Dec. 1, 2010
1. Steelhead fishing in danger. 2. December
fishing! 3. Great fishing trip.
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Sept 31, 2010
1. Fishing Tips. 2. Triple your catch. 3.
Conservation corner.
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July 8, 2010
1. Where to fish 2. Best 'Slam-dunk'
fisheries! 3.
Gangs ruining our fishing
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April 28, 2010
1. NEW gameplan! 2. An Osprey grabbed our
fish! 3.
Top rated May fishing
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February 1, 2010
1. Fishing so good you won't believe it. 2.
Conservation Corner. 3. Team-Freedom.org
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November 30, 2009
1. Time to make a salmon your chum. 2.
2009 Volunteer award winners. 3. New law allows you to double
your rate of hookups!?
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July
24, 2009
1. School girl nets record catch that's twice her size. 2. Neah
Bay/Sekiu are hot for salmon. 3. Dale got strikes almost every cast at
our Mt. Baker hike-in lake |
October 7, 2008
Five species of salmon can hit your lure or fly, so you never know what
you’ll catch. The fish on the Harrison can be HUGE. Orange is a good
color. Get a border pass, and you can sail through the border crossing.
... click for more |
August 11, 2008
Since the #1 rule of fishing is “fish where the fish are, when
conditions are right”, here’s the right place (see Gameplans for the
right conditions to go) for big fish. ... click for more |
July 19, 2008
We used to get skunked years ago reasonably often, until we learned
well over 200 tips. When implemented, those tips took Dale’s boat’s
average weekend catch rate from a couple fish to 215
hookups/boat/weekend when he runs our system. ... click for more
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June 20, 2008
Don’t use sharp hooks. Hooks/lures right out of the box are often not
sharp enough! Even hooks that scratch your finger-nail when you drag
the hook across it are not sharp enough. Hooks that even dig in, and
“skip” over your finger-nail when you drag the hook across it are not
sharp enough... ... click for more |
May 2,
2008
The simple troll with a quarter ounce sinker was all it took, with four
anglers marking roughly 120 hookups (single, barbless hook, not
necessarily landed) and grabbing one quadriple. ... click for more
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April 24, 2008
Yes, it’s bewildering. No, we’re not mocking your state’s department of
fish and game. Everybody’s scrambling to provide both protection for
fish and angling opportunities, in that order. ... click for more
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April
4, 2008
Anyone who's ever cast a fly understands the challenges of the
sport….Time of day, season, water depth and date make up just a partial
list of variables that may separate a day to brag about from striking
out ... click for more |
March 21, 2008
It works for him, and for his family’s boat in a big, big way: Dale’s
Troll (DT) is a unique rig, a triple threat that works with spoons or
flies. It’s part of his system. ... click for more |
March
3, 2008
One way or another, the pair lasted two hours on a dock in a cool
drizzle—no problems staying “moist”—fueled by coffee and chocolate,
testing rods from a soft four-weight to a stiff eight, with a five and
seven in between. ... click for more |
February 12, 2008
Excerpts from the latest WDFW bulletin say it all. “Spring is more than
a month away,” begins the first paragraph. “Ice fishing is also still
an option,” starts the next. ... click for more |
January 24, 2008
Follow This Direction Exactly: Experiment. Now. Right. Bit of a
paradox, we know. Fishing Coaches creates Gameplans designed to give
members the most precise, “foolproof” instructions possible: where to
go, when (and when not to), who to call, what tackle to bring, lures to
use, rigging, techniques ... click for more |
January 17, 2008
Fishing Coaches is interested in developing a squid scenario. So if
this happens to be an area of your expertise…please let us know! ...
... click for more |
January
7, 2008
If you fish bait, do not “cull” your trout, releasing smaller fish
while hoping for something larger. Bait-hooked fish too often die, for
one thing. For another, it’s illegal: the fine for culling is
enormous...
