7) CONTRIBUTOR BIOS

THIS PAGE IS FOR CONTRIBUTORS, FRIENDS & ALL ANGLERS ALIKE WHO WOULD LIKE TO SHARE A SHORT BIO ABOUT THEMSELVES

Updated December 26th, 2009




Judy Heller aka Auntie

As a small kid, youngest of 5, only girl, I idolized my father and brothers. Since they loved to fish, I had to fish! We went to the lake in these pictures every summer since I was a baby, where Sal Sr. taught all of us how to fish and water ski.


Sal Monid Sr.

In those days a person could use live bait and Dad’s favorite bass technique was with bullhead (as in sculpin not catfish), so us little kids would run around and catch these little fish on sticks with a line and hook attached for his evening forays.

That particular year I was “fishing” off the dock and caught a HUGE fish (my memory says it was a large mouth bass, but the brothers remembered it as a trout or a perch. I’ll stick to the bass and even go as far as to claim the one Dad is holding up in the picture!!!!!)


My Auntie has been at this game for a while now….respect…

Ever since then, with the exception of the boy crazy, hormone induced puberty years, I have been “HOOKED”. All the blood, guts and gore just bring back warm fuzzies of my childhood and the exhilaration of my first catch, finally landing myself a true spot in the Monid clan.



Tim Cecy…..

Tailout Swinger fishing a Pac NW run in teens temps

My name is Tim Cecy,A.K.A. Tailout Swinger. I have been addicted to fishing since age 4. My early years were spent bass fishing in Northern California which evolved into steelhead and just about anything that swims.

I caught my first steelhead when I was 7 on the banks of the Trinity river. That first fish was quickly turned into a limit and something in me was triggered.

Sadly, I have been preoccupied with the devil of steel ever since. I moved to Oregon in my early twenties and was fortunate enough to find a great group of friends who were hardcore junkies like I was. Some of my best memories of you guys are the late nights of slinky tying, leader wrapping, and talking strategy for the next days assault. Only to show up hungover and tired. We always caught fish, somedays more than others, but the time we spent is sorely missed.


Swinger, Sal, H3llcat (me) & H2O

I moved back to Santa Cruz after three years of battling the rain and long winters. I took a job as a deckhand on commercial and sports boats that fished out of Monterey bay. Catching and teaching people how to catch Salmon, Halibut, rockcod, and Albies gave me seven years experience on the ocean, which has made me a better river fisherman.

Five years ago I evolved into a flyfisherman, and cannot put the long stick down. Over the last four years I have been lucky enough to travel the west fishing as many different rivers as I can. My steelhead background has not allowed me to be content with the twelve and fourteen inch trout that reside, I want the big boys.

I usually fish down and dirty on sinking lines and large sculpin and crawfish patters that I tie. I am looking for one grab a day, if I connect great, if I miss, my fault. But the result can be rainbows and browns that would put any coastal steelhead to the test.

I feel I have been blessed with the best life a fisherman could ever ask for:

1) a wife who understands fishing is not a hobby it is a lifestyle

2) my best friends live in some of the best steelhead country in the world

3) my wife’s family all live in Montana

4) my job as a HighSchool teacher allows flexible time to chase fish all summer, one month in December.

5) people scattered throughout my life that have taught me that fishermen make the best friends..

Swinger



POPS aka SAL MONID…



I’m Dave, AKA Sal Monid. I love rivers and the fish that swim in them. My Dad stuck a rod in my hands when I was about 8 and I never put it down. I started real fishing for bass in a coastal Oregon lake at about 12 and was given the freedom of a rowboat to fish out of for days on end. I was a died in the wool spin fisherman for lots of years and got used to the fine art of left handed retrieves. I started fly fishing and fly tying about 20 years ago and generally retired my spinning reel for a casting reel about the same time. I am the co-captain of the USS Diamond back with my son Chris.

I work for the US Forest Service and have the pleasure of working with the protection and restoration of rivers and watersheds. My job has introduced me to lots of folks who share my love and respect of rivers and wild places. About 15 years ago, I made my first trip to Alaska and have been hooked on visiting unspoiled rivers wherever I can find them.

My son has introduced me to the joys of sturgeon fishing. I am always looking for new species and ways of fishing. Over the last few years, I have enjoyed adding a little salt water fishing, East coast and Caribbean style. This past year, I had the thrill of watching a 5 foot tarpon peel 70 yards of line before clearing the water, shredding my leader and heading for the open sea.

It has been a real pleasure to be part of Team Salmon and all the great guys who share their skills and experiences. I look forward to lots more trips and lots more fish. Thanks to Chris for the excellent website as a place for us to share our passion for fishing of all kinds.

Sal


MESKEL AKA MESKEL



The outdoors have been a part of life for me as long as I can remember. I feel truly blessed to have been born and raised in the Pacific Northwest where nature is literally at our doorstep. I can recall countless family outings where, as a young kid, I was introduced to numerous methods and styles of fishing and, unannounced to me, many of life’s lessons that I fall back on still to this day.

