I’m done

After decades of living on the water on the west side I’ve packed up and moved to the east, almost to Spokane, here on the shore of the Spokane River.

I hope the recent article posted by cobble cruiser plays out and we get a run of salmon and steelhead back to this area. Right now I catch large trout and walleye from the beach, haven’t put a boat in the water yet. We do have some land locked chinook, but I haven’t seen them. The Spokane river had a run of huge chinook and steelhead until the dam was built.

I didn’t buy a license last year, but did this year, just a basic freshwater license, haven’t done that in decades. I got tired of going to NOF and other meetings just to be given lip service on fisheries that are spiraling down and out of control.

I will say that crawdads are abundant, full pots are the norm, again, from beach in front of the house. Fresh walleye, trout and crawdads make an excellent BBQ.

I live out in the sticks, with elk, deer, moose, bobcat, cougar, bear and wolves. I had most of those at the other place too (house on the Skykomish), but the wolves and moose are new to me. Any time we go for walks we have bear spray and a pistol, lots of predators around all the time.

Pics wouldn’t post, but I have a bunch.

Wolf tracks are incredibly large, especially when you find fresh ones near your house. With more than 20 deer kills within about 1/2 of my house. I’m sure these are spread between cougar, coyote and wolves.

Bull moose are rather intimidating too, and having them in the yard makes it more sporty.

Sounds great. Probably a lot of wild turkey (feathered and bottled?) around too.

LOL - I just chased a young buck and doe down the cul-de-sac to the opening in the neighbor's fence allowing them to get into the next neighborhood. Just trying to protect my little suburban garden and flowers (most with netting). Talk about those critters being habituated......

If I wasn't tied down with a job, I'd move east quick. Maybe further east to Idaho or Montana. I'd make a couple trips a year to get my salmon/tuna/bottom fish fix in and never look back.

I only need to be near a good sized airport, now I’m spoiled, the Spokane airport is so much easier fly in and out of compared to Sea Tac, and no traffic getting to it.

Moscow? Lots of vague memories there......

Go Cougs!

Congrats on the move !
Cannot imagine having to deal with Seattle traffic on a daily basis.

I’ve got a bunch of pics, but they aren’t uploaded to a location where they can be posted here.

Some of the areas in northern Idaho are pretty dang nice, including the Palouse region (and the Washington side as well). Montana is nice too.

Go Cougs!

Yes congrats! End of an era for sure. Where am i supposed to go when i forget my net now?

I dont blame ya, be on the eastside in a heartbeat if i could! Good for you J!

I can be located anywhere from Mexico to Canada and inland a couple of states. I searched all regions that were within a radius around an airport that I could easily fly in and out of.

Had to look at local economies, cost of housing, taxes, what was available for outdoor activities, plus, and this was a big one, the weather.

Everything kept coming back to the Spokane area, although other regions were very attractive, the taxes on retirement income was high, Washington doesn’t tax them.

Where I was on the Sky received almost 60” of rain per year, here it’s 16”, a nice change. Cost of housing is dirt cheap where I’m located compared to most other areas, even some some that way out in the sticks.

Oh Man I am going to miss you my good friend, So will Virgel and I expect Doug Smith. We had some good years. Last year was the first time in 54 years as a Washington resident that I did not buy a fishing license, partially due to some back problems, but also due to limited fishing ops. Dave Vedder moved to Wenatchee last year. I guess I may have come visiting you guys.

I’ll miss you and Virgel too, at least on our last trip we (Virgel) got first place in the Coho derby.

You are always welcome, we can have a good BBQ.

I’ll call you and stop by the next time I’m in town.

Their is some really good trout fishing in your area. The one thing the WDFW does right over there is plant fish. Jumbows, catchables, and fingerlings that grow wild. I have a retired friend that lives in Spokane and is dialed in fly fishing for them. He fishes all over 3-4 times a week. I spent more time this spring over there because of the lower Columbia Springer closure and glad I did. 2-10# bows are a blast on a 3 and 5 wt, and on a good day you can have 30+ fish day catch and release. Pontoon boats are a huge advantage. Most lakes have easy access with few crowds. Take advantage of it! The only thing that you have to work around are the heavy wind days. But then you need a break anyway.

So here’s a little more to the story

I moved from my place on the Sky, which I loved, I was going to happily retire there, to the Spokane River Arm of Lake Roosevelt, it was a big change.

Snohomish County bought my property to turn it back into natural terrain, they plan to demo everything in the next week or so. I sold it to them at well below market value for that purpose.

The new adventure on the East side of the state has begun. I found a remote place several miles down a dusty dirt road, right on the water again. This place is amazingly quiet, with cool nights and sunny days, I get up early to sit on the deck and watch the sun come up, this morning the Turkeys made there rounds and some trout are jumping, plus the coffee is hot.

