THE GUIDE’S LIFE

Longtime Seattle fishing guide and restaurateur/bar owner Keith Robbins stands aboard his 23-foot Grady White. They can be seen on central Puget Sound waters with clients mooching the depths for kings and fly fishing the shallows for sea-run cutthroat, both rare techniques for the local charter fleet. (A SPOT TAIL SALMON GUIDE)

Even after 30 years and 2,500 trips, Seattle-based charter skipper Keith Robbins considers himself ‘the luckiest guy to walk this Earth.’

By Mark Yuasa

It started off like many summer mornings of a fishing time long ago.

The salty air had a distinct pungent smell and seagulls cackled above the railroad trestle near the Ballard Locks Ship Canal, as we gingerly walked down the steep staircase covered with bamboo thicket bordering a rundown house on prime Seattle waterfront property.

It was here on a slippery old floating dock tilting precariously into the water that I met Seattle native Keith Robbins, owner of A Spot Tail Salmon Guide (seattlefishingcharter.com), for the mid-July king salmon opener.

Quite a fitting place, located a few doorsteps away from where the venerable Ballard Bait House once sold live herring from a net pen during the fishing heyday of the 1970s and ’80s.

After boarding his 23-foot Grady White boat, we slowly motored by the bait house’s tattered net pen before throttling past Ray’s Boathouse, another landmark now known for serving up kitschy seafood with spectacular waterfront views.

But from the 1930s to the ’70s, Ray’s stood among 22 other longforgotten boathouses on Shilshole Bay and Elliott Bay hawking fishing tackle, bait, gas and more than 2,600 rental boats to salmon-hungry fishermen. During those long-forgotten summers you could literally walk across the bays filled with rental boats.

In his younger days, Robbins and his dad Burton would rent boats at Ray’s and fish off nearby piers. He was lucky enough to witness the tail end of Puget Sound’s fishing golden days, a time when you could plunk for steelhead below the Ballard Locks, salmon seasons were year-round affairs and catching a king wasn’t like today’s comparison of winning the lottery.

“I’d go fishing a lot with my father and brother (Darryl) when I was a kid and this had a big influence on who I am now,” Robbins said. “I was so young I could barely hold the rod in my hands.”

On many days each summer as a teenager, Robbins’ mom Norita would drop him off at the Golden Gardens fishing pier.

“I’d be there all day, fishing off the

Fishing with his dad Burton and brother Darryl in his younger days “had a big influence on who I am now,” Robbins says. “I was so young I could barely hold the rod in my hands.” (A SPOT TAIL SALMON GUIDE)

dock, exploring the area and then she’d pick me up many hours later,” Robbins said. “You can’t do stuff like that now with kids.”

HOOKED ON MOOCHING

Robbins purchased his first boat in 1976 for $300 while attending Queen Anne High School, and kept it stored on the drydock at Ray’s Boathouse.

“I started going out for salmon a lot and, back then, Ray’s was a vibrant fishing community with oldtimers hanging out and shooting the breeze,” Robbins recalled. “Since then, I’ve owned about 10 boats and vividly remember all the good times we had as a fishing family.”

Such memorable family excursions included summer fishing trips to British Columbia, where they mooched for salmon and never trolled.

“I’m pretty sure it’s what got me hooked on what appears like a simple way to fish,” he said. “On the other hand, mooching is very

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complicated and a less understood way of catching salmon.”

“Mooching” – developed by Japanese-American fishermen on Elliott Bay in the 1920s – is a salmon technique requiring an angler to constantly drop their line down and reel up, causing the bait to spin and attract fish.

Robbins’ career in the local charter fishing industry began as a deckhand from 1989 to 1992 on the Silver Doll at Ballard Salmon Charters, owned by Mark Narruhn.

“It was a fun hobby and great part-time summer job, although I didn’t get paid much,” Robbins said. “Mark taught me a bunch of stuff on how to catch fish and I still use many of them today.”

Robbins ventured off to start his own charter fishing business in 1992 at Shilshole Bay.

“People thought I was nuts when I charged $180 to take two people out for a day of fishing,” Robbins said with a laugh. “I was so busy and it was surprising since we had no internet. It was mainly word of mouth and local hotels would send clients my way.”

Smaller six-pack charters, especially those whose skippers mooched, were a rarity in the 1990s around the Seattle-Edmonds area.

“I like my customers to be connected to their rod, and feel the bite and tug once the fish is hooked,” he said. “The majority of Puget Sound guides troll with downriggers. Trolling is a very effective method, but can be boring at times for the clients.”

In 1993, Robbins’ charter business was so good he invested in a bigger Grady White boat from Jacobsen’s Marine, at the time located in Ballard. Shortly after, Robbins took it to another level by adding saltwater fly fishing in 1994.

Throughout the years, he’s also hired some young deckhands who eventually went on to run successful charter services of their own, guys like Justin Wong, owner of A Cut Plug Charters (seattlesalmonfishing. com) in Shilshole Bay.

It’s hard to believe, but Robbins “real job” didn’t begin as a full-time charter operator.

