snohomish
Slough

for about 42 years.

Parents have had a place on Camano Island and uncle lived his life in Conway so also fished

Lower North Fork Skagit
Rocky Point
Onamac / State Park

on a regular basis.

It all started on those classic trips up north to a lake. Its a total Wisconsin tradition, everybody did and still does it. Started with potato chip blugills then on to carp at a pond right up the street, then got my first King on a charter boat at the age of 10 at it was all over from there. Really haven't fished for anything else other than Trout and Salmon although float fishing for big Carp can be a lot of fun.

Grew up on the Nooksack. Spent one week every summer on the west beach Guemes fishing for kings. Fished Opening day trout with my grandpa every year at Pass lake we put his boat in at his buddys place on the N end, and a lot of time with my other grandfather fishing high mountain lakes of N Idaho and the Moyie R. Took trips every yr. with dad to Dry falls, Rocky Ford, Lenore, and Chopaka Lk. Now I live on the Kenai but I still miss Washington fishing especialy the steelhead.

Fished the Toughnioga, and the Oswego when i was younger, then started fishing the salmon river and parts of the Finger lakes in upstate new york.Catherine creek and lots of brookies, browns and big rainbows.Then i started fishing for Atlantics, i was hooked.Fished in Germany, that was a trip, New Mexico, Pecos and San Juan rivers, Gulf of Mexico, texas,New orleans,louisianna, and Arkansaw(sp).Then i caught my first steelie here on the snoqualmie and that is all she wrote...

My dad, an ol' Ozarks boy, taught me fishing on Lincoln Creek in Lewis County. Floated a worm in the creek after sneaking up to the hole. Later we fished Spirit Lake in the mid sixties. Old Harry Truman took some of us kids and showed us how to catch trout under a log jam in the small creek than ran near the lodge.

He was very nice to us kids.

We fished the salt at Westport and Seiku. I still do in my own boat now. We fished the bush lakes of Canada and the big ones too.

He had a lot of fishing friends but he always preffered the compnay of his boys. He's gone now and now I take my two sons.


I like to fish the Cowlitz, Kalama (when my friend takes me in his drift boat), the Queets and the Hoh.

I fish the salt at Seiku and the Canal. And once in a while I go to Alaska and do pretty well in the Soldotna area. Will be going to Yakutat next year.

I guess I'm still growing up as I'm a sophmore in high school. Fortunately I've lived in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula and started fishing at 2. I caught my first silver at 5 years old off the mill, first halibut was at 7 that weighed 40 pounds (little help), and my first steelie being 8 years old on the Bogachiel River. Since then I've caught hundreds of fish as my dad and I try to make it out every weekend. My feats in fishing will probably not be beat as my biggest steelie is 20-21 pounds, chinook at about 50 and silver around 20. I know I take it for granted as I've read your responses and how good it used to be.

Guess I'll bite too.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, California and fished saltwater exclusively. I don't even know where to begin as I still retain many fond memories of my childhood spent fishing with my dad. There are too many stories to tell, so I'll just talk about what I fished for.

Since my dad did not have a boat, we fished for bottomfish, going after rockfish most of the time. While I was young, my dad took me fishing close to home. Access abounded. As I grew up our destinations became farther and farther from home until eventually we made the Medocino area the limit as it was a 3.5hr drive one way. I came to love the rocky coast where the scenery was wonderful and other fishermen seen only on occassion. I don't recall my dad and I ever having consistent success, but all the fish that I did catch, I remember many of them. I even remember some of the fish caught by other fishermen. To this day, there will always be a place in my heart for any rocky shore environment. Pounding surf, salty spray, and smelly hands gave me a sense of being. Although I do not do much surf fishing as I used to, I will surely raise up my children the same way that my dad did, for I feel that growing up around the ocean has molded my love for nature in its many forms.

Grew up around the Salem, Or. area. Caught my first fish at age 12 on the willamette river(big ol carp) and I was hooked! Spent my early teen years fishing the mill pond at the end of our street for bass. Once I got my drivers license I was all over the place. trout fishing the willamette tribs., steelheading the N. fork Siletz, rockfish off the coastal rocks and the yaquina bay jetty, salmon out of Depoe Bay. Met and married a local gal(Marysville) and when she wanted to move back home I had no objections as I fell in love with the sound. Have been actively fishing the sound and straits ever since which would be the last 27yrs

I grew up in the Bay area of Calif. to but my parents are native Washingtonins.My Dad was 30 year Navy man he love fishing for Salmon out in the ocean.We use to go on chaters three or four times a year boy did I get sick on some of those trip.Also we came up to Washington to visit my Grand parent and fished the upper Chehalis. That was in the early sixtys you could catch a limit of trout in a hour there were some summer run there to that what Dad was fishing for. Today the upper Chehalis is just water running down a hill.

