To those that knew Justin, he passed away. My condolences to Susan. Justin was the younger brother I never had that just couldn't escape his demons and the ugly side of life around him. Justin was a great guy, fun to be around, and one heck of a fisherman.

R.I.P my brother from another mother. You will be missed.

Damn... This just suck's...

I wish ya coulda kicked it buddy!


I never will forget when I would call you would answer...
"Timber.....7 *uckin times"
Or singin I'M KID...KID SAUK as we were floatin down the river..

We had some great times fishin'

R.I.P Kid!

Hearing this today is one of the saddest things I've heard in a long time...a really long time.

Justin was one of my most fun and constant fishing buddies for a while...but life intervened, and not in a good way.

It's sad because Justin was one of the nicest, most generous, and funniest guys you could ever be lucky enough to be around. I've missed him a lot over the last few years, and we talked about him a bit a couple of weeks ago when we were drifting his namesake river...the river where he and I caught a LOT of steelhead and had a LOT of laughs back in the day.

Being a great guy and a great fisherman doesn't insulate you from the all the bad things in this world.

I don't know what else to say.

Fish on...

Todd

$hit - only met him once, but remember him well from the glory days of the fishing board - before there was a dark side...

sorry to hear about your guys friend...


RIP Kid...

Sorry for your loss. I lost my childhood best friend and fishing partner the same way . I lost him in 1975 but he died in 2005.

This makes some sense.

"Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding."
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

I have no idea how many steelhead we caught the last day we fished together. The date on this picture says April 4th, and considering we were on the Sauk and it was a bluebird day with perfect conditions, I'd wager we caught more than a few.

I do know this for sure...this was the last fish he and I ever caught together up there.



We did a little saltwater fishing together after that last trip...and then things started to sideways and he drifted away from us, his fishing buddies.

For all I know that may be the last Sauk River steelhead he ever caught.

Fish on...

Todd

Unfortunately, Kid Sauk missed and hit the steelhead instead of Toff.

Holy cow...how long ago was that?

Neoprene waders...brrrr.

All I remember was that it was colder'n'ell that day and that little banana was the only steelhead we caught.

Skykomish River, December...2003? 2004?

Fish on...

Todd

He should of stuck with his fishing buddies. Never got to fish with him but did enjoy working with him for awhile then he just disappeared. Trouble seemed to be fond of him.

RIP Kid Sauk..............I met him on the nooch back in oh somewhere between 99-01. It was 10:00 am and my boat was limited..........he and a buddy of his was struggling a bit.............I threw him a container of egg's and said good luck.............He and his buddy limited on those egg's a few hours later in the day.................He was very appreciative from that day forward every time I'd run into him. Seemed like a great guy but never really got to know him only in passing on the river. Good luck,

SZ

Wow, I'm blown away! Just drove by his place the other day near Richmond Beach. Last time I fished with the Kid was when he, Parker and I went down and caught a few fish from the beach.
Sad, sad news....rest in peace Justin...

K2

Damn....

Very sad news

RIP Kid, nice pic of the pyramid run of old there Parker, that hole runs is river left now

Terrible.

RIP, Kid.

Really sad to hear.

I remember the first time I met Justin on the Sauk. He was floating by with Toff and they cut off a couple dudes pulling plugs to row over and bum some Tecates off of us. I was stoked to see his tackle bag - literally a plastic 7-11 bag containing random Okies and spoons all jumbled together. Perfect.

RIP, hopefully in the braids of the Mill Drift.

Sad news for sure! I didn't know him all that well, but he always had a smile, wave and a good word when I'd see him on the Snohomish or Sauk.

RIP Justin.

LOL

That was the same day as the picture above of Justin with the steelhead.

The 7-11 bag with six leaders, a sack of Okies, and four spoons tangled up in a ball of yarn is the Truth...he didn't even have any swivels or weights that day, he had to use some of mine.

His tackle bag got smaller and more jumbled as the years went on, that's for sure.

I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere.

Fish on...

Todd

Sucks to hear. RIP

man, I have fought demons of my own and I hate hearing of someone who loses the battle to that stuff. All of the commentary here and on FB just goes to show that addiction has no boundaries and good people can have bad problems. RIP

RIPKS

Sad news in deed, I was a little shocked but not suprised when parker hit me up................Me and BK and Justin had some seriously great times together way back in the day, like 14, 15 years ago......he basically moved in with BK and I for a while when his folks were upset with some of his choices and we fished liked mad men, partied harder worked hard, well me and BK did , Justin just could never stop the partying and I think eventually it catches up to which it finally did with him and its so sad because deep down he tried hard to fight the demons off.......I cant count how many awesome trips the 3 of us had together but it was a ton and Justin always loved fishing and I think if he would have reached out to us, his fishing family we could have saved him................but I guess we all should pray that he is fishing a stretch on the Sauk with no nets and an abundance of late returning wild steelhead and the first of the spring kings and that he is hooking up on every cast not knowing what it is until he lands it.............RIP Kid Sauk and I will never forget him watching me and Beeks catch a springer on every cast and getting so upset that he threw his GLX and Shimano in the river after one of us offered him a handoff ! No handoffs in Heaven Kid..................Its all you Baby ! Peace be with you...........Fly

Sad to hear about Justin but not unexpected. Not many can turn around from the brink and climb out . Last I saw Justin was to fish the beach down by his place at Richmond Beach, he was pretty sketchy that day. I would say that Justin finally has peace.

