Our latest 2010 Smoker of the Year Contest entry comes to us via time machine. Normally, we like to keep things a little more current, but when you get your mitts on a photo of Big Fred Contaoi from the fourth grade, you just gotta run with it!
Here’s the Big Fella early in his career or raping and pillaging the Eel River drainage, with a black beauty. I’m sure the folks were stoked we he dragged that one home! Of course, those of us with similarly dark pasts, should cast no stones. Just take a look at some of my own hall of fame smokers HERE. You won’t be disappointed!
Tho shalst dine on the most tasty of vittles this fortnight!
I‘m not totally sure if Filson Hubert looks more like the most famous of Robin Hood’s Merry Men or Randy Quaid’s character, Ishmael, in the epic bowling movie
Kingpin, but one thing’s for sure…this charred Chinook salmon from the infamous Nimbus Basin on the American River in Nor Cal has to be the early favorite for the 2010 Smoker of the year crown.
It does get a few minus points for being an old photo but I also have to applaud Hubert’s buddy for digging it outta the vault without his permission and totally throwing Filson under the bus! Bonus points, however, for the sweet green neoprenes!
Oh yea, one other thing’s for sure with this one: I know it was the 80′s and all, but I can’t believe anybody actually let this cat outta the house sporting that ‘do! If you’ve got something that can compete with this black beauty, enter it
HERE. 
How did you get the hook out without touching that thing??
This barely-breathing humpy salmon is our latest
Smoker of the Year Contest entry, sent to us by Filson Hubert, who says he “kinda had to coax this fish to bite” his Egg-Suckling Leech. When the nearly-dead fish finally “bit,” it fought like…well…kinda like a walleye.
Though quite impressed with his catch, Hubert acknowledged that he still has a looong way to go to match two-time Smoker of the Year Champion and Hall of Famer
Harrison Ibach’s status.
“Ibach is like a god to me,” says Hubert. “Every single day I think about him and how I can get better at this game…”
If you’ve got a nice, dark fish you’d like to submit, click
HERE 
Steelhead sushi...yum!
Well, it didn’t take long for the Smoker of the Year shots to start rolling in! A gentleman who wanted to only be identified as “Grizzly Man” sent in this photo of himself from a recent trip to the Alaskan outback, where, apparently, he and his companions underestimated how much food to bring on their 5-day camp/float trip.
After blowing through all the freeze-dried stuff, Grizzly Man went to work on stream-side roots and berries, eventually sampling the river’s finned inhabitants. Kinda puts a new twist on the ol’ saying “man-eating fish” doesn’t it?
Anyway, he declined to mention what happened to the rest of his friends…but did mumble something that sounded like “tastes like chicken…”
Good to see ya again, Smokie!
Due to an apathetic response (and lack of salmon season the past couple years in CA, where a lot of dark fish come from), our Smoker of the Year Contest kinda fizzled last season. Here at HQ, there had been talk of shit-canning the whole thing, but I just can’t let it go! I mean, who doesn’t love a good pic of a nasty fish?
So, to launch the 2010 Contest, this morning I went down to the woodshed and dusted off our mascot,
Smokie the Smoker and posted him. Man, did I miss that ol’ sore tail and it’s great to see him back on the site. Don’t let him down, people…step on up to the plate and mail in those photos of you with some dark, skanky fish…you know: the “smokers.”
This time around, we’re going to keep it kinda informal…without a monthly winner. At the end of the year, you’ll get to decide who wins the coveted “Harrison Ibach” perpetual trophy and take Smoker of the Year honors.
[click to continue…]by JD on October 26, 2009
As a young and impressionable lad, Chris Mayes always dreamed of fishing for black salmon in the famous tributaries of the Great Lakes. Often, he would lie awake at night, picturing himself, wedged into a lineup of 150 camo-clad guys standing shoulder to shoulder in a creek as wide as a bike path, sight casting to rotting kings on redds.
Sadly, Mayes never was able to make his dream trip to the upper Midwest…aka: Smokerville, the Holy Grail of Soretails…but he came close on Oct. 19. While not the famed streams of Ground Zero for Cheese Heads, he found bliss on Northern California’s Trinity River, where this Great Lakes style “chromer” actually latched onto a No. 4 Mepps Aglia spinner.
We’ll let Chris take us home on this one…
“Why was I smiling,” he asks. “Because when I landed the fish, I knew I had a contender for SMOKER OF THE YEAR!“
Oh yes you do, Chris! And since we’ve opened this can of worms, it’s time for some tough love here, people. You guys are seriously slacking when it comes to sending in your Smoker of the Year entries! I know, I know…it’s been a lousy year for salmon fishing in a lot of spots. But get creative! I know there are some darkies being caught out there somewhere. Send ‘em in!! DETAILS
Travis Bryan has done it again, folks! Who’s Travis Bryan, you ask? Well only the Inter-Galactic Squawfish Record holder, that’s who…and he’s been busy of late.
Here he is with his latest trophy, a Feather River dandy that he’s entered into our Smoker of the Year Contest. A nice fish to be sure, but a mere (pike) minnow compared to the record fish that propelled him to squaw stardom several seasons ago. [click to continue…]
by JD on January 30, 2009
Just exactly why this guy is so happy…well…I’ll let you be the judge of that! Seems that the fish is a bit “blushed up” as well. Um, anyway, this fine 2009 Smoker of the Year Contest entry comes compliments of our ol pal “Prince of Darkness Jerry Lampkin of TNG Motorsports Guide Service. In his own words:
[click to continue…]
