Fishing With Buzz Ramsey | The Story Behind a PNW Fishing Legend

Hey everyone out there. Thank you so much for tuning in to another addictive video. Don't go anywhere because we're going to give you guys an opportunity to win a $25 gift card. All you guys got to do, thumbs up the video right now and then drop a comment below. Who is a fishing legend to you? Who would you consider a fishing legend, either in the Pacific Northwest, in the whole world, a bass guy? Like if you think in your mind, who is a fishing legend in your own eyes, that's what we want you to comment down below. So drop your comments, thumbs up the video. We're going to give you guys an opportunity to win a $25 gift card. We'll select one random guy from the comments or girl. Never know who it could be. It's going to be random. All right, everyone, let's get moving. When you talk about salmon, steelhead, and trout fishing in the Pacific Northwest, there are a handful of names that instantly come to mind. And Buzz Ramsey is at the very top of that list. For more than four decades, Buzz has been one of the most influential anglers and lure designers in our region. From his early days at Lure Jensen, where he helped shape classics like the quick fish, hot shot, and flatfish, to his more recent role at Yakima Bay, leading development of the now legendary mag lip plug. Buzz has had a direct hand in creating the tools that thousands of anglers rely on every single day. But his legacy goes way beyond lures. Buzz has been a teacher, a writer, a conservation voice, and a hall of fame angler who has dedicated his life to the Pacific Northwest. He's influenced not just how we fish, but how we think about these rivers, these runs, and the responsibility we all share to protect them. Today, in another installment of the Pacific Northwest Angler Series, we're sitting down with Buzz Ramsey to hear his story. From his own beginnings on the water, to the innovations that changed the plug fishing world forever, and his perspective on where the fisheries go from here. This is about honoring the past, learning from the people who built the foundation, and carrying those lessons forward to the next generation of anglers. Welcome to the Pacific Northwest Angler Series, Legend Edition. Does this mean we're going fishing? Nope. Yeah, we're just going for a boat ride today. It's kind of a little bit of a pain in the ass. No problem, no problem. It'd be on the line counter if you can see it. I got it. That's my thing I love about this live, is it's just like, dude, they're either there or they're not. So you haven't figured out anything that you tried that on there, you know, I mean certainly if you're on fish, you know it, and you work it, you know, that's the biggest advantage probably, is if you know there's fish there, just stay on them, you know. Yeah. As you know Chinook, they'll be off the bite, they won't bite, you run by them, by them, and all of a sudden they decide they're going to, and you're on them, you get them. So that's probably the biggest advantage, would you say? A hundred percent. You know, it's interesting, before LiveScope came along, you know, everyone's got a fish finder, they turn it on, they look at it, ooh, they mark, maybe mark fish, don't mark fish, but they don't change how they're fishing based on what they see. Exactly. The majority of people, the vast majority. I was always just intrigued with fish and fishing as a youngster. As I got older, my mom would take me, and the first fish I ever caught was out of a trout farm, and my mom took me there to catch trout. But later, when I became a teenager, early teens, before I could drive, my mom would take me and a friend out and drop me off on the Sandy River, and we would chase steelhead, winter steelhead. But I didn't know how, so I fished all winter, drift fishing, and because I'd plunked the Columbia a little bit prior to that, I had caught a few summer steelhead and even a few spring chinook, so I was thinking them fish were going to yank, but no luck. So I finally figured out that when you're drift fishing, you've got to yank and set the hook, and that launched me on a career. I love the adventure of it, the outdoor adventure of it, and catching fish, eating fish, smoking fish, everything, the whole experience. I'm into it, and I'll never let it go. A couple steps to your right, Colt. I can't see him, dude. It's too freaking dark. You got to bring him out that way for me, okay? I guess we'll go. First fish of the day, we made about half a pass. Got that one. Good way to start the day. Hi, buddy. You got the gangsta groove? Oh, yeah. Had a girl, he says. What a loser. Just around right here. Someone get it. Someone get it. Buzz, you