Took the kid out the other night for a quickie 1-hour (that’s about all a 4-year-old can handle) fishing mission on the river to dunk some sardines. It was a beautifully cool August evening, just dad and the monkey. On the first cast, his little rod doubles over and the fight is on! I have to hold the back of his lifejacket as the scrappy striper is determined to yank the kid over the side. It all looks like a scene from one of those long range tuna boats…rod pinned to the rail and the angler grunting as he struggles to lift the fish from the depths.
A moment or two later, I heaved the 15 incher, Coop’s first-ever striper, aboard. Judging by that grin, it might as well been 50 pounds! You should have seen my smile…
Ok, I’ll admit that when I heard they were doing a movie of my favorite book, David James Duncan’s The River Why, my gut reaction was…well…WHY? Why take a brilliant piece of fiction and bastardize it by putting it onto the silver screen? It just seemed like a bad idea. But, the trailer actually makes it look like they may have done a respectable job of it…and, by the way, Gus’ girl Eddy (played by Amber Heard) may just be more smokin’ in the flick than in my imagination…not easy to do!
The film is currently being screened at Film Festivals across the U.S. No word yet on a major released date…
Not 24 hours after telling one of the guys on my boat that I rarely catch stripers on salmon plugs…PRESTO!…A striper climbs all over a backtrolled chrome and chartreuse number we were trying to put in the face of a king.
Still, it’s a rare occurrence…maybe once a year or so. You’d think it would happen more often when you consider the fact that a plug looks (and smells) a lot like a small fish…something, in theory, that an opportunistic striper would find hard to resist. But in fact, I’ve caught far more linesiders on back-bounced eggs. Go figure…
Okay, if the sight of a little blood and gore isn’t for you, you may want to skip this one! Here’s a set of grainy camera shots taken by our pal Big Fred Contaoi on a dark night on Clear Lake when a marauding catfish decided to strike back! [click to continue…]
He’s normally guiding deer hunts on a private ranch in the Bay Area (yes, you heard that right), but Josh Peixoto of JP Guide Service also likes to put a bend in the ol’ rod from time to time. On Saturday, he caught this nice king salmon on a backtrolled Kwikfish while fishing with me on the Feather River.
As if just catching a king in California this year wasn’t reward enough, Josh is also entered into our August Hawg of the Month Contest in which he’ll battle it out with other anglers for a shot at a free fishing trip. Learn more about the contest HERE.
It's been a long time since you could fish kings here! (photo: www.idahobyways.gov)
For the first time in recent history, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will open the upper Snake River for fall chinook salmon harvest on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010!
The chinook fishery will open to sport fishing seven days a week concurrent with the annual Hell’s Canyon steelhead fishery. The river will be open from the Oregon/ Washington border to the deadline below Hells Canyon Dam and will remain open until Oct. 31, or until a closure is announced.
The daily bag limit is two adipose fin-clipped fall chinook salmon per day, only one of which can be an adult salmon longer than 24 inches. Only barbless hooks may be used. Anglers are reminded to consult the 2010 Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations for other applicable regulations. [click to continue…]
Have you ever noticed that most guys who feel the need to throw “Captain” in front of their names are total gomers who probably have never even piloted anything larger than a mini van? Well, that’s definitely not the case with Capt. Mike Baxter of Santa Cruz…he’s actually pulled a trailer with a mini van! (Kidding of course…). No, Capt. Mike is one of the most highly regarded charter skippers along the California coast with something like a trillion and a half hours of sea time at the helm of big party boats.
While his hopping insurance business keeps Cap’n Mike off the water a lot more these days, he still gets out to play as often as possible. Here he is with a 50-pound white sea bass he caught Saturday, 8/21 off Monterey while flylining a live squid on his brother’s boat, Wild Natalie.
In addition to some serious barbecue fodder, the ol’ skipper is also entered into our Hawg of the Month Contest in which he’ll have a chance to battle it out with other Hawgs for a free fishing trip. And if you ever happen to be in Santa Cruz on a Thursday evening between 7-8 PM, be sure to check him on the Let’s Go Fishing Radio Show on AM 1080.
On July 16, less than a year after Michigan’s Tom Healy set a new All Tackle World Record for brown trout with a 41 pound, 7 ouncer, Roger Hellen of Franksville, WI banged a monster brown that was larger than the current record — by an ounce (41 pounds, 8 ounces). Hellen hooked the beast while trolling a Fishlander spoon in Lake Michigan off the Wisconsin coast.
Now, here’s where things get a little dicey: Though Hellen’s fish is one ounce heavier than the current all-tackle record, according to IGFA World Record requirements, to replace a record fish weighing 25 pounds or more, the replacement must weigh at least one half of 1 percent more than the existing record. Bottom-line, Healy and Hellen might be sharing an IGFA World Record tie for their two fish. As a baseball guy, I’m not a big fan of ties, but what can you do here?
I have no idea how Hellen’s fish was handled, but if it were thrown on the bottom of the boat and allowed to dry out rather than being put immediately on ice, (again pure speculation on my part…though the fish in the pic looks pretty leathery), it would have lost a significant amount of weight…enough, probably, to make the difference. [click to continue…]
