The fish in the picture is a sea run rainbow trout or Steelhead weighing 28 lbs and 40 inches long.I caught this fish on the Sol Duc River near my QTH in Northwest Washington. The King Salmon in the rivers run up to 50 lbs, I've caught 40 pounders, the Silver Salmon run to about 30 lbs. I believe the rivers up here are the last where you can catch really big fish in the lower 48states.

The picture above is looking North towards the San Juan Islands in WA, and Victoria, BC, Canada

I grew up in Fontana, Ca., and there obtained my first license in 1957 (12 yrs old). My first call was KN6JEN (my wife holds the vanity call of K6JEN) and I've held every license; Novice,Technician, General, Advanced, Extra. I was lucky and got to experience the FCC Examiners for G, A, & E.

Calls I've held: KN6JEN, K6JEN, KG7A, W7AV, V31TE, also WB4LPH when stationed in So. Carolina, thats when you could hold two calls as I was also K6JEN.

The hobby offers so much and I've done alot of it through the years: DXCC Honor Roll, 8 Band DXCC (160m is still needed), . contesting, CW (I prefer), QRP,ATV, VHF-UHF activity, 6 meters, 2m EME (my newest interest), Meteor Scatter, building repeaters for 2m and 450mhz, building antennas, and so on.

Current radio's and antennas:

Low Bands: ICOM IC-756Pro III, Alpha 99 amp, 2 el 40m yagi@ 72', 2 el 30m yagi@ 68', multiband yagi 20-10 @ 60', and a OCF 270' dipole @ 60'.

2m EME: IC-746Pro w/ tcxo, BEKO 750 amp, 4x 2mxp20 antennas with az-el.

I'm retired from the U. S. Navy (Cdr) with 23 years of mixed active and reserve duty.

Amateur radio has always offered me something to be interested in, for me, a life long activity----apart of my life.

Fishing in the Pacific Northwest is also great-------life is good.

Rick, W7AV