The Latest and Greatest Fishing Report with Bonner Daniels

The summertime sun has finally come to Washington state and with her heat came the king salmon retention closure on Sky River. With that stated, I am now shifting gears back to focusing on the Skykomish River summer-run steelhead. If you’re looking for a peaceful float down the river, with the opportunity to catch a summer-run chromer, look no further than your own backyard. The fish have moved up the system and it’s time to break out the drift boat.

Otherwise, lets get a crew to fill up the jet sled and head down to the Cowlitz River to do battle with summer-run steelhead. Those fish have definitely shown up and are in the system, as well. Side drifting and pulling plugs are the keys to success down on the Cow.

Lets Go Catch Some Summer Run Chrome!

Sincerely,
Bonner Daniels
bonnerfishon.com
425-281-8772

Fetha Styx and North Fork Composites have come together to create what I would consider the #1 new rod on the market today for action and sensitivity. Coming soon to a dealer near you! Contact Billy or Gina at Fetha Styx for more information.

PS The walleye bite is on over east if your looking for a change of pace. Just let me know when you want to go

Team Fetha Styx at 2010 Washington Governor’s Cup Walleye Tournament

The Washington State Governor’s Cup was held at Kettle Falls on the beautiful Lake
Roosevelt on June 26th and 27th. There were 89 teams that competed in this year’s
tournament. Out of a possible 1068 fish that could be weighed in, the 89 teams brought
in 1047 fish to the scales. Many teams reported catching 30 to 40 fish per day. There are
a lot of walleye in Lake Roosevelt and the number of fish that were brought to the scales
over this two day tournament is a testament to how incredible and healthy this fishery is.

Team Fetha Styx had a good game plan going into this year’s Governor’s Cup based upon
our pre-fishing results, but as with any tournament, conditions do change and we found
this to be true on Saturday. After day one, we were sitting in 32nd place with a total
weight of 8.42 lbs. The leaders were at 15.78 lbs and we were almost 2 lbs behind 10th
place so Jeff and I knew we had to adapt our fishing if we wanted to have a chance at a
top 10 finish.

When Sunday morning came, we decided to focus on fishing deeper water current
breaks and points that were closer to the main channel and oh did it pay off. We were
immediately rewarded with better quality fish up to 20”. After catching and sorting
through around 30 fish we were able to weigh in 6 fish for 11.66 lbs. Our two day total
of 20.08 lbs was good enough for a 7th place finish.

The next tournament for Team Fetha Styx is July 25th and 26th. The Spokane Walleye
Club presents the Washington State’s Walleye Championship back at Kettle Falls and the
winner is guaranteed a top prize of $10,000. Team Fetha Styx is currently in 3rd place in
the Angler of the Year standings and this will prove to be an exciting finish to this year’s
Washington State Walleye Circuit.

Rod Hewitt
Jeff Dickinson

Current WSWC Standings

DON GHRAMM
470.86

GREG OSBORNE
432.34

ROD HEWITT
425.54

STAN ROMIG
425.47

JIM STACK
406.08

KEVIN STACK
406.08

JIM STACK
406.08

STEVE ROMIG
397.38

RICK SUTHERLAND
395.24

TOM MORROW
395.24

The Latest and Greatest Fishing Report with Bonner Daniels

Summer . . . well I think it’s summer, but I’m still not sure. Actually the weather from a fisherman’s point of view has been excellent. Read more »

Hawg Quest catching HUGE salmon in Kodiak Island, Alaska

After traveling to the far reaches of salmon travel in Kodiak Island, Alaska to the famed Keani river — we were filming for an upcoming episode of Hawg Quest trying to catch that elusive 100lb king salmon — we realized that the best fishing is really right here on the Snohomish river system. As hard as that is to believe, we struggled to get fish in some of the the best salmon waters in the world.  All the while Bonner is sending me pix of steelhead and king limits almost everyday right here in Washington. We will be right here on the Snohomish system for the next month or so with the fishing only going to get better and better. If you want to go after some truly special fishing, give me a call and don’t miss out.

