[columbiaguide]

I was wondering what you guys consider your best day on the water... maybe two days best day of hooking fish could be way diff then your best day ever.. here are mine.... its a toss up between my 100+ salmon day on the Nush 2 years ago with another guide freind of mine up there.. I remember the biggest one I caught that day was around 44lbs.. or so the formula said.... we had her in the net and were drifting down the river with not a soul around... as we got the final girth number we drfited around a corner and a huge cow moose was in the river. we got within id guess 30ft.. that was awesome to be in alaska on that river with no other boats in miles and to hook fish like that all day was a once in a lifetime day for me.. the next for me would be my 25 steelie day on the columbia last summer.. that was with a few freinds and man it was fun...! but my best day ever id say would be either when I took my freinds 3 yo girl fishing for the first time and she caught her first trout... or last summer when my buddies came up from cali and both got their first oversize.. we put 9 to my boat that day.. man a blast that was!! how about you guys????

 

[Big Worm]

My most productive day on the water was when I was 9 on Woods Cr. in Monroe. Caught 53 small rainbows in 2.5 hours with rooster tails. Also, when I was 6 I hooked into a 40lb king on the Satin Doll 2 at Neah Bay and won every bet on the boat for first fish, most fish, and biggest fish. But my best days were the days with my grandfather fishing Fish Lake and Baker Lake. For some reason I'd always get into a mess of fish when I'm with him.

Needless to say, I'm a little overdue for another best day along with some really good ones.

 

[cmessling07]

I am gonna have to put it down to last year when I first was getting back into fishing. We went up to Mineral Lake and had a great day. a total of 30 or so rainbows between the two of us trolling on the far side. 3 of them were over 5 pounds and over 50 percent were over 14 inches. It really got me hooked and without that day I am not where I am today

Another possible one would be earlier this fall when I hit up the Cascade River for silvers with my friend Brett and koolaidwa. It was SLOW when we got there, and we found out what the fish wanted and outcaught the other 20 people 2 to 1. In the 4 hours we fished the hatchery we went about 10 for 20. Crackers yes, Great day YES! Tup:

 

[fishin musician]

Any day on the water is a good one, so it's hard to single out just one.

One that comes to mind was the fish river near White Mountain Ak. We had taken a day off from silvers to catch grayling. None of us had caught them before. The sky was clear, temp in the high 60's low 70's, and the comradery was perfect. We were sight fishing for grayling, most of them 20" or better using parachute (so my tired old eyes could see them) adams and humpies. I quit counting at 30, and every time I looked at one of my buddies I saw a bent rod. What a day. Pick your fish, cast, watch it sight the fly then slam it! Sometimes they would jump and pound the fly on the way down! It was such a bright perfect day that we didn't realise it was after 10 pm before we decided we had better head back to the lodge.

 

[Riverking]

Best day ever was on the Hump. caught and released 68 salmon with my brother and his friend in the front of my drift boat, by 3:00 they didnt want to catch any more fish there arms were to sore..What a great day.

 

[AkKings]

After 17 seasons in Ak. the list is long, 1 of the more recent days that stands out was early August 2005, myself and 4 resort crew members had a day off and went out "home packing", went about 20 miles offshore to a place called Forrester Is., we started out mooching for salmon in 400' of water, the silvers, many of which were 15-20lbs. were in a feeding frenzy, it was 1 quad after another, with 20 or 30 other fish chasing the hooked fish to the boat. Occassionally we would make it down past 120' and if so you were rewarded with a king, it took us under an hour to get our 30 silver limit as well as our 7 king limit and we released/lost a few other kings. Once we finished up on the salmon we moved about a mile and dropped on a couple pinnacles, instant quad on lings, another drop, quad again with lings and reds, took 3 drops to limit on lings and reds, made another short move to a ledge and shelf and dropped some jigs and salmon parts, caught and released a bunch of halibut over about an hour period looking for a nice grade, ended up with a limit (10) of 40-75lbs. halibut, called it a day and were back to the dock in time for lunch.

 

[corkiedrifter]

Lot's of them, some better than others. Friday, June 1st, 2007 was probably the one where all the stars aligned. Opening Day of MA11, put in at Gig Harbor and fished the morning tide change at Evans, nothing doing. Decided to bag it 2 hours after high slack and headed in. Something in my head said try over there, found an eddy and my partner and I dropped our jigs to the bottom, both came up solid on the first jig. Double 12 and 14 clipped kings. Motored back to the head of the eddy, dropped again and doubled off again, 8 pound unclipped 15 pound clipped. Rinse and repeat, buddy retying knot, wham I hooked up 15 pound unclipped. 4th time through and my buddy hits one on the drop to the bottom, 14 pound clipped. Fish box full, punchcards filled out, limit had. Best Opening day for me ever. I would rate the following 6 days right up there because we limited the boat in the same exact spot each day, but it took sometimes an hour and a half instead of the 30 minutes on the opener. Will probably never see another one of those types of freak happenings, but I know where I will be two hours after high tide and 30 minutes before sunrise, 4:48am on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 Tup:

 

[J.D.]

As far as numbers go, Tuna/Chinook/Coho/Lingcod/Halibut in that order, all in the same day trip out of Neah in August '01 via canadian waters. I'm pretty fast with the fillet knife, but it was a dark to dark ordeal for the three of us.