got it. Go ahead. Go ahead. Someone grab it. It broke off. What the? Yeah, dude. I don't know how that thing just snapped off. That should not happen, addicts. That's really frustrating. I don't know why that happened. There must have been a nick in the braid or who the heck knows, but something stupid happened right there. Very rare to lose a fish on braid. In fact, I've gone, like most people, I've gone to all braid because with monofilament once in a while, you do have an unexpected break off, but with braid, not really. Just doesn't happen. Except right now. Yeah, except just now, but that is really rare. Very rare. He's on, Trey. Really? Yeah, he's there, Trey. Oh, yeah. The handle's on the wrong side for me. Oh, no. That's what happened. I was like, why are you reeling, Trey? Trey, reel all the way. There you go. That one's going to go back. Oh, yeah. A little celebration donut. Trey says this bakery's the juice, so this one looks got to go with the frosted for sure. As Jason would say, cheers, folks. Oh, my God, those are so good. Yeah, that feels a little better. Oh, yeah. He's out there, yeah. All right, it's easy 50. That's a good strong fish. That's a good break that fish. Dude, I had to take a donut break for that. Yeah, I had to almost lose my donut. To me, that's the classic. That's it right there. I went to Benson High School. It was an all-boys trade school at the time, and I was buggy about fishing. Once I got a driver's license, that really set me free as far as being able to chase salmon and steal it. I got the hang of it, and I was out chasing them every weekend. I was so passionate about it. I'd drive an hour and a half to fish 30 minutes to drive home in the dark. I mean, I was addicted. What do you got here, Buzz? Oh, yeah, look at that. I put my smoker to work. I see that. What are we enjoying here? Let me try this. Is this coho, springer, falchion hook? Yeah. It's not every day you get to eat smoked salmon from Buzz Ramsey, folks. It's good. So good. Because I went to a trade school, I started an apprenticeship program, and I got into sheet metal, and I served a four-year apprenticeship. And then when I turned out, I worked three years as what they call a mechanic, a journeyman. And back when I was 24, they made me foreman of the swing shift, and I had 16 guys working for me. But I got a chance to get a 50 percent pay cut and go to work for a fishing tackle company in Hood River called Lure Jensen, and I jumped on it. Because I was really involved in the fisheries, not only here in the Northwest, but in the Great Lakes. Lure Jensen had a lot of existing products, some of which had far more potential than they were realizing. One of them was an old-time salmon plug like the old Lucky Louie from years ago, which was a wooden salmon plug. And I took that and did some tool changes to it to make it swim better, to make it dart more in the water, to entice the fish more. Coincidentally, at the same time, the Great Lakes, which originally started their program of coho salmon, they had added chinook to the mix. Chinook salmon. And the guys were used to catching coho, you know, dodgers, and a little short leader, and a fly, or a squid. And you put that down there in front of a chinook, and they don't dig it. So I started sending everybody that I came across some of these J plugs, and that took off like a rocket. The first year that took off, we sold 3,500 dozen. The next year, the company delivered 31,000 dozen J plugs into that market in the Great Lakes. That was one of my biggest accomplishments in the fishing tackle industry. Okay, now if you're allergic to nuts, you can't have any. Banana bread. Oh my gosh. Oh, look at that. And we put a little butter on it just in case they like butter. Banana bread is literally like, dude, it's my kryptonite. That's so good. Banana bread is not like having a banana. No. Different. Different. That's what I'm thinking. Lurgens was sold in 2005, and the Normark company, which is partly owned by BMC Hooks, they moved the whole outfit out of the Northwest. And so I went to work because I had a relationship, a promotional relationship, with Pure Fishing, Berkeley. I went to work for them, and I worked for them for about three years. The recession hit, they did a big downsizing, and I was out of a job. So I went to work for Yakima Bay, which of course was a competitor of Jensen's, and went to work there and really helped to take some of the lures they had that weren't really performing much as far as sales, although they worked, or mostly worked. And one of those was Maglip. Maglip needed its own identity. So iFish was a big deal at that time. And so I put a name that lure contest on iFish. And of