That sucks to hear. Never knew him but he was one of the original cast of pp members that you made you feel like you did. Difficult time for all that knew him but atleast now he gets to start over.

I hope the fish are plentiful Kid Sauk! I met Justin once in Swains parking lot years ago. He gave me a blank Silver Horde J-plug that was good for hiding.......stuff; I still have it.

Tight lines.

RIP Justin. He was a lot of fun to fish around back when we could fish the Sauk in April.....

The boat.


Home water.


My favorite phrase that he used was "jesus (whoever) your place looks like a [Bleeeeep!] reservation."

I've got a picture of him cutting the lock on "his" gate up on the Sauk where he looks like


I had not spoken with Justin in about five years. I thought of him pretty often and the thought usually made me smile.

Justin was always in such a good mood when I saw him on the river and I almost would bet that I would see him in the same hole everytime I floated the Sauk. I would come around the same corner near the reservation where I hoped to have a shot at that hole and normally he would be in there and always reported a fish or 2. Great guy who offered me trips after my first conversation with him at a local fish meeting for some club he used to be in over in Bothell. He never had an issue with comparing notes with guys he knew. RIP buddy!

Sounds like a real well liked guy.
I'm very sorry about the loss for all here.

Did people know how bad of trouble he was in?
I'm sure many feel quilt for not intervening but could someone have?

How can we all help future people?

Again I'm deeply saddened by your loss.
I wish I could have known him and helped.

His real friends offered help. His druggy friends helped in a different way.

He had lots of us as a support group...but you can't make it happen without them wanting it, and that never really happened.

Fish on...

Todd

I'm not implying those here didn't try to help.

I'm simply trying to understand in an attempt to educate myself in preparation to help if I'm ever in a position too.

We all need to be up to speed on this because sometimes the window to help is very small.

Sad deal. My condolences to those who knew him. I couldn't agree more with the statement that an addict has no hope for recovery before he finds the will. And the line dividing a life worth saving and a life bound for a tragic end is razor thin.

I remember that day at the beach, Dave!

Wow! Shocking, well, sort of. I don't think I ever met Justin in person, but we swapped a lot of emails about Sauk River stuff after our PP acquaintance. So sorry this happened. RIP Kid, . . . Kid Sauk!

Same here...sad news

I just received this email from one of Justin's high school friends...

************

Some of Justin's friends from high school are getting together tomorrow Saturday 5pm at the Cabin tavern Richmond beach 1 block from his house. Tried to post on PP but need to be approved first. Please post if you can.
sanjay
206-683-6787

***********

I hope to make it, but I have a full day planned out of town with family tomorrow so I'm not sure how it will work out.

Fish on...

Todd

Went to Richmond Beach tonight to have a toast to the Kid, guess I missed his high school crew as I had to leave for my own kid commits but felt his passing warranted a visit and post at my old stomping grounds on PP...

Dave was the man that introduced me to the Kid and him posting that King Pic requires a story at the very least...One of the all-time great beach fishing stories IMHO...
Use to spend many hours during great July and August Evening High tides watching the Kid double haul clousers into the Richmond beach surf...(i really wasnt great at it and enjoyed drinking a cold Alaskan Amber watching a beach master do his thing) often resulting in hooking ocean silvers and the occasional cuttie...wasnt there this particular night but as Justin told it he had thrown as far as he could throw and hit a BIG Hot Silver that just decided to leap, twirl and run his way back to Sekiu. Well as the fish got about 100yards off the beach he threw the hook, "well lets strip this thing in and try again" he says to himself...WHAM! a 20ish pound king hammers his fly that was drug out into a zone that was impossible to reach, only way was a free ride from a chromeey silver...20 or so people on the beach watched an epic battle that night and Justin land that hot ass King on the fly.

We all fight our Demons, Im fighting my own version as I type. Im going to choose to remember the good... I only knew you for a few years Kid but what I always admired about you was how easy it was to bond over some deep love for the Sauk and its majestic quarry along with being able to get excited about the little things like a dry fly rise from a 10 inch sea run cuttie on a fly you just tied at your house an hour before...

May your spirit be filled with mid April, big boulder slicks and bigger wild winters on the Upper Sauk...RIP

Thanks everyone who showed up to Justin's house and the cabin

Don't know the Kid or you, summerrun, but that is as great a eulogy as they come for an angler... Good times that will be remembered by friends is pretty good.

RIP Kid.

Wow, just logged in and saw this... Incredibly sad.

I met kid at Richmond beach--- Kev/Seastrike were with me, maybe Summerrun too that night?? Kev got a tule kinger, and Kid accosted us as we crossed the tracks to leave...

We spent that evening talking salt, river and Lake Wa fishing and I left that night with a pile of wisdom unlike anything I'd ever experienced... I have two lasting memories of that evening:

#1 -- "Michael Jackson" pattern plugs (black/silver flake)
#2 -- DRIVE THE BOAT LIKE A DRUNK (Sockeye season tip, if we ever have one!)

RIP Kid.... You were a prodigy.

sorry, I didn't know the guy at all but people are saying such nice things that I feel like I should say RIP to him. Hopefully you are in a better place.

putz, sorry I missed you guys at The Cabin.

I trailered my boat up north and floated the river instead and said goodbye to him that way.

Fish on...

Todd

RIP Kid Sauk! Enjoyed your posts. Hope you are fishing with Sol on that pristine river in the sky.