When he was 18 years old, Robbins worked at the Turbulent Turtle Restaurant, now the site of Un Bien on Seaview Avenue NW, and a stone’s throw away from Ray’s. He’d work all night and then dash across the street to fish before going to bed in the morning.

In 1987 he opened up his first bar, called Watertown, in downtown Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. Then in 1990, he owned bars with catchy names like Romper Room, Hula Hula and Tini Bigs at 1st and Denny Way near the Seattle Center. He operated Tini Bigs for almost three decades before the building was demolished for an upscale apartment.

Robbins then relocated Hula Hula in 2017 to where it currently stands just off Olive Way and Denny Way on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

A GUIDE’S MEMORABLE FISHING TALES

One of Robbins’ most momentous and cringey guided trips occurred in early September 2009 with Don Wakamatsu – the former Seattle Mariners baseball manager – who had a break between a series with the Anaheim Angels (you can read the story at bit.ly/2TIC0Ha).

While in a fog bank on the northeast side of the Kitsap Peninsula, Robbins ran his boat aground. As they waited for the incoming tide to refloat them, Robbins told Wakamatsu to cast his light 6-weight fly rod from the shoreline.

“I ended up catching that (17.2-pound) king on a red-andwhite Clouser fly,” Wakamatsu said. “This [fish] was taking line out, and it took me almost to the end of the backing. One more run and it would have taken my fly line with him.”

An hour later they managed to refloat the boat, and Wakamatsu even made it back to the ballpark in time for the game.

Another “fish tale” happened in mid-August 2005 with former Seattle Mariners catcher Dan Wilson, his son Eli and two other relatives (read the story at bit.ly/3irtwi1).

“Fishing was very good, and Eli already caught a couple nice kings,” Robbins recalled. “On every drop he’d say, ‘I got one!’ At one point while fighting a fish, he let go of the rod and it went into the water.”

In the meantime, Dan was letting out line and caught Eli’s main line; they ended up getting the rod back – along with a 15-pound king.

“Once I saw that happen, I thanked God we had a great catcher on the boat,” Robbins joked.

A novel could be written on Robbins’ “fishing tales,” but the last one has true meaning and involved his girlfriend when she first moved in. Robbins had just refinished the floors of his house in the Magnolia neighborhood.

“I told her I have two rules,” he said with a smirk. “You can’t wear shoes in the house, and don’t ever question me about how much time I spend fishing. Within a week, she was wearing shoes in the house, but she’s never given me any grief about how much time I spend on the water.”

Robbins’ devotion to fishing includes time spent on a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Puget Sound sportfishing advisory board, and he was influential in implementing the first and only salmon catch-and-release fishery and fly fishing areas in Puget Sound.

Fishing runs in Robbins’ veins, and when he’s not plying the waters of Puget Sound chasing salmon or sea-run cutthroat, you can find him in Montana, Mexico or the Bahamas. His favorite annual trip is to the Florida Keys to cast his Sage fly rod into the crystal-blue water for tarpon and other fish species.

“No, I don’t golf,” Robbins said with a chuckle. “I even fish when I’m on vacation and my days off. It’s my passion.”

“Went from my worst day guiding to one of the best, or at least the most memorable,” says the skipper about running his boat aground in the fog with former Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, who then proceeded to catch the biggest Chinook on a fly in Puget Sound that Robbins has ever heard of. It bit a Clouser baitfish imitation and went 17.2 pounds.

(A SPOT TAIL SALMON GUIDE)

“This is my 30th year guiding, and while it is hard work, both the reward and creating a good experience for people is what I relish the most. Plus, I get paid to do what I love most,” says Robbins, here with a hatchery Chinook

from last summer. (A SPOT TAIL SALMON GUIDE)

LOOKING AHEAD AND BACK

Through his fishing charter, restaurant/ bar ventures and as a charity auctioneer, he’s earned a time-honored perch that’s a rarity in Seattle’s current modern tech-savvy environment.

“This is my 30th year guiding, and while it is hard work, both the reward and creating a good experience for people is what I relish the most. Plus, I get paid to do what I love most,” Robbins said. “Many of my clients have been heads of industries and corporations or celebrities. They’re enamored by what I do and some of them have even told me they’d rather have my job.”

“I’ve always known this is a cool job, but many don’t realize what goes into running a charter business,” he said. “You need to keep clients happy, be a great talker, work long hours and tie endless amounts of fishing leaders.”

In three decades spent guiding more than 2,500 trips, Robbins says there were only two clients he’d never take out again.

“That’s a pretty good statistic considering I get people from all walks of life,” he said. “I think the most frustrating thing is when clients ask me, ‘How many fish are we going to catch?’ It tells me they haven’t spent a lot of time fishing.”

Gazing out on the horizon at the fishing fleet off Point No Point on our trip – where Robbins caught the only keeper hatchery king – he reflected about life and the endless summers.

“I’m the luckiest guy to walk this Earth, and if I ever had to go seek counseling for my addiction, they’d blame my father for my passion of fishing. Thanks, Dad.” NS

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