... click for more |
December 29, 2007
...if you can’t wait to spin that new Christmas reel, double-haul your
Hanukah rod, cast that collection of new Kwanza crankbaits...
... click for more |
December 17, 2007
Steelhead are tough. Tough fighters, sure, but what we mean is finding
them in numbers that meet Fishing Coaches Scenario criteria. ... click
for more |
December 8, 2007
The Nisqually (#221) wasn’t fishing too well before the week-end flood
raised flows from 200 cubic feet per second to just shy of 10,000.
While we should see major subsiding this week, it’s hard to say when
conditions will improve enough to justify a visit ... click for more
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November 29, 2007
...consider the challenges presented by chum salmon, AKA “dogs,” and
their distant second cousin, Prosopium williamsoni, commonly known as
Mountain Whitefish. As quarry they couldn’t be more different. ...
click for more |
November 13, 2007
Chum in saltwater estuaries: fishing has been fair around the Hoodsport
Hatchery north of Potlatch, where 68 anglers caught 73 salmon on 11/10.
... click for more |
November 5, 2007
If fishing’s what you want, then most any trip’s a good one—or should
be. But for catching, getting the most current reports is a critical
part of the game, as these reports reveal: ... click for more
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October 24, 2007
Two young fathers, fishing with their kids. One had a pair of young
daughters with corn-silk hair, the other a son pushing ten years, tall
for his age—and excited as could be to land one of the Cohoes Dad
hooked up with a long cast. ... click for more |
October 10, 2007
...their first day, they hooked five species of fish—chums, Coho,
Sockeye, Whitefish…and lots of Humpies. ... click for more |
September 18, 2007
Begin with a how to at our office in Bellingham at 10:00 a.m., Saturday
9/22/07 Then those who like will mount up and, an hour’s drive and 45
minutes walk later… ... click for more |
September
7, 2007
Summer won’t last, you know. Here’s some Fishing Coaches Gameplans you
might want to look at post haste. ... click for more |
August 20, 2007
It’s not a do-it-yourself Scenario. But if you plan this trip right,
bring friends, food and drinks, you can save money, hook hundreds of
fish and send heavy iceboxes home. ... click for more |
July 17, 2007
While we certainly admire single species purists— tournament bassers
with more tackle than Norway, the dry fly artist casting a size 22
midge upstream to rising fish, ... click for more |
July 6,
2007
Summertime, and the living is easy. Unless you happen to be a hooked
trout, salmon or steelhead that an angler is willing or obliged by law
to release alive. ... click for more |
June
21, 2007
A pair of other FC members and I fished 2 1/2 days on this Columbia
River Scenario last weekend, looking for hard-fighting shad. We found
them. ... click for more |
June 8,
2007
Did Somebody Say "Smallmouth?" If not, they should have, as 75 hookups
per person per day is not unheard of. BROWNLEE RESERVOIR: is still
producing, and bigger bass than usual, along with plenty of crappie and
perch. ... click for more |
June 1,
2007
Dale and another FC member hit this private lake in BC last week. The
two of them combined to hook-up more than 150 (one hundred and fifty)
leaping Kamloops in a weekend ... click for more |
May 23, 2007
Private water, catch-and-release, fly-fishing only, trip on Douglas
Lake Ranch....a great chance to practice early-season streamer and
midge fishing techniques on a lake where you’re more apt to see a bear
in the distance than crowds of anglers up close! ... click for more
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May 15, 2007
Whatcom Falls Derby. Nobody got lonely. Everybody landed a hot dog, at
least, and 20 finalists caught 40 fish in less than that many minutes.
... click for more |
May 1,
2007
Padden Produces. Fishing Coaches President Dale Dorcas and 3 FC members
did just as we’ve been suggesting for a month, hitting the opener on
one of the lakes stocked up to the Fishing Coaches’ minimum. ... click
for more |
April 11, 2007
We think it’s best that Laurie Zavala tell you her story her way,
because, well... we just couldn’t express her excitement any better
than she has, while reporting on wild 8lb trout she caught on March 11,
2007. ... click for more |
March 12, 2007
Opening Day on most Washington Lakes is often a fishing festival, with
more anglers lining the banks and boat launches than a lake may see
again all season. The WDFW plants heavily, hoping folks will go home
happy, which for most means a handful of meal-size trout in the cooler.