course, if you're going to have people vote on a name, come up with a recommended name for it, you got to describe it, show them the colors, tell them what it does. I wrote all that up, and Maglip was the name that was suggested that we were able to do. Someone else hadn't trademarked it. And so we renamed it Maglip, put a new package, went out there and marketed it, and had immediate success with it. Pretty big, because it was a diving version of a flatfish. And it had a unique action in that it would not only wiggle, but it would dart around and kind of tease the fish into striking. Kind of like teasing a cat with a ball and string. So anyway, Maglip was a big deal. Of course, we completed other sizes and a whole family of sizes. And I understand that now Yakima Bay, that's grown over the years to where it's a significant part of their product line. Yeah, eight, nine bites, killed a couple, lost one. It was good. And then I was in. If you're seeing a couple caught up here, that's about exactly what I'm seeing down there. Everyone's calling me addicts. They're all asking where the fish are at, and I don't know where they're at. There's a few fish getting caught, but it's not good, that's for sure. Go to like a 24-inch leader. I think that's a good idea, because we haven't had any drive-bys. No. Except for that one that didn't have a hook on it. 24-inch leader. See if it's going to work. Everyone's catching, dude. We got something wrong. Our boat's hot or something. I don't know what the frick, dude. Ask Buzz Ramsey what he would do in this scenario. Yeah. Stay in the slot. Persistence. Well, sometimes, you know, it's frustrating when other boats are catching them and you're not. You just got to hang in there and hope your number comes up. And sometimes it's just that. Sometimes it's changing gear, changing speed, changing color, getting the moss off or the clamshells off your hook. It's just being on top of it and the persistence to keep it going. Keep trying. There it is. Get it, Trey. Reel this one in. Should we reel in? Yeah, reel him in. Have you got him, Trey? Have you got him? Have you got him? He is going hard. That's a bright one, Buzz. Oh, yeah. You saw the white belly? Oh, he came off. Bummer. He's coming. Hey, this guy's coming quick. Are you sure he came off? Nah, I'm pretty sure he came off. Yeah, 100%. It's a good bite, though. Fishing pressure, electronics, techniques, and how good we've gotten at catching them is affecting the runs and depleting them. My view is that all those things that help anglers catch more fish, there's always an evolution that goes on in fishing. There has been forever. Things come and go. Some of the old techniques come back. The other thing is that all these anglers out here are advocates for the resource, for protecting it. I'm reminded of the story on the East Coast where the Atlantic salmon were, a lot of the rivers were turned to fly fishing only for Atlantic salmon. It took the average person out of the equation. They weren't there to be advocates for the resource. There was just a few fly fishing groups, nothing against fly fishing. But we need an army, if you will, of advocates for the resource that are demanding that we recover these fish and willing to provide the funding and the encouragement and the lobbying to convince our political leaders that this is really important. We've got to do it. The new generation that's coming, we want to teach them how to fish rather than joining a gang or going to drugs or whatever bad thing there is out there. We want them to get out there and enjoy the resource and be a part of this. The bigger the industry is, the stronger we are as a group and a voice, the more economically important we are. It's what we got to do. And promoting those resources, getting more people involved and understanding the life cycle of salmon and steelhead, that's where it's at. Well guys, we've just had one of those days that you hate. And we got autumn really good this morning. First thing, had a lot of bites, got a couple landed. And then this afternoon, we've just sat here. And as Cameron loves to say, we've just sat here and ate popcorn. I mean, people have been catching them all around us, 360 degrees, doesn't matter what boat they're in, what they're using. Yeah. So it just hasn't mattered what we've done today, guys. We just can't freaking get them. So I said, you know what? We're going to go up to the top up here. We're going to do one more pass down. I'm going to eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And we're either going to catch them or we're not. And if we don't, that's okay. It was still fun hanging out with Buzz for the day, talking to him, hearing all the