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January 2011
An endless string of storms had been hammering the valley for a solid month. The low-pressure fronts gave Jaws what was like a fish’s equivalent of a headache, and though the dark, sunless skies would normally have coaxed her out of her lair in search of prey, she maintained a low profile.
Jaws had spent much of the previous Indian summer plowing through dense schools of threadfin shad in the lake, quickly adding layers of fat to her already impressive girth. Then, when warm fall abruptly gave way to a stormy winter, she sought solace on a rocky reef 30 feet below the surface.
By nature, Jaws would have preferred to spend the winter huddled up close to woody structure or perhaps in a deep weedbed, but submerged cover in her home water was noticeably deficient. So, as the cold water of December turned her metabolism to molasses, Jaws took refuge on this rockpile and claimed it as her own. [click to continue…]
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Doubles as a solar oven!
MMark Scatchard did a little steelie fishing in Northern California and ended up with a tan and this incredibly beautiful and extremely chrome hen on Jan. 27 while side-drifting eggs and a Fish Pill. Mark says the battle included a backflip, a cartwheel and a whole lot of long runs. After the quick grip and grin, the bright lady swam off in great shape. He didn’t have a scale handy but estimated the fish to be between 15 and 18 pounds. Any way you slice it, that’s a huge hen! I’d like to see her boyfriend…
As our latest Hawg of the Month Contest entry, Mark will get to do battle at the end of the month with the other monthly entries. The January winner gets some Pautzke’s headgear and a shot a winning a fishing trip for two in the Pacific Northwest with Swanny’s Guided Fishing.
To enter your big fish, click HERE
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Times are tough, so maybe you should consider a career change and become a professional squawfish angler! With Bonneville Power Administration’s 2011 Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Program, you can earn $4 to $8 each for every squawfish you catch over 9 inches in length on the Columbia River (The top anglers last season made…get this…close to $50,000!).
It’s all part of an effort to make the river safer for out-migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead. For details, click HERE
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There are just so many things I love about this photo that don’t know where to begin. So, instead I’ll let reader Thomas Carroll, who submitted the shot, tell the tale of Caris Zajac’s first-ever sturgeon:
“She caught the sturgeon, which measured 70 inches, in San Francisco Bay off Alviso near Channel Marker 20 on the outgoing tide,” says Carroll. “She hooked it on a grass/ghost shrimp combo around 1:30 PM, about 5 minutes after the DFG left us. It took over 20 minutes to land on a 7-foot Ugly Stick and a Shimano reel spooled with 50-pound braid.”
After a quick photo session, the big diamondback was swimming again in the South Bay. For her efforts, Caris is entered into our Jan. Hawg of the Month Contest. Monthly winners will earn some Pautzke’s headgear and will vie for a chance to win a guided fishing trip with top-notch Pacific Northwest skipper Bill Swanny Swann. To enter your big fish, click HERE
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Lower American River, near downtown Sacramento
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for a good sunset. And with my job, I’ve seen plenty of amazing ones…typically as we’re running back home to the dock or just as we get off the water. Here are a few of my faves… [click to continue…]
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There are some fish you never forget...
Another winter day…and another hour of responsibility completely blown off while daydreaming about chrome and green and pink leviathans lurking in emerald waters in Northern British Columbia!
This little episode took place near Terrace, BC a few years ago. I was drifting a balsa float and glob of eggs when this chrome hen rocketed from the depths and blew up on my float like a striper on a topwater popper. It was like somebody dropped a bowling ball into the creek. KA-BOOOOOOOSSSSH!
But, believe it or not, this happens quite often in BC and I’d been there before. I didn’t panic…didn’t jerk. I simply pointed the rod at her and let her run with the float. The fish eventually spat the bobber out and that’s when I calmly lobbed a cast right back in there again… The action continues on Page 2…
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Photo: www.siliconeer.com
Here’s one from the “things you don’t hear every day” file: A small lake in Nor Cal was recently planted with trout…but not your typical power goo-slurping, nub-finned variety. No sir, Mill Creek Lake was recently stocked with steelhead.
The small lake in Mendocino County is the second water in the state planted with native steelhead trout under new environmental mandates. On Jan. 11, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) planted Mill Creek Lake with steelhead trout that were raised at Warm Springs Fish Hatchery. A total of 15,000 fish will be planted in the lake over a five- to six-month period. [click to continue…]
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