One of the reasons I really love Kodiak Island is the fact that it has a great road system that allows you to access plenty of world class fishing. For those of us who don’t own a Beaver on floats, that’s a big plus! On the way to all that great fishing, one is treated to some pretty epic vistas. The Panorama setting on my camera pretty much sucks, but you just can’t capture the vastness of the place with regular format photos, so for better or for worse, here are some wide views of the island…
The Buskin River, which is basically right in downtown Kodiak
Downtown Kodiak, Alaska and the harbor
Lake Rose Tead (Full of reds, silvers and pinks, by the way)
The upper end of Lake Rose Tead (View is just to the right of that in the photo above)
It's a grind getting down there, but worth the trip!
When you think about trout fishing, places like Montana, Alaska, New Zealand and Patagonia probably pop into your head…but how about South Africa??
Seems strange, but there is actually some pretty good fishing near Capetown…if you know where to look. Our pal Peter from down there sent in these pix of a stream he likes to fish. I’ll withhold the name of it just in case it’s his little secret, but what I can tell you is it harbors rainbows to 20+ inches. Peter says they’re all wild and there are obviously some bruisers in there, but most average closer to 10 inches.
And speaking of wild, he says it’s quite a hairy trek getting down to (and from) the water, but once you’re there, it’s a pleasure to fish. Peter and friends fish it with 2-weights. Here are some more pix… [click to continue…]
Okay kokanee junkies…ready to go troll for some truly giant kokes? You’ve got to check out Washington State’s Brewster and Baker lakes, where there have been some interesting new fisheries developing this summer…The salmon in these lakes aren’t truly kokanee but instead ocean-run sockeyes that are open to fishing for the first time. Check out out pal Bill Herzog’s Zog Blog at Northwest Wild Country for more details and some cool pix. Also be sure to click the “Rasticle” link for some cool rigging photos that should help ya out in future kokanee endeavors.
With wives outta town last week, VinMan and I did what any two fishheads with a kitchen pass would do…blow off all responsibility and hit the water. This time around, we headed for Caples Lake, a sparking little gem high in the Sierra Nevadas near Kirkwod, CA. With tight schedules, we left the big city for a quickie jaunt to the mountains around noon last Wednesday and were back home 24 hours later, with a nice evening and morning of troutin’ under our belts.
We decided on Caples Lake because a) At 7,800 feet, it’s way above the heat of the Valley; b) It was a place we’d never been; and c) It was supposedly stuffed with trout.
We didn't catch a lot of monsters on the 'Nush, but this was clearly a beast...that we released.
During the last week of June and into the start of July, it’s hard for my thoughts not to wander up to the incomparable Nushagak River in remote Southwest Alaska. Before I was a papa, I spent 7 seasons guiding on the word’s greatest king salmon stream…which always seemed to peak about this time of year.
The ‘Nush is simply one of those places you must fish before you turn into fertilizer…there’s just no other place like it. You won’t find better king fishing anywhere. Looking back over all those seasons, I can clearly recall my worst-ever day of fishing, which still resulted in 18 kings to the boat! And the best of days were well into the triple digits, though after a dozen or so you kinda lose count. I’d say the average day during the meat of the season saw each of our boats hooking 20-40 per trip.
Most of my photos from those days are all on slide film, but I recently found a few digitals. So, here we go a little walk down memory lane… [click to continue…]
The ponds on Bruin Ranch are absolutely teeming with largemouth!
One of the great perks of my job is I get to get out and see and do some pretty stinkin’ cool stuff. That was definitely the case last week when I got to tour the incomparable Bruin Ranch, a privately-held 2,300 acre slice of sportsmen’s nirvana about an hour northeast of Sacramento, CA.
The place is home to some unbelievable hunting and warm water fishing opportunities…and the most interesting aspect of the whole deal is that you hopefully will get a chance to experience the place for yourself if the fine folks at Placer Land Trust can make some magic happen… [click to continue…]
The epic, “dream season” that was the Smith River’s fall Chinook run seems to have rolled straight into what looks to be an awesome year of winter steelie fishing! The Team FishwithJD boys headed north earlier in the week with guides John Klar of John’s Guide Service and Mike Stratman of Redwood Coast Fishingto see firsthand how steelhead season on the Smith is shaping up. A selfless act of recon, with you, the reader in mind, you might say…
