A LITTLE ABOUT US

Some Team Bio’s will pop up here from time to time……all for fun of course….Cheers.

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.



Dustin Hansen aka Lipripper

My name is Dustin and I’m a fish-aholic!

I have been in the Portland area for almost twenty years. My passion is the same as everyones on this site…Feelin the take baby!!!!!

A little history about me and what I love to do. I chase Salmon and Steelhead all year long with some of the best fisherman in the Northwest with great success. I was fortune enough to have Capt. Gary Plautz as a friend and roommate for several years. This is where I received my formal education in the pursuit of chrome. An extensive and intense enrollment in what I refer to as Chinook University…Thanks for the education Capt. Gary!!!

I like to concentrate my fishing time using classic styles of plug pulling, drift fishing, and back bouncing. Most of my time is spent on the Northern Coastal rivers surrounding the Tillamook area. However I can never pass up an opportunity to pound the big blue pond for reel sizzling Albicore. More than likely we have bumped into one another out there a time or two.

Like many others my focus has turned this last year to more of a conservation focus rather than body count. Quick pics and a killer release is what its all about these days. I have had some great trips with fellas from this site so far. Sal and Hellcat are a couple of great guys and fun as hell to fish with. I look forward to sharing some good times rippin lips with others on here…

LR



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?