Eventually fishing took a back seat to girls (in the back seat) in an attempt to learn a few more of life’s lessons. After a good many years (and girls) I came to the realization thru trial and error that this would be one lesson I would never master only hope to maintain some sort of proficiency at.

That is when my brother Nookslayer and a few others in Team Salmon turned me back onto my lost love of fishing and the next progression of angling. Armed with a fly rod received as a birthday gift, the Team (some friendships from the past and some new ones to be formed) took me for a weekend stay on the BIG D. Whitey Ford and a good group of guys was all it took to bring me right back to this lost love.

I took to this new form of angling (fly) with a fevered addiction. It started with tying some hideous looking bugs that quickly improved. It was a great feeling to catch that first fish on a bug that I had tied up just the night before. But why stop there now I find myself building custom rods and other fishing accessories with no foreseeable end in sight, just a shortage on time.

While I will probably never be able to wave a stick with such grace as Ghostface and PigSticker or with such proficiency as Nookslayer I have found a place where I am happy and somewhat comfortable with my casting and presentation and my rekindled connection to the rivers and streams of the northwest thanks in large part to the members of AllAroundAnglers.

Living on one of the Sandy River tributaries the last 4 years I have been afforded the opportunity to spend countless hours wet wading in the waning summer evenings light, casting feather weight dry flies to small stream fish with big water appetites. This I have found to be where I am most myself. The sounds of the river speak to you if you just take the time to listen.


Chris Heller….aka h3llcat


A younger H3llcat walks the banks of the upper Green River in Wyoming

I have been along side my Pops aka Sal Monid on this website….since before I can remember…..fishing lakes, creeks, streams and rivers in the State of Oregon. Sal will still show me photos that I can’t remember posing for…..as we have 30 plus years of fishing together. I was in the Siuslaw News at the age of four with a big four-pound cutthroat trout and memorably I’ve been hooked ever since.

My first job out of high school was working for the original Fisherman’s Marine Supply (pre Larry’s purchase) selling fishing tackle, managing a fly shop and teaching Steelhead and Salmon fishermen how to catch Bass and Trout on flies. I would ramble on about my trips to Florence, my summers in Wyoming and camp trips along the Umpqua for any number of different fish. Soon, they grew tired of my small fish chasing, and through the likes of Mike Duley, Mark Yano, Eric Linde, Mark Akerill, Roger Trottman, Jim Hardesty, Craig Newby, Dave Slocum, Tim Rooney, Paul Stehlik, Dave Kafke and more…I was taught to do much, much more than I ever had.

My run at FMSI lasted until my 22nd birthday, when I decided to figure out how to make more money. The pursuit of the fake happiness…money….never lasts……not like fishing memories, anyway. It just shows itself long enough to make you want more. Some of us, myself included, forget what true happiness is……..being out on the water. Trying to fool a fish. Best thing in the world. Here I am almost 18 years after my first day of work at Fisherman’s Marine Supply…..having gone through numerous professional sales positions selling just about everything possible….and I am right back where I started. Where I am supposed to be. Teaching people to fish; any way I can.

So what am I doing with this website? I’m feeding my soul folks. I hope you will take a browse and find something to feed yours. I am truly grateful for all of those people in my life who have taught me how to fish different ways and for different fish. I believe we live in the best state in the Pac NW and there’s a lot of expertise on this web site to help you find something new to you. What ever that may be.

Thanks for supporting ALLAROUNDANGLER, it’s my true labor of love.





Hello my name is Shawn Richey but you can call me Nookslayer.



When I am not out on a river somewhere I work as Senior Account Executive for CTX Business Solutions, a division of Xerox. My ties to Team Salmon and its members go back 25 years to grade school. It is there that site founder Hellcat and I became friends.

I have always been a fisherman, although I did loose my way for a while and didn’t pick up a rod for several years. It wasn’t until a trip that I took with Hellcat about 8 years ago to the NFN that I truly rekindled my love for the sport. On that trip I was introduced to chasing large chrome in small rivers. I had been out in boats before with my family who has a rich history of fishermen and conservation of the sport and its assets. This didn’t hold a candle to hooking into a freight train in small water; needless to say I was hooked.

I am an ALLAROUNDANGLER, but again thanks to Hellcat, I was introduced to my true passion about 6 years ago….FLYFISHING. I enjoy the hunt. I like to read the water and know where the fish is going to be, make my presentation and get slammed! I spend time now chasing every species I can with my arsenal of rods and flies. A trophy photo and quick release is all I ask for in a good day on the water. For me it’s not always about the catching though. Henry David Thereau said it best, “Most men fish all their lives without realizing it’s not the fish which they are after.” Feel me?



My name is Bear….


I am a Cali transplant gone full on Steelhead Lunatic. Fishing for the silver sided anadromus types for 1.5 years and lovin every moment on the water.

Got a few, lost a ton, learning the ropes from friends like you. Appreciate the encouragement and advice I get from Team Salmon and the opportunity to meet others who are just as nuts about fishing as I am. Oh and a gear fanatic.

KH aka Bear