Tall Tails Guide Service

The Latest and Greatest Fishing Report with Bonner Daniels

The Skykomish River opening day fishing report. The water WAS a beautiful, deep green in the upper river, and little more colored up the lower you went, with the color coming from the Wallace and Sultan rivers and the river was running 6,900 CFS and 49 degrees. Read more »

Trophy Bass on Potholes Reservoir with Bonner Daniels

I was over fishing on the Potholes Reservoir last weekend. Tyson Ahina, Bob Jorgensen and I were catching large and smallmouth bass between two and six pounds on soft plastics, along with jerk baits. The bass were both in spawn and pre-spawn mode. The weather was great. The fish are all in great condition and very scrappy. We catch and release ALL of our trophy bass.

When we are looking for table fare, we catch walleye.

This year has been great with limits being the norm for my boat. We mainly troll spinners and crankbaits for the fish we target. We also release the trophy walleye we catch, but all the rest are headed for the deep fryer

If you’re looking for a nice change of pace, the Eastside has some truly wonderful warm water fisheries. Give me a call and let’s go catch some fish.

Sincerely,

Bonner Daniels
Bonnerfishon.com
425-281-8772

Spring Chinook Season is underway with Brad Wagner

So the spring chinook season has been going for a week already! Fishing has been pretty good really all in all. The opener was red hot with lots of limits, then it tailed off to moderate fishing from there but with fish still to be caught for sure! Read more »

Todd Daniels’ Latest Report: Springers!

Well, with the springer run starting to taper off it has been a pretty good year with lots of fish to be had throughout the Columbia River system. We have approximately another week left for me then it is time to stay at home (waters) with the Snohomish system opening up on June 1st. We are quite excited about the new opportunity for the Skykomish summer kings: much more section of the river is open this year and add 15,000 kings with summer-run steelies there too, it is definitely something to try out. Give me a call and get out on the river for some summer fun.

Todd
Tall Tails Guide Service
(206) 437-8766

P.S. Sorry to the weekend crews who had the dead battery issues. No photos, oops!!

The Latest and Greatest Fishing Report with Bonner Daniels

I will start off with the mother nature report: calm one minute, raining the next with hurricane like winds right after that, and finally the sunshine decides to make an appearance…but with all that weather came the fish. Read more »

Fetha Styx and Kurt Ferse Back in Southeast Alaska for 2010!

Fetha Styx and Kurt Ferse are teaming up again for the summer season in Southeast AK. After a seemingly endless winter of tying leaders and staring at charts, I will soon be back on boat #16 with Waterfall Resort, fishing off the coast of Prince of Whales Island. Guests will get to fish some of Fetha Styx finest saltwater rods this summer for both salmon and bottom fish.

Salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska means mooching. There is simply no more efficient or exciting way to fish in these often shallow waters. Multiple species can be targeted simultaneously and if a school of salmon swims through, be prepared for some seriously chaotic and fun action with numerous fish jumping on at all depths and fisherman doing the dance around the boat. One of the thrills of being a guide in Alaska is choreographing guests around the boat as uncooperative fish head in all directions. Fetha Styx has really perfected the rod for this fishery. The Pro Series have the perfect balance of sensitivity and power. The only negative I have encountered is that it has made the rest of my rods obsolete! And of course it can handle anything that decides to bite. Part of the thrill of fishing in SE Alaska is the very serious possibility that your next bite is going to be a monster. You can read some of the exciting tales from 2009, including landing a 267 lb. halibut on a Fetha Styx Alaska Pro Series rod in the archived blogs to see what I am getting at.

Excitement for the summer season has been building since the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the 2010 abundance index for Kings is a big improvement over past seasons. With the addition of the now mature Kings introduced from the Klawock hatchery, this summer is shaping up to be an epic season. (Check out this King from last summer! -Ed.)

The halibut fishing has really been hot the last couple of summers as the big guys have moved in chasing the extraordinary number of silvers that returned to the waters off Prince of Whales Island. 2009 saw an incredible resurgence in big halibut (100+ lb). Four of these monsters past the 250 lb mark on the scales last summer! Big smiles and sore backs abounded.

Contact me at kurtferse@gmail.com if you would like to get more information on fishing with me at Waterfall Resort. I can’t wait to get a hold of a few monsters on the new Fetha Styx!