My name is Mark, and I like to go by the pen name moniker Mr Hook.
Began fly fishing in 1979 while living in an outlying community off Portland Oregon. I spent my first spring there spin fishing for steelhead in some of the clear cold rivers coming from the base of Mt Hood. When summer came my favorite river became a raging torrent, and filled with muddy snow melt. I had to do something, so I found a small mountain stream, and began my journey into the world of fly fishing. Check out my post titled Humble Beginnings.
I moved back to Northern California after 10 great fishing years in Oregon. The community I chose was on the Trinity River that flows through Trinity, and Humboldt counties. This water is one of the places my father taught me to salmon fish, so when I landed there I began pursuing the ocean bright Chinook in that fishery.
The efforts to bag these chrome bright beauties was not addressed in any of the local publications, so I began submitting articles to the Kourier in Willow Creek. My editor and his wife both passed, and the paper was sold. My 10+ year run was finished, and my weekly articles were discontinued. The name of the article was Ketchinnee, so I carried that name over to this blog.
While out doing research (fishing) I rediscovered fly fishing for the steelhead that populate the Trinity and Klamath watersheds. I used my experience from Oregon waters, and began hooking the steelies almost immediately, and began writing of these lessons in my Kourier article, and another column in the Trinity Journal in Weaverviille.
After nearly 20 years in that area, my heart began to give me grief. I moved back to Shasta County of Northern California the summer of 2011 to be closer to the excellent medical care facilities in Redding. Redding is where I was raised as a kid, and began my love of fishing. I love my dad. He was my teacher for the sport I would carry late into life. He passed in 2010.
I started this blog to offer valuable information about fishing in, and around the Lake Shasta area. I feel my experiences with fishing can affect others in a profound, and positive way. So I craft my posts to convey the value so many readers look for. If I seem windy it is because I have a lot of stuff to condense and tie together for the short length of these posts.
I hope you enjoy what I am providing here, and return to Ketchinnee at massbassin.com often. I will try to keep the content interesting, and updated. Thank you for stopping by.
Mr Hook