I have been searching for these various Northwest Fishing Guides for several years now.  I was introduced to the Ben Paris Guide in the fifties as a small child.  My Dad had a few of them sitting around the house as I am sure many other fishing household’s did at this time in the Northwest.  These books could really capture your imagination. If you closed your eyes, you could almost picture yourself at one of the many described locations. 
    I kept these books through all of my adult life enjoying a story from time to time. Well some years back I got a little curious as to how many of these guides were printed.  I had been reading the same old issues from cover to cover for many years and I was looking for some fresh material.  After searching high and low for other Ben Paris Guides, I also became aware of other Northwest Fishing Guides.
   Other Guides started appearing as early as 1921 in this area and I have added these to my collection as well.  The magical thing about these Guides is how you can almost project yourself back to that era as you read your way into these wonderful stories.  Some people enjoy collecting Salmon plugs and other old lures, rods, reels.  In fact, I enjoy collecting this kind of tackle as much as the next guy.  You are limited to enjoying your collection of tackle by only touching them or displaying them for a visual treat. They just do not stimulate your imagination, as does a good article from the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties or even the sixties. 
    Now if you still have a passion for the old collectable fishing tackle, then you can thumb through these old Guides and find the original ads for your old gear and see how they where marketed back then. There are several reasons why there are so few of these little jewels still out there.  I believe the reason that most of these old guides are so hard to find is due to some important factors.  Many were left in an old tackle box and exposed to moisture, fish guts, boat gas and who knows what else.  Even if they resided in the luxury of a house over the last eighty years, at some time they could have been donated to a wartime paper drive or another worthy cause.  They also may have been deemed as unimportant and tossed out while cleaning the house. 
    The last important factor is that a very small amount of these Guides were printed; these were a regional item and as such, were not distributed in large numbers.  After all of the factors listed above and many other possible demises, the chances of survival for some of these Guides is about the same as a single Salmon egg developing into a mature fish and returning back to spawn in the stream bed of it's birth. 
    It has taken me until this year  (2005) to finally locate the last Ben Paris Guide and complete that part of my collection.  I would not even venture to guess how many hours I have searched for these on the Web, Antique Shops and Estate Sales and any other way I could think of.  I had no idea as to what some of these Guides even looked like, I just knew they existed and I pursued them with reckless abandon.
    I have built this web site based on these Guides and the information contain with in them.  I have posted cover pictures and information on all of the ones that I have collected. This should make it much easier for the next guy who wants to collect these wonderful books.  So, I welcome you to the world of N/W Fishing Guide collecting and I hope you will enjoy the hobby as much as I do.