I left Tahoe's dwindling building industry in 1972 and pointed all efforts north not really sure what was in the future. In the next seventeen years, while wife Linda wrestled our two boys, I pounded nails, fished commercially and, as often as possible, took people fishing just for the sheer enjoyment of watching their faces light up when a salmon all but tore the rod out of their hands. Southeast Alaska was good to us.

In 1989, when illness in the family forced a move back to the "lower 48", I gave up all but one commercial fishing endeavor: Southwestern Alaska 's Bristol Bay . Approaching our sixteenth summer in the Bay has allowed me to again develop the knowledge to guide individuals through their Alaska Dream.

In Northern California , I've learned it's much harder to put guys on fish. We started our guide service in 1995, named it after the national forest, home to the Smith, Klamath, Trinity, Mad, Eel and Van Duzen Rivers. We spent as much time as possible on several of these. Learned a little about some and a lot about others.

Thirty years have passed and, interestingly enough, little has changed. I still want each and every angler at day's end to come away with the feeling that he or she has gained a friend.