A friend came over to stay for a few days, he brought his young son along to experience the outdoors. Yesterday we hiked and found deer carcasses that had been picked clean, young boys love bones. Then did a little fishing. Today we’ll look for sheds, bones, tracks, check the game cams, then prepare a fish and crawdad BBQ.

Then start another adventure tomorrow.

Good for you, that area is a sportsmans paradise. We will be over for a week starting tomorrow...bass and walleye fishing. If you see a gray crestliner with a canvas and full of rug rats, give us a waive. Congrats on the move.

You are living the dream, sir. Congratulations.

WTG...it's sad that change happens...but glad you took it on the chin and made the most of it!

I'm very happy I got to experience the West side rivers in the early 80's through the early 2000's. Haven't had the urge to go back for steelhead. I'll stay on the East side, except for an Ocean or B-10 trip.

I was done three years ago... Sold everything and headed to California to be closer to family for a wee bit. Saved a ton of money and now we live on the banks of the Rogue River....

I don't miss Washington at all!

It's funny/interesting that many of us will leave "here" for "there" while another, for the same reasons, moves from "there" to "here". When I came to WA for school I thought that I had moved to a hunting and fishing paradise. It was certainly better hunting. Probably still is, but that is getting harder. Turns out that the fishing I truly prefer just isn't as well-offered here.

Should add, too, that moving caused significant loss of family connections. Don't regret that (much), but did miss a lot.

Enjoy where you are.

Welcome to the east side (I'm down in Tri-Cities). If you get bored, drag the boat down to Rock Lake, the Reach, or hit up the Snake.

I daydream of salmon fishing when I'm walking along the Spokane River. It would be amazing to fish them at Bowl & Pitcher.

Congrats on the move. We left the crazy West side of Washington behind and moved to Northern Idaho when we retired 9 years ago and have absolutely no regrets. Its truly a sportsman's paradise. Only problem now is that a lot of other people from Western Washington are making the move over here too, so traffic is starting to become an issue, but still nothing compared to the Seattle area. I still do some part time contract work in the Seattle area and every time I go over there I thank God we live here now.

Update

If the Sky ever opens to fishing again, and you happen to float it, you’ll see everything at my old place is gone.

They’ll probably start replanting native trees soon.

20 years ago when I moved there the fishing was great, I never had to leave my front yard to catch steelhead, kings, coho, chums, pinks, the occasional Atlantic salmon and other stuff. The fishing had been better in prior years, but there were still enough in the river that “catching” was the norm. I had lived close and had been fishing the river for 30 years prior to moving there, so I had a good idea of what it could be, a river that had fish in it every month of the year, some months the river was overflowing with them.

The decline since then has been amazing, living on the river I was a witness to the changes on a daily basis. It was hard to imagine that it has declined significantly more even in the short period of time since I moved.

That decline is what made it easier to move, well, that and the increasing traffic plus rain.

I’ve just begun to tap into the fisheries over here, but the opportunities (not a great word, lots of baggage associated with it) are vast, it will take many years to experience each one. And that’s just on Lake Roosevelt and the Spokane river arm that I live on.

Steelhead are on the slow but steady exit out of existence. Hatcheries chronically struggling to even make meager broodstock goals, let alone providing any harvest opportunity. What's the point?

Wild steelhead in the last "strongholds" of the north coast continue a downward trajectory as well... for as long as this board has been in existence and hammering away at that undeniable fact.

Old habits die hard. Some still believe harvest does NOT matter. Funny how not a single stock of steelhead in western WA has ever been harvested back to recovery.

Time for the co-managers to step up to the plate. Unless of course they are content to net the last one.

That's crazy about your old place! In a couple more years the boy will be gone so we're thinking of bugging out of the Wenatchee area. You can't stop change, and with all the new implants, it's just not the town that we're used to. The nice thing is that the property values have tripled in 20 years.

I made 1 trip to the Ocean in 2019, and I fished the Columbia locally for summer kings once (Brewster opener, what a [Bleeeeep!] show!) Tremendous action but the dumbest display of humans I've ever seen I believe), otherwise I was fishing where most humans weren't...that's the problem IMO. Too many phuggin humans!!!

I have a ton of family over in your neck of the wood. It is a truly magical place. I grew up fishing Roosevelt from Kettle to Keller with my grandfather, in fact he's the one who got me hooked, long before I even knew the tug of a silver bullet!

If I were you and I lived so close, I would be making routine patronages to Pend Oreille!

Hopefully winter isn't too hard on you guys this year. I know it can get pretty rugged!

There is a change on the Sky.

The island right above my old place was cut in two during the last high water.

I wouldn’t doubt if this becomes the main channel in a few years.


The main flow has been moving away from the beach at two bit for years, so more water has been flowing down the side channel. Now that it blew through the island it should take a good deal of the flood pressure off my old property.

Maybe I sold out too soon.

We always knew it would blow through, but we didn’t know if our property would survive long enough to see it happen.