<derail continued>
I wonder if we were ever there at the same time ...
One day we were on the Canal and we saw a school of Perch surfacing /circling in the eddy behind a boulder where we would net trout. Patiently my brother waited for them to come up and he netted like 50. He could barely lift them. We dumped them in the back of my way cool Chevy Sprint (50mpg!) on some newspaper.
The Canal was/is as dangerous as anywhere you could ever fish. Deep water moving fast with little chance to get out, rattlesnakes, barb wire, mosquitos and yellowjackets. My brother told me about a time he fell in, years after it had happened. He was swept nearly down to Soda Lake before he managed to get up on the bank, something like 2 miles.
When we were young, we used to sit on the I90 bridge and toss little red or green plastic skirted 1/4 jigs and catch crappie on nearly every cast. There often would be a black woman with a five gallon bucket who would give us a dime for every crappie we gave her. We caught 100's.
One day under the my brother and I each caught a Bluegill that was 15-16" . Had we known, we could have broke the State record. Twice!
Here is a picture of my Brother (RIP) with a Smallie I caught.
All of that ended when St Helens blew. After the mountain blew the crappie were greatly diminished, but the Trout fishing was pretty awesome off the bridge. Slip float 4-16' , nightcrawler and a 3/4 oz lead. Huck it out as far as you could and hang on. BIG Rainbows.