MANY BEAUTIFUL WASHINGTON STATE PARKS, SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THIS SCENIC STATE, PROVIDE IDEAL DESTINATIONS FOR THE CAMPING BASS ANGLER To me, "Camping-Fishing" has always seemed like one word. Sure, some folks do go camping without a fishing rod or a boat -- but I've never figured out how that could be much fun. During the past five decades, I've camped and fished all over the beautif...

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The winter months are a slow time for many anglers in Washington State. Those not willing to brave the cold for ice fishing, winter steelheading or whitefishing find themselves surfing the television for fishing shows or performing some much needed maintenance on their fishing gear. At a time like this, we can be thankful we have the sportsmen’s shows to motivate us for the coming season. Whe...

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Hello and welcome to my annual "year in review". Once a year I take a few minutes to talk about where we’ve come and where we are going. This year saw a continuation of last year’s growth in readership and reports posted. Our milestones to report: total visits went over one million for the first time in this site history. The exact number is (drum roll) 1,058,053. Reports posted in 2006: 2,469....

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Her name was Samantha. She was one of the biggest smallmouth bass in all of Lake Sammamish. Nearly 12 years old, her normally powerful, streamlined body now bulged with nearly a pound of roe. Spawning season was near. As she finned the shallows, looking for a mate she started day dreaming about that cool spring day when she had emerged from an egg so long ago. She had been spawned in lat...

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Tips for improving your fishing experience… One nice thing about bass fishing and fishing in general is that over time you learn a lot of "tricks of the trade" as it were. And being a writer, you get to share some of those things you have discovered and made that have helped you over those years that have landed more and bigger fish. I love writing and it has given me a lot of joy to share my ...

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There is over a foot of fresh snow on the ground, the temperature is in the mid-twenties, the wind is steady out of the north with gust’s up to 30 miles an hour, the water color is green and in good shape, and the dog’s (Chum Salmon) are entering the river in droves. Only the hearty, dedicated, an...

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What’s the difference between a great fisherman and a good fisherman… What makes the difference between a good fisherman and a great fisherman? We have all met a great fisherman at one time or another. They are the ones who always seem to be able to catch fish when no one else around them can even get a bite. They always seem to be able to land their target species whether it’s bass, trout, ...

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I don’t make any claims to being an expert rod builder, but I have built or refurbished a few rods. Some were graphite, some bamboo and at least one or two that were fiberglass. My knowledge of rod building came primarily from trial and error. I do, however, have to give credit where credit is due. One of those credits would have to go to a book I bought sometime in the 70’s. "DO IT YOURSELF ROD B...

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"An epic struggle has begun". And once you begin to read "The Kingdom of the Rainbow", you will be drawn into that struggle in this page-turning book by local author Robert Luck. The Kingdom of the Rainbow is a book about - fish. But not your usual "how to catch em" guide. And not a "my fishing adventures" book. No, in the Kingdom of the Rainbow Luck has created for us an epic story featuring o...

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Sometimes the need to go back to your beginnings hits you square in the face. In my case, it came to me on a weeklong fishing trip while I compared my empty creel to my partner’s repeated cries of "Fish on!" The two of us were fishing Potholes Reservoir and some of the fertile waters that surround it in mid-October. I was fishing my usual combination of artificial lures while my friend gene...

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I learned musky fishing in the Midwest, where the sport is well established. The first time I fished Wisconsin’s famed Chippewa Flowage, where 50,000 anglers catch 3,000 muskies a year, I caught a musky within an hour. Perhaps that doesn’t make me an expert, but being a Wisconsin native entitles me to end sentences with "eh!" A tiger musky is the offspring of a muskellunge an...

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The new generation of side looking sonar’s… I suppose the average American if you ask them what sonar is they would instantly think about the navy, a big round screen in a darkened room with a white bar going round and round kind’a like a radar unit. But to fisherman a sonar unit is a tool, a flat screen that gives him the depth of water he is in, the temperature of that water and a rough idea...

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