My experience has been very positive as well with my wife Annette, friend Doug Coe and I fishing on the Snake River with Guide Tim Johnson in Oct. We had a 25 fish day with 17 to the boat and 14 hatchery fish kept. This kind of fishing is rare I am sure but sure makes for a great day on the river when it happens.

Enjoy the photos and if you want a great experience contact Fish Hawk Charters in Lewiston and book a trip with Tim Johnson while the fishing is hot and the weather mild.Snake River Steelhead 09

My oldest son Peter is not quite as accomplished as his younger brother Lance but never the less did catch fish and it was equally fun to watch them interact and help each other with fly selection and technique.

The day was as perfect weather wise as it gets and the river was in wonderful shape for wading and working the water around logs and cut banks.

As usual dad showed them how its done and lucky for me caught the largest fish of the day on a crane fly, thanks to Jim Gallager, owner/guide of Yakima River Fly Shop in Cle Elum. Jim gives out great information and advise on fly selection and places to wade fish. Besides being a great guide for the upper Yakima River he will help anyone learn to fish better and get more enjoyment from the experience of fly fishing.

So my message again is take your kids fishing. Use a guide when you can they will help you learn the river better and improve your fly fishing technique.

Ryan from Carmel, Calif. caught the largest fish, about 3 ft long and also brought up a dungeness crab for good measure, which we threw back not knowing exactly what the rules might be for keeping a crab, even though we were certain it was male and of legal size. This after the crab did a number on grandpa’s left index finger as I finished explaining to the kids how careful they had to be in handling a dungeness crab because they are so quick.

Jessica and Mathew, brother and sister who live in Sequim caught their share of fish too, had a good time playing them and did a marvelous job of fighting the fish to the boat on their own. All in all a great day on the water and wonderful experience for grandpa too.

This fish is probably older than I am and is just one of the many different sights worth stopping to  check out at Bonneville Dam. The fish hatchery is well worth your time to visit while on your way to Walla Walla for a nice weekend visit. Per chance you want to do more than just visit and are interested in property, Coldwell Banker First Realtors is also well worth your time to visit. And since I am a realtor your time with me will be well spent. You may even want to talk fishing which is my passion in life (besides kids and grandkids) right now. I play golf too but that is a sorry story not worth talking about right now.

As my title suggests catching a Sturgeon on a fly rod to my knowledge has never been done. Can it happen, I believe so but not in the traditional sense or methodology. I have caught large fish, King Salmon and even a halibut on a fly rod. Granted the halibut was not very big, around 10 + lbs as I recall but gave me all I could handle.

Soon I will be traveling back for my annual spring trip to Alaska to visit friends and try to catch fish, king salmon on my 10wt Sage Fly Rod. Fishing the Anchor River, Deep Creek or the Ninilchik River for kings is another of lifes wonderful fishing experiences well worth doing in your life. Alaska is a magic place to visit for anyone. If you can fish so much the better.

So if you come to Walla Walla and look for real estate and want to talk fishing too, look me up. And you will hear about Alaska as a matter of lifes experinces.

At some point I will talk about King crab fishing in the Bering Sea and fishing for Dollies off the beaches of Dutch Harbor and Unalaska Islands.

Recently found some interesting stats on Walla Walla area that might be of interest to anyone thinking about living here in the near or far future. The popultation of Walla Walla proper is 31,350 and county is 58,600. Median home price is $190,500. Government employes 19.9% of our work force with health care second at 13.3% and Agriculture accounting for 11.4%. We have a diversified base of employment which helps make Walla Walla a fairly stable economy.

Our projected growth per year is projected at 4.4%. Sustained and manageable for housing and employment opportunities.

And for you fishing buffs the local streams will be running most likely higher than normal as the winter snow load was above average and until this week our spring weather has been cool to say the least. But higher cooler water generally makes for better fishing. It’s just the numbness of your ankles and legs while wading the cold streams in 90 degree weather that makes it more interesting.

Of course you can always wear wadders, which turn into sweat pants causing you to want to lay down in the stream anyway. You might as well just suffer the first few minutes and wade in without waders. It eventually feels just fine. And once you start catching fish you really don’t care anyway.

One good thing is our real estate market has gotten busier. More calls and potential clients asking about Walla Walla and wanting to come take a look. Bodes well for future business but may cut into my fishing time. Oh well can’t have one without the other for long. And you can’t fish every day can you? I think I might like to try.

Anchor River Alaska