... click for more |
February
9, 2007
Fish all you like—or all you can bare—but the realities of mid-winter
catching reveal why bears hibernate and other species migrate to warmer
climes. ... click for more |
January 31, 2007
One of our newer Gameplans is a guided catch-and-release Scenario on
the Skagit for Bull Trout and Dolly Varden with Rob Endsley. Terrific
fish, these — big, beautiful, savage... click for more |
January 11, 2007
Whenever you’re considering a trip to fish a river or rivers, make sure
to check the data available from the United States Geological Survey
site -- see sample chart... click for more |
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OTHER NEWS
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12/18/06
Folks! It’s only wet, windy — barely freezing... |
Nisqually River: fishing for bright
chums is heating up. The runs are coming in now, though it can be a
trick to find them in latte water. We expect peak numbers
around December 25, so make sure to check the new Gameplan! And remember to carry a
spare rod when you ride off to battle these brutes.
Rufus Woods rainbows…here’s another
fishery that will go gangbusters February 1 through 15 — and another
new Gameplan to check out. Triploid trout larger than many salmon? One
of the neat things about Rufus is that typically the fish are close to
the surface. Close enough, in fact that we’re considering a fly fishing
GP there in the future...
Whatcom Creek: We’re still waiting to
hear the final numbers, but were frankly disappointed by the run this
season. Perhaps the reason why: three or four years back vandals killed
more than a million Whatcom Creek Hatchery fry. What never went to sea
can’t come back.
Finally: While Seth tried mightily to
identify a Nooksack chum Scenario this year, for fish like the one
below, "blown out" is a pale way to describe river conditions. How
blown? During the November storm, one fork of the river went from less
than 200 cubic feet per second of flow to 9000 cfs in
less than three days... And last week, another fork increased volume by
six times in 12 hours. Not a day
to wade... especially out to an island.
Maybe next year.
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12/1/06
Members Getting out there! After spending most of our spring and summer
in the office writing Gameplans... In the middle of the most miserable
weather... |
Seth grabbed Member Curt the end of
last month, to explore the (faint) possibilities of a late season
kokanee Scenario on a lake we'll tell you more about later. Cold, cold
clear morning, little wind, nothing rising; but 90 minutes of trolling
did produce three, maybe four bumps, two fish on and one, named
"dinner," in hand.
Dale reports that Whatcom Creek is
putting out fish, six and eight pounds and up -- some fairly right --
although more slowly than usual for this time of year. The crowd can
get thick on both sides of the stream, so early, early mornings on
week-days really are your best bet. Note that some day we see heavy
flows coming out of the lake, so arrifve prepared with longer pieces of
tubing and pencil lead weight. Dale's also beginning to suspect that
the lower the tide, the lower down the angler line-up you're likely to
see fish hit, and visa versa.
Make sure your rod is stiff. A whippy
stick will makes it tough to control your drift, even tougher to set
the hook when the time comes.
Seth took lessons from Dale at
Whatcom -- place was popping -- then, as promised, headed out to
research a Nooksack chum scenario. Now is the time of year all right,
but Seth's been watching the the CFS bounce up and down more than 5000
cfs a day--from 600 to almost 6000 (See chart attached.) The real
problem, however, is water clarity, as he discovered when he trekked to
the river two days after it dropped...only to find agua Ovaltine. The
good news is that he did see big, bright fish, determined bucks surfing
upstream through a riffle too shallow to wet their gills.
So Whatcom's a go, now, for what Dale
calls "Sociable Anglers," while the Nooksack's a "wait," with more rain
forecast as far as the satellites can see.
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