06/03/2026
Happy Wednesday, I hope this finds you well.
I know I have been "lazy" about getting any posts up the last couple of days and I apologize for that.
I took (let's call it) advantage of our closed days and took 2 REAL days off. It all sounds great so far, but I opted to spend those days fishing with Mister Neil Rico. It sounded like a lot of fun. Grabbed a battery and put a little line on a rod I had laying around........and waited.....and waited. Apparently, Neil had decided to dehydrate a pork shoulder, and we weren't going to head out until "sunset." Once he had successfully incinerated his dinner, we headed to Riffe. The fishing was less than we had hoped, putting only 2 fish in the boat (both of those were caught by me, but who's counting🤣)
As we loaded up to go home, we decided to try and hit the Chehalis River the next day. Apparently WDFW feels the bass are keeping the salmon runs down (not the nets, not the sealions, just those pesky bass). The Chehalis is so "overrun" with bass, they have no size or bag limits.
With a new day and a much earlier start we headed to the launch. That is where I learned of what I will FOREVER call "the Rico Affect." As I waited for him to get there I watched as a lady backed down to get "her boat." When she pulled out the boat was an electrofishing boat (often called a "stunboat"). I decided to talk with the crew, they had been out KILLING all the smallmouth bass. While I talked with the crew a second boat came up the ramp.....yep, another "stunboat." That day they had caught and KILLED 600+ bass and DUMPED them in the river. They didn't donate the fish to our ever-growing homeless population or serve them to the inmates in our bloated prison system, just dumped them and left them to rot.
Despite the disheartening report, we decided to try and get further upriver than they had "shocked". We put several miles on and again put just 2 fish in the boat (I am not going to say "who" caught them, but it wasn't Neil😎)
To make matters worse, I started feeling crappy. When I got home, things went from suck to blow, and I really felt like crap.
This morning I did manage to get up and on the road. I got us restocked and even got 85 pounds of burger ground for the week ahead. I know there has been some sort of a "bug" going around. That said, I can't rule out the possibility that Neil was so frustrated after getting spanked for 2 days in a row, that he tried to poison me😷
As of right now I/we are planning to be open and ready for tomorrow, but it is really going to depend on this evening and tomorrow morning. With a little luck and a lot of rest, I can get this behind me quickly.
