Free: Contests & Raffles.
Being successful is all about knowledge and finesse. If you don't get help here on the forum or have any friends who can help you learn the finer points then consider hiring a fishing guide for a day, the right guide will enjoy teaching you. How much have you wasted on gas and expenses, a guide is probably a cheap investment? This forum has pretty awesome members, I'll be amazed if you don't get offers of help.
I dont even wanna hear whining about hunting...put on the boots and get after it! Your new to it even more so! its all about experience in the woods and learning. I am still learning new stuff to this day and I have been hard at it for 25 years and will NEVER give up hunting EVER! Your above statement tells me your not really into it..Id never make that statement ever. There is some great hunting in this state to be had.
One of the best steelheaders I know booked a trip with me on the Siletz back in the mid eighties. He booked the trip because he had been trying to catch a steelhead the five previous years without a single hookup. It was a foggy cold December morning river just off color and so still you could hear the water drip from the oars as I would rest before hitting the next set...perfect day for fish! On our first anchor I took out a drift rig and bounced a small peach Spin-n-glo through a rock pile. Bam! Fish On! Handed the pole off to the client and be landed the chrome without releasing the anchor. After the fish was landed I walked him through how I had read the water and what the take down felt like. Next anchor set same gear same result! Again I walked him through the steps and what it felt like. Two or three anchor sets later we reached my favorite hole on the entire river. This time before casting we both stood up and we read the water together. There were two flat boulders about 10 yards above a fast ripple. Shallow pea gravel on the far side and deeper water and 6-8" rocks and gravel on the near side. He made a perfect cast, great tension on line, perfect weight selection and then momentary slack line...tip up...Bam! Fish On! For about 30 seconds After we lost that fish he looks at me with a big grin on his face. This was not the expression I was expecting for losing his first hookup ever. He pats me on the back, gives me a brief one arm man hug and says, "Do you realize how many fish I have missed over the past five years and never knew it? I get it now. Thank you. Thank you, Thank you!" We put five more fish in the boat that day on drift gear and a couple more off plugs. We talked about how to approach each set, but I never made another cast the whole day. He did it all himself.These days we get together for lunch occasionally and I listen to him talk about pounding steel all over the northwest and Canada. He has even taught me a thing or two about targeting big fish and yarn presentations. There is no doubt he has become a world class steelheader. And all it took was a few hours in a boat with a guide willing to teach and help him understand.Sometimes hiring a guide isn't so much about getting away for the boss or the amount of fish you catch. Sometimes it's about how much knowledge you can absorb and how many questions you can get answered. Most of your quality guides are more than happy to lend a hand in your education of the sport, the animal, the fish, the water and where to best concentrate your efforts. Sometimes the fee for a guide can be difficult to swallow on a limited budget. However, sometimes it's worth every penny.I hope you don't give up. If you keep after it there will come a time you can't believe you ever had difficulty getting the feel for it. There will be days when every faulty cast seems to hook fish, every limp line eventually goes straight and every clearcut seems to have a bedded bull in it. On those days all the waiting will be worth it! Just keep at it and learn from your mistakes.
