FORKS, Washington—On the eve of Super Bowl XLIX, three Seattle-area residents—two steelhead fishermen and their guide—were detained from a stretch of the Hoh River on Saturday after Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife officials discovered that 11 of their 12 Thingamabobbers were drastically over-inflated.
“I know these guys are desperate to catch a steelhead,” says investigating officer Wayne “The Hammer” Thigpen, but c’mon—16 psi? Who does that?”
When questioned about the volleyball-sized bobbers, the guide—Jiggin’ Jack Johansen—said that he is “not a scientist” but that the air temperature was likely to blame. Or the water temperature. Or atmospheric pressure. Or his clients. Or the fat kid at the fly shop who sold them to him.
“Sure, I like my bobbers big and hard,” said Johansen’s client, Pete Carol Brady III. “Who doesn’t?” But if they were somehow in violation of the law, then I have no knowledge of that. You might want to talk to my guide.”
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.