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.

Hey mindfusion-
I heard the key to catching strippers is all in the presentation! Other than that they will take anything, just like barracuda.

Just kidding... I have to edit every post for spelling, but that was killing me!

I kinda have two places of growing up. Before I moved five years ago (at age 11) I lived in Duvall. I used to fish the local lakes (Margret, Flowing, Langlouis, Chain, and many small lakes). Also, in town there is a small pond full of bass, and other pan fish that I spent many sumer days at. I also used to fish Humpy Hallow with my dad.

After I moved to Puyallup, I started to fish salmon and steelhead in the rivers. The Green, Puyallup, Cowlitz, Carbon and many small chum creeks in the South Sound are my salmonfishing roots. Also Pt. Difiance.

50th State!!!

Grew up fishing the pineapple irrigation systems on my surfboard for peacock bass, largemouth, smallmouth and snakehead.

I grew up in Alamance County, North Carolina. My grandfather, who started out as a blacksmith, but evolved into an insurance agent had routes all over the county and access to many farm ponds. He loved to fish and he started taking me when I was about 5. Bream, crappie, catfish and the occsional bass, all on worms under a bobber. He continued to take me all his life because I had patience to sit where he told me and to fish where he told me and how he told me. Sometimes he would take two or three of my cousins along, but after 15 minutes or so, they would be off looking for snakes or turtles, throwing things in the water and doing everything else besides fishing.

My first step up was being old enough to fish with cricketts. The bait shop where we got our bait had this contraption with hundreds of cricketts and you'd buy them by the dozen and carry them in a wire tube with a funnel end that you could shake the cricketts down into and they would come out one at at time. A lot less messy than worms.

Then there were the catalba (catalpa ???) worms (sp.?). My grandfather had two trees on his property that he called catalba trees and at a certain time of year, they would be covered with these, I guess, caterpillars, called catalba worms. Anyway, you would take these, pinch them in half, turn a half of a worm inside out on the hook and that half a worm would catch a dozen or so fish before you needed to rebait. I've never seen any reference to these anywhere and never seen them anywhere else.

My biggest fishing adventures as a kid were trips to the outter banks of North Carolina, specifically the Cape Lookout area. We would always launch from Harker's Island, which was like a different country. I just remember a lot of ramshackle cinderblock construction, with nothing new and nothing in good repair. The locals spoke in an accent that you could hardly understand, especially when they were talking to each other.

We never spent a weekend on the outter banks when something didn't go wrong, either mechanically with the boat, or weather-related. We once had to be pulled off of Cape Lookout by the Coast Guard during a squall that turned a beautifull morning into tempast in about 45 minutes. I remember laying on the floor of our tent with my friend and we were the only thing keeping the tent from blowing away as it streamed in the wind, with us wrapped up by the flooring, while my dad and his friend fantically tried to pack up our gear and load it in the boat. The boat got swamped on bhe beach and we were stuck, but the Coast Guard rescued us and our boat and gear in one of the most well-choreographed drills I have ever seen. There were about 8 other people in the boat that they had rescued, several of them out of the water after their boats had sunk with them in it.

One of my most vivid memories of actually fishing that area was after hours of trolling in 90-something degree heat on a dead-calm day. I was holding onto the rod and drifting off to sleep, as no one was catching anything. All of a sudden, the rod was pulled like it just got caught up on a concrete wall. The drag was set tight and I was actually pulled to a standing position with the rod about to be ripped out of my hands when a hundred feet in back of the boat a king mackerel shot skyward, it seemed 10 feet out of the water. It came unhooked, which actually seemed lucky for me, because either I or the rod, or both, were headed out of the back of the boat. When I reeled in, the heavy gauge hook was actually bent straight. I was about 10 at the time.

Those outter banks are a magical place. My brother lives down there now, in Beaufort, N.C., so I still get to visit every now and then.

Rogue River. Caught my first trout, steelhead, and salmon in the Rogue.

They built a dam on the Rogue which upset me so much I moved to Lopez Island. Where I bought a gillnetter and learned how to kill fish professionally. Sold the gillnetter and now fish the Skagit.