First off, lets get one thing straight. I do NOT hunt or fish for trophies anymore. I have caught huge Mahi Mahi near Oahu Hawaii; various large Salmon near Homer Alaska and big trout in streams in BC and Yukon, Canada. Of course, if a trophy happens to grab my hook and play, I am not going to cut the line. Probably what will happen is that I will get it close enough to take a pix, and let it go.

The fishing I do now consists of finding those small ones about 14 to 18 inches as they taste better than the older and bigger fish. Over the years I have found that mountain stream fish are better than river fish; river fish are better than the lake variety. Now do not get me wrong as fish from a nice cold lake or river are also tasty. In fact, I used to fish the Spokane River in September and October before the snow flies looking for 18 to 26 inchers. I always got a kick out of that as some of the folks in Spokane would spend hundreds of dollar$ to go somewhere else to catch this type of fish. I would walk down the bank from where I lived and present my fly! It was great, if you did not get a bite in two or three casts, you could walk to the next hole across the rocks, and give it another go. In 45 minutes I would be back home either with fish in hand or not. In any event, it was not a big deal as you could go out the next evening and try, try again. I think that fishing the Spokane River taught me to fall off of rocks properly!

Mike, one of my fishing buddies always managed to keep dry no matter where we were. I do not know how he did it as I always seem to be wet come time to go home or back to camp. I think that it must be my sub-conscious theory that if you get water on ya, the fish think you smell better and grab your hook! I have been places fly fishing where Mike has told me that nothing was above the water except the fly pole for a few seconds when I was going to that next hole! Mike is not in the pictures yet, but as you can see Al is and he gets wet also. Figure that Mike just is not playing the game right. Well I guess that I should take that back some... There was that time down in Dosewallups going after Gooey Duck that he was pretty wet. Had to lay on your side with one arm buried up to your shoulder in a sand hole to get under the clam while your partner dug like mad. Those Gooeys can dig fast and you needed to get them that way. Went with hip waders the first time, but figured out that they just filled up which made it pretty hard to walk. Also took post hole diggers the second time instead of a entrenching tool!

Fishing the Kootenai River is probably the best all around action a person can have. You have pretty much clear water that is cold throughout the year. I does get a little warm just before fall, but nothing like the Spokane River. Have a look at the pictures using the link below! Same with the streams in BC, cold stuff! Anyway, on the Kootenai where I have been is strewn with rock that you can navigate to get to the various holes. The water is usually faster with deep holes to play in. Most of the time, you can look up and down the river and NOT see a soul. Spokane was that way also, but I think that the surrounding area is much better because of the remoteness. These Kootenai fish are darn right tasty!

Maria has fished before, but not river fishing. Jordan caught her first fish in the Kootenai AFTER learing how NOT to catch rocks. They both seem to like the way I cook fish and pretty much put away what ever we get! Can not get them to clean'm yet, but they do put on their own worms. My recipe is pretty simple : Fish ( cleaned ), spread a little butter, salt and pepper to taste on the inside. Roll in cracker crumbs after dipping in blended egg. Temperature is the killer of taste when it comes to fish. You want to get the pan hot enough to cook the fish, but you don't want to burn the skin. One of the most common things that folks do is to OVER COOK! You want to wait until there is a little steam coming out of the middle which means that it is hot enough to cook to the inside. Do not dry it out or make it rubbery! Under cook your first few tries as you always can nuke it for 10 or 15 seconds to finish up! Now you got yourself some tasty stuff!