old stories. And hopefully you guys really enjoyed this episode. And as always, it's fun having Trey on the boat. Nice to meet Terry today too. So even if we don't get a couple more, we still got to go fishing and that's all that matters. It's not always about catching fish. It would have been nice. And honestly, I own a lot of it. To be honest, it wasn't that bad a day. We've boated three, put one back and I've crackered three. One broke my line and two came loose. So blame me. I started off really hot and then cooled off, got tired, retired. It's been a great day. Good company, good fish. Some days are like that. I've had a few of usually with Trey. No, hey, this has really been a great day. This is a fishery, one fishery that I don't participate in a lot. You know, I go down to buoy 10. I spent, I don't know, almost three weeks down there this year. So I've got plenty of salmon. To me, this trip wasn't about catching salmon and taking a bunch of them. I've already got more than as many as I need for cooking any number of ways, smoking, barbecuing, canning. I mean, we got them. I've eaten a lot of smoked salmon. Yours was phenomenal. Oh, that was really good. Yeah. Working for lure Jensen for a little over 30 years, selling little chief smokers. I, I, uh, I had a lot of practice on that, on that smoke fish thing, but no, this has been a great day. I learned a lot from Marlon about this fishery. Sometimes you can do everything right. Try different stuff, variations, but you're doing everything fundamentally right. And your number just doesn't come up. It's like you're, you're, you're keeping money in a slot machine and it ain't working, but the other days, everything's right. And it's more likely that you're going to have success on most days. If you've got the knowledge and the know-how to do it. My career has been one to help anglers catch fish. My philosophy for the companies I've worked with is to design lures that catch fish, teach people how to use them. And we're having fun doing it. And everybody is invited to the party. That's what my career has really been about. And, uh, that's a philosophy I've taken with me for when I, in my tenure at lure Jensen with pure fishing Berkeley and also with Yakima Bay. So, you know, in the end, I'm just a fisherman like everybody else. And I happen to be in a situation where I got to go to work for, I got the dream job working for a fishing tackle company. Well, guys, we decided, just like I said, we're going to come up here all by ourselves and see if we can get one. And we finally got one. Hopefully that was the curse broken. We still got a few hundred yards to go here. You predicted that one. That was perfect. Well, one thing I want to say is that, that I got lucky. You know, I worked for a fishing tackle company. I got well-known perhaps because of my unique name and my energy energy I put into it and dedication I put into it, but I always wanted more people, more fishing personalities to be visible out in the world. Fishing needs fishing heroes and the addicted leadership and group are those new heroes. And I think it's wonderful. I mean, I love it. The fact that there are more people out there being advocates for the resource, helping people find success. They just need a roadmap to success and, and they love you for it. And that's what the addicted thing is all about. Helping anglers catch more fish, be successful, live the dream. I wish it for everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks Buzz. Good fishing with you. Let's do it again. I want to do it again. I'd love it, Marlin. Thank you. Nothing but fun. Spending time with Buzz Ramsey today has been an honor. Few people have had such a lasting impact on the way we fish the Pacific Northwest. From designing lures that change the game, to teaching generations of anglers, to speaking up for the rivers and runs we all depend on. What stood out most to me wasn't the gear he created, but the passion he still carries for these fisheries and the responsibility he feels of passing that knowledge on. That's exactly what the Pacific Northwest Angler Series is all about. Honoring the people who have helped build the foundation and making sure their lessons carry forward. Buzz, thank you for sharing your story and thank you for everything you have given the fishing community. And to everyone watching, we've got more incredible anglers coming in this series, all with their own stories, experiences, and impact on fishing the Pacific Northwest. Leave a comment and let us know what you learned about Buzz and share this with a fellow angler who needs to hear it. The Pacific Northwest Angler Series continues soon and you won't want to miss the next one.