I am getting to where I don't enjoy fishing at all. Correction... I don't enjoy doing this anymore. I have been in Washington for 3 years, moved up with the Navy, and have been trying my hand at hunting and fishing. To date, I have caught a handful of trout from a stocked lake. No Flounder, No Pile Perch, Goodness knows No Salmon... nothing.I read folks saying they catch tons of flounder and pile perch... as though the things are super common. I cannot catch a single one. I have quit taking my kids because it became so hard trying to be positive and encouraging to them when inside I "know" that no matter what we do, we aren't going to catch anything.At this point, I do not think I am going to buy a hunting license... I'm tired of wasting money that I don't have. I'm also not sure if I want to fish any more in Washington. I think I have had all I can take of disappointment. Venting Complete.Thanks
Wow... What a range of responses. From "your not into it" to really good stuff.I think I have done well to stick to it with as much commitment as I have for 3 years without anything to show for it. I have friends from work and Church who catch fish and fill hunting tags and I easily spend 2 to 3 times the amount of time they do in the woods or by the water. The thing that separates me from them... they have access to private land for hunting and they all have boats. I have been out with them before, but we did not catch anything then. Their attitude is a good one, "oh well, better luck next time." The downfall is that "next time" they go out, I usually have to work.I am Acitve Navy and work Ridiculous hours. Due to transferring, deployments, and poor investments years ago, I am in a lot more debt than I am comfortable with. I see my kids for a couple hours each week with the number of hours I devote to work, odd jobs to cut my debt, and then my hunting and fishing. I look at the investment of time and money into this "sport" and find that the payoff is dismal. My kids are making the sacrifice. I grew up in south Louisiana and coastal North Carolina ( a little bit in Tennessee too, but did no hunting or fishing there). I was a very accomplished fisherman in those states. Flat black water, swamps, warm lakes and ponds, slow moving brackish water and really protected coastal areas like the inner bays behind the outer banks and the intercoastal water way. I fished from a canoe, a kayak, the beach, and wading out in the mud... could load an ice chest with bass, chinquapin, blue gill, and perch. Not a fan of catfish.I have been to Point No Point and Salisbury several times. I have counted more than 70 fisherman coming and going while I was standing on the beach, and I have seen or heard of only about 6 to 8 Salmon going home with somebody. That is less than 10 percent success. I stood out at Salisbury just watching and talking... 38 people, 4 hours, 3 fish... Most all of them were throwing the same stuff. That makes for an average of 50.6 hours per fish. My kids were there with me. We couldn't get on line because my kids (8 and 6) cast side arm and not overhead... I have started teaching them to cast overhead now since I see that that is the name of the game with combat fishing. I read the tide tables, gamefishing.com, the threads on here. I talk with the folks fishing on the pier or the beach around me, I talk to the employees at Wholesale Sports (or Sportsmans Warehouse, or whatever it is called now). I watch videos from fishing guides and regular folks to see what they are doing. I read articles from biologists and watch videos from universities about Salmon and Flounder behavior...Bearpaw is dead on accurate when he says that, compared to the money and time invested to learn it yourself, a good guide is a cheap option. If I wasn't so dadgum broke now, I would do it. I should have done it before. I have considered trying to make a deal with somebody who actually catch fish to let me sit in the boat... I'll even leave all my stuff at home and not fish just for chance to watch an accomplished person bring something in. I haven't tried the Manchester area. I'll give that a go. I'll also start planning these things WITH my kids and instead of making it a fishing trip and bring our lunches, make it a picnic at the beach/park and bring the fishing rods.I grew up really poor in south Louisiana (one of the reasons I joined the Navy) and my family was able to afford groceries because we bought very little meat. We ate LOTS of fish. I had thought that, with a couple years invested in learning the ropes out here, that I would at least be able to supplement my groceries... Not so.One last thing... for those who feel as though Washington is the pinnacle of outdoor hunting and fishing, how much time have you honestly spent living in and hunting/fishing outside of this area? Wildmanoutdoors... thanks so much for your post. I watch folks in boats not catching anything either. After not catching, and not seeing anybody else be succesfull, I get the feeling that the fishing really isn't all that good unless you have a loaded boat... What you said in your post about the south sound is what I have been observing. I'll absolutely try where you say regarding Manchester.O... and I would gladly settle for a doe... if I could get drawn for one! To those who are giving advice, thanks. It really is hard for me to spend my time away from my family and spend money that has run short for something that is not building my family (taking me away from my kids) and not putting food on my table. Thanks again y'all.DS
O... and I would gladly settle for a doe... if I could get drawn for one!
One last thing... for those who feel as though Washington is the pinnacle of outdoor hunting and fishing, how much time have you honestly spent living in and hunting/fishing outside of this area?
Isn't flipping rocks on the shore to see what's under there when the fish aren't cooperative interesting? I still love doing that...