Sande » Top Stories
The low-down on octopus, including the giant Pacific ones that can weigh 350 pounds and be 30 feet in length
EARL SANDE GIANT PACIFIC OCTOPUS By Earl Sande My first encounter with a Giant Pacific octopus was more than 50 years ago while riding on a Washington State Ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. ...
Once upon a time the salmon runs in rivers in Eastern Russia were so large the salmon were forced out of the rivers
EARL SANDE By Earl Sande Eastern Russia once had the largest salmon runs in the world. The amount of Pacific salmon going up the rivers was so immense we will ...
There is nothing better than to be out on the back 40
EARL SANDE By Earl Sande My dad and mom bought their first 40 acres in 1960 near Tahuya for $1600. Forty bucks an acre was the going price for raw land back ...
Beautiful trillium flower has been around since the beginning of time
By Earl Sande Anyone who spends much time in the woods around here in March and April knows something about trilliums, but few people know much about their complicated life history that ...
Sande: Another successful trip to Westport to catch up with halibut
EARL SANDE My fishing partner Steve Thorniley has a 23-foot Sterling with V-8 GM engine and a Volvo outdrive that he bought new in 1991. It has many hours on it, but still looks like ...
Will the state fish and wildlife people do the right thing and save the anchovy from commercial fishermen?
EARL SANDE By Earl Sande The importance of forage fish has gotten some press lately. State legislators even voted to give the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife ...
When Kings were king
EARL SANDE By Earl Sande The history of how good salmon fishing was in Puget Sound can easily be forgotten in one or two generations. Few books were written about local salmon ...
The famous Hood Canal Shrimp
EARL SANDE AND FRIEND My first memory of shrimping on Hood Canal was with my grandfather Cecil Baldwin during the summer of 1959. We left Tahuya in his 12-foot Sande-built cedar strip boat with ...
What on Earth happened to all the animals that went extinct, including those hairy elephants?
By Earl Sande Ten thousand years isn’t really a very long time, especially if your name happens to be earth. If we could go back in a time machine, ...
The long and interesting story of the Mercury outboard motor
By Earl Sande One of my early childhood memories when I was about four was playing in the bathtub with my little plastic boat that had a tiny Mercury ...
How the Makah’s in the 1800s went whale hunting
EARL SANDE AND A BIG TUNA By Earl Sande I was recently going through one of my old history books and found some interesting information on ...
Sande and friends run into some big Tuna off Westport
EARL SANDE AND LARGE TUNA Two years ago I found out just how good tuna fishing can be out of Westport during the month of October. That year we ...
Wild fires in eastern Washington bring back memories of the 1910 huge fire in Idaho
Editor’s note: This story was first published in 2010 in the Sports Paper and is being reprinted as a historical context in light of the wild fires consuming parts of ...
Finding sea lice while fishing with grandfather on Hood Canal
I caught my first salmon on a cold, windy January morning in 1960 fishing with my grandfather Cecil Baldwin near Tahuya on Hood Canal. With a south wind blowing ...
Will the west coast pink shrimp go the way of the cod and our bottom fish?
EARL SANDE PINK SHRIMP When we called Westport in April to inquire about moorage we were surprised to hear how difficult that would be. We had never had that problem before. We ...
The Westport Chinook season can be challenging, but when things are right it’s fantastic
This was the fourth year of the early June hatchery Chinook season at Westport. For two weeks anglers are allowed to keep two hatchery Chinook per day before going to one per day ...
The strange war between ghost and mud shrimp and the oyster
GHOST SHRIMP Ghost and mud shrimp have been living and digging under the mud in Willapa Bay for millions of years. The oystermen have been at war with these native creatures since the early ...
Sande: Our Pacific Lamprey are in peril
Like many life forms that most people know little about, the Pacific Lamprey gets very little press. Modern humans find them kind of disgusting. These 12 to 30-inch long slimy eel ...
Leave the Northern Flickers alone, and just enjoy the sounds
Every March I look forward to the sound of hammering metal from several species of our local woodpeckers. It’s a sure sign that spring is near. The woodpeckers seem to like gutters, ...
Western Toad are hard to find, and there is a good reason for that
EARL SANDE WITH TWO KINGS About ten years ago I discovered a large toad hanging around the front yard during the summer months. I would only see it at night, usually near ...