WILD BLOG: Celebrate July 24 with me ...
POSTED July 20, 2009 / 8:50 p.m.

We all have our favorite days of the year to go fishing. Different reasons for different fish at different times of the calendar. Might be your birthday, an anniversary of some sort, an annual gathering.

There is always one day, the red-letter day we circle the minute we get the new calendar each year.

“I’ll definitely be on ‘_____’ that day, bet yer ass!” we say out loud to no one. Looking over 20-plus years of journal notes, one day keeps popping up with consistent memory blowers. There are many great days scattered over two decades, but one in particular stands out.

July 24th would be that day. Let’s review….

1979: It started, naturally, July 24th on the little Dosewallips River on Hood Canal, 1979. Mike Cronen and I are trout fishing in the canyon section, 6 miles above Highway 101. Mike’s single egg is picked up by something larger than the 12- to 14-inchers we’ve been catching. It turns out to be the first summer steelhead we’ve ever seen.

Being a wild steelhead, it went absolutely ape squizzle, shredding the small pool. The fish easily breaks his 4-pound test, but it’s a moment that changes both of our fishing lives for good. 

1980: Next year, 1980, Mike Cronen and I are in a Curly’s rental boat off the Caves at Sekiu. At daylight, I drop down a whole herring on 8 ounces of lead. It never hits bottom: 27 pound king. I re-baited, dropped it down 70 feet, rod doubles: 24 pound king.

I want a beer. Two beers.

1981: The Dungeness River is the place to be. Peak of the pink salmon run, a generous 12-fish limit. We hook over 100 pink salmon on #50 Hot Shots wading the shore.

And a 33-pound Chinook.

And four 10-pound-plus summer steelhead.

And a sockeye.

It’s 90 degrees out, and although I’ve had great days on this river since, we never see another day like this one on the Dungeness ever again.

1983: Skagit River, plunking the North Fork for giant kings. After many, many days of trying, finally a 25-pounder.  2 pm, July 24th.  Finally breaking the Skagit code, this king is still the most memorable king salmon … ever.

1984: Hiking alone in the canyon of a favorite summer steelhead river (I do not do stupid s**t like that anymore at my age) , I hook four native black-backed, silver-and-white dynamos from behind one special rock.

My grandfather passes away the same day, come to find out the same hour I ran into those fish.

1989: Sekiu. Mike Cronen and I are in a Curly’s rental boat once again, it’s 6 p.m. and we are trolling herring for kings. As the sun dips, Mike turns the boat unintentionally and quite sharply while swatting at a bee. His herring drops, gets eaten by a 24-pound salmon. My side raises, gets eaten by a 17-pounder.

Pandemonium and partying ensues.

1990: I blow off work because, hey, the pinks are running in the Dungeness and this is peak timing. Getting down to my favorite hole below the hatchery, I make five casts. I land five summer steelhead.

The next hole below is stuffed with fierce little chrome humpies. Landed 34 in two hours, went home. One of the best days, ever.

By the way, if my old supervisor, Crickett Marshall, is reading this, yeah, I lied and I skipped work! Haw, haw!!! Hey, fire me now, pal! I got your “teamwork” right here….Neener neener….

Gee. Wished I would have worked that day…brown-nosing jackass.

1992: South Fork of the Toutle River. Just started this new fly fishing for steelhead thing. Swinging a black bunny leach on a 10 foot type 5 sink tip, I hook eight and land 5 red-hot hatchery summer steelhead. First time out with a fly rod on my own.

I have not had too many days with numbers like it since.

1993: My dad and son William and I go on our first fishing trip together. All the Herzog men on the lower Skagit, plunking for pinks. We double and triple up salmon all day.

Of course, they hook, play and land all the fish.

1994: I win the biggest bowling tournament of my life at Sportsworld Lanes in Federal Way, the West Coast Auto Dealers Open. The tournament number was 201. Like my favorite reel of all time, the  Shimano 201 reel I speak so highly of. 

I win it with a ball called the Columbia Piranha. A fish ball. I use the money to buy a jet boat and start a guide service.

1999: This one shouldn’t count, but what the hell…

Dave Vedder and I are at Katmai Lodge on the Alagnak River in Alaska. We hook chrome- and I mean chrome- chums in tidewater on unweighted pink flies on floating lines, one after another hot, jumping line ripping salmon. That morning, we catch kings up to 40 pounds hand over fist on boondogged (yes, boondogged, stop laughing) avocado-sized Cheaters. 

It is Alaska, after all.

2000: Nick Amato, Dave Steinbaugh, JD Love and I get picked for the Dean River lottery. It’s day 3, and I have the greatest day of my steelheading life.

We encounter a run of giant, wild summer steelhead, fresh from the ocean. All our fish we hit that day are 15 to 28 pounds, all on Spey rods swinging big hot-orange flies.

I promise you - even though I hope and pray it happens one more time before I go - I don’t think I’ll ever land 6 steelhead over 20 pounds (on the fly, no less) in one day again. Some future July 24th, maybe.

2002: My partner and I hike into a special piece of canyon water, where I caught my first summer steelhead back in 1980. First cast, I hook, play and land a wild fish around 8 pounds.

It’s the last wild summer run I’ve ever seen from this river. The hook still hangs from my truck visor.

2005: JD Love and I are sitting in his front yard, which just happens to be on the banks of the Sol Duc River. It’s 5 pm, we are into, oh, maybe our third bottle of fermented grapes when the thought of driving down to the Bogachiel River and scare up a few summer runs on the fly rod manifests itself.

We wobble down there, there are no other anglers in sight. We hook five summer steelhead on the swung fly, land four, the sun is shining, we are in tee shirts, laughing, half loaded and hooking hot fish.

Yeah. July 24th, bitches.

2006: My buddy Jon Pincelli and I are out on Neah Bay. He hooks and lands a 20 pound king. Then a coho, then an even-numbered year pink, then a sockeye (that would have been a new Washington State record if turned in) of all things. On the way back in, I tell him we should take this day into rare air and walk down to the Bogachiel and see if he can catch a summer steelhead.

No sweat, done deal. The first one he ever caught on a fly, to boot. How do I do? Well, I take some good pictures. An ocean king, a coho, a pink, a sockeye and a summer steelhead on a fly….all in one day.

July 24th to be exact.

2008: Brad Perkins and I are at Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming, sampling the best trophy kokanee fishing on Earth. We land over 50 kokanee between 2-½ to 5 pounds before 1 p.m. The best numbers day during our stay. Actually, the most tremendous kokanee fishing I’ve ever seen.

July 24th, 2009: I’ll be back on the big ol’ Skagit, plunking out of Edgar down on a very special spot on the North Fork for the king of kings. I expect only great things to happen.

After all, it’s…

Well, you know what time it is.

Metal To The End.

-Billy H.