 

[eggster]

july 28th 2006 on the cowlitz. me and my step-grandson got a double of summer run steelhead freedrifting eggs. then we went right back to the same hole and my nephew and grand-son hooked there own! we ended up boating 7 fish in 4 hours that day, and lost another 5.

 

[Guest]

Well It has been awhile since I've posted, so busy lately and my computer crashed and it took a long time to get everything fixed up. But my best day had to have been one day on the green when I found a pack of chum and was hooking many of them all day, and then as I moved a little bit to spot where i couldn't see them, I casted and caught my first steelhead ever, and boy was my blood and adrenaline flowing, just like the fish's once i started gutting it, lol Tup:

 

[the kid 2]

Many best days. But the absolute best was cnr cutthroat on the Newaukum in and around Onalaska a few years back. Opening day, warm sun, low water, wading from hole to hole hooking fish 10 to 18 inches all morning with barbless Dick Nite half/half.
Fished the Kenai, Cow, and hundreds of others with Kings to 65#'s, and steelies a plenty but that day was just special.

 

[YellowFever]

Theres always those days where it seems like you can't help but catch fish on every cast, and yes those times are alot of fun and get you lots of bragging rights... but I can't help but look back and see that my favorite days on the water were spent with my grandpa when i was young. That ol guy had more patience that anybody i know, and he always knew just where to go to make the day fun... Even when we didn't catch much, we always came back with a story.... like one time fishing the mouth of the cispus in scanewa, when after getting a bite my grandpa set the hook, only to reel in a foot long dinosaur. Yep, sure as shit he had an actual toy dinosaur that must have fallen out of somebodys boat hooked right through the side of the face! He taught me alot of lessons that i'll never forget, especially the time on riffe I had caught my first big smallmouth. After we got it to the boat he told me it was legal to keep, but that it was probably gonna spawn soon- he left the choice up to me. Being a naive little youngster, i kept it-- but when we got back he made me gut it open to see the thousands of eggs that were ready to come out. No doubt that lesson hit me harder than any words would have... So, it usually ends up that no matter how much fun i have or how many fish i catch,.. they'll never quite live up to the times i had with that guy

 

[Red Neckersom]

Good post Chris and I totally agree. The absolute best times I've had have been with family and friends and not necessarily about how many fish we caught or didn't catch. I've had some great times over the years fishing and some great productive days that were just ridiculous and no one would believe anyway, but the best part of all of it is looking back and remembering. Tup:

 

[DBAppraiser]

The best day on the water occurs when my mother in law comes to town and I am trolling around MA 11 and 13 for large chunks of the day. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

[volynsky]

my best days:

-55 shad fishing from shore at Bonneville dam
-limiting on steelhead in an hour of fishing in the Snoq system
-bucket full of yellow perch from Lake WA

 

[fishaffender]

mine would have to be summer run on the cowlitz first time i ever went with a guide. Hook-em up (don huntley) he offered me and a buddy a free trip. i declined and said no offense but i do good on my own and would rather go bank it on the kalama. my buddy was astonished at my reply and pulled me aside and said Don is an awsome guide and we should go. so i went half heartedly. on the first drift Don hooked 2 and gave me a sh!!!!t eatin grin. but i aint no dummy i watched what he was doing and where he was throwing. so the next drift i hook 3 between blue crk and the tail out below the dock. i shoot the same look back at him. well we landed 31 steelhead that day i stayed on the boat the whole day while others traded on and off. the fishing was awsome but the part that makes it the best is Don is now one of my best friends and we always laugh about that day and how we met. MIke

 

[willie makeit]

fishing the puyallup on january 7, 2007. my best freind, fishing partner ryan fisher. we walked and fished heavy from 115th st, to the clay bank hooking one silver. after getting back 2 the trucks around 3 pm. he talked me into going up steam to or buddy gary's house who lives on the puy. we walked in and fist cast we both hook up.i break mine off ryan lands a nice 10lbs native. while im tying up ryan hooked another only to break it off. we were both shaking trying to tie up dropping hooks, corkies,and bait, because we both knew next cast was golden. we ended up going 5 for 7 on mint steelhead, and 1 chum. i have fished this river since i was a small child same as ryan. not since the mid 80's have i had a day that perfect. I have had lots of multi fish days from ak to the cow, but being able to sleep in get breakfast,and still be on the river at day break is my favorite i love the puyallup.

 

[J.D.]

Theres always those days where it seems like you can't help but catch fish on every cast, and yes those times are alot of fun and get you lots of bragging rights... but I can't help but look back and see that my favorite days on the water were spent with my grandpa when i was young.

That's darn right. If I could re-live two fishing outings from '07, it would be an evening of fishing Pine Lake with my 6year old Niece, and the day fishing Chinooks in our old stomping grounds in MA-9 with my old man. Children and stocker trout, and watching Dad tussle with a Chinook after a 5year+ fishing hiatus brings as much of a smile as any other fishing outing I've partaken in.

DAD

Niece

 

[reelinanrockin]

Well I wont say any day or trip was the best..But I have had some good days fishing for trout or Sockeye on lake washington...Me and ol Doc put the wood to em a time or two last summer on tapps as well..Oh and our Duwamish coho trip was awsome..Thanks Doc.

 

[powder]

Believe it or not, cnr'in a dozen pinks in an hr and 15 mins on the same gear i tied on before i arrived. Hottest fishing i've ever experienced. Couldn't do anything wrong.