Here in the Mid-Columbia we have some of the best fishing in the world, with the Columbia, Snake ans the Yakima rivers at our disposal, And not to mention the numerous ponds and lakes.  From catfish to bass to steel head we are pretty lucky in this region that we can fish year around. As a kid growing up in West Richland, we lived at the Yakima river at Twin Bridges, fishing for anything that would bite a night crawler. We caught bass, suckers, carp, and once I caught a 15 pound channel cat, took it home and it lived in our wheel barrow for a few days before I took it back to the river and let it go. Back in the day fishing tackle was what we spent our lawn mowing money on, you would get 3 bucks or so in your pocket and head to "Bill's Fishing Hole" and load up. Bill's started out as a paint store, but the paint got pushed back further and further until it was mostly fishing tackle. If you caught a big fish, you could take a picture of it to the store, and Bill would staple it to the ceiling. I had a picture of three big catfish I caught one day on the ceiling hall of fame. If we didn't have enough money for tackle we had to improvise, and the easiest piece of tackle to replace were weights. You could use nuts, bolts, lead weights from tires, I even used spark plugs one time, anywhere you could cut corners meant you could afford hooks and important tackle. Now, all the years we fished and swam in the area rivers, there was one thing we never worried about, getting eaten by a fish. I an a big fan of the TV show,"River Monsters", with Jeromy Wade. This guy goes all over the world catching giant fish, real monsters like a 350 pound Grouper. The one show that got me thinking about fishing was the episode where he caught an 80 pound Piranha. A regular Piranha could put you in a world of hurt, but an 80 pounder, with a couple of Hungry friends would wipe out the water polo team in a few minutes. More and more sharks are being caught in fresh water as well, that's a little scary. Take your kids fishing, or your grand kids, it's cheap, fun entertainment.

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