Fish with JD » Destinations

Epic Alaskan Float Trip!

JD — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 03:45:42 +0000

Some folks I had on the boat the other day were asking me about my all-time favorite fishing trip. Well, this one if not the best is right up there…

Watch as JD & Khev float a wild Alaskan river for 7 days and catch over 100 trout per day on flies!!

Kodiak Island, Alaska: Panoramic Style

JD — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:24:33 +0000

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)

Senic vista of another kind: Chrome Coho

Sunrise over Mill Bay

Looking for chrome in Salonie Creek

White Sands Beach, Monashka Bay

The upper Psagshak River drainage

Trout Fishing in South Africa

JD — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:12:30 +0000

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…

Low, clear water...you'd better get your game on for this one!

In this next shot, you can see a 20 inch rainbow…one of three in that size range that completely rejected everything that he and a pal threw at them…all the way down to size #20 dries! Oh well, that’s what keeps you coming back!

Where's Walter? Can you spot the 20-inch rainbow in this pool?

The Land of Giant “Kokanee”

JD — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:47:02 +0000

A nice Baker Lake sockeye!

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.

Trout fishing dispatch from Caples Lake, CA

JD — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:23:25 +0000

Caples Lake: Beautiful and stuffed with trout!

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.

Here’s what we found…

On the way up, we thought we’d maybe made a fatal error, considering our fowl weather gear consisted of shorts and flip-flops. Hey, it was 100 degrees were we were coming from!

Did you bring the rain gear???

It actually poured for about half an hour as we approached Caples, but the rain quit just as we arrived. We did have some nice overcast skies for a few hours, which we figured would help the bite…

Perfect fishing conditions!

Well, it may have helped the bite…if we could find one. For the first couple hours, everything seemed perfect: The weather was right and we graphed lots of fish, yet me only managed to troll up one dinky rainbow. At least the scenery was ridiculously good!

As VinMan said: We've been skunked in places a lot less scenic than this!

We even gave the trolling a rest and tried a little uneventful shore casting at the inlet stream…

Sure looked fishy, but...

Just when all the rumors of the lake being loaded with trout seemed like B.S., the skies brightened, the wind kicked up and the bite went white-hot. The fish were not the monsters we’d heard about…not even close. But they were suddenly on the snap!

Not exactly Hawg of the Month material, but a biter's a biter!

We caught a bunch of skinny planter browns that were probably dumped last fall, some freshly-released rountails and a few hold-over rainbows that had some of their fins growing back…

At least he didn't arrive by truck earlier this morning!

So, the size was definitely not there, but hey…we were enjoying an evening away from home, catching fish and then the sunset kicked into high gear…

That's what I'm talking about!

Nothing wrong with a little Alpenglow!

Then, just as the sun dropped behind the dam and the “magic hour” was set to begin, the bite mysteriously dropped off to nothing. At dark, we cruised back to camp, chowed down by the fire and crashed out. The next morning, we were at the new EID boat launching facility a little too early as it turns out…

We learned the hard way that the gate doesn't open until 6 AM...

No matter, considering the bite picked right up where it had left off the night before…Deadsville! The first boat on the water, first thing in the morning, but nada. Zip. Zilch. But then, as the sun got higher and the skies blued…

The bite came back on again…

Like turning on a switch, the rainbows and browns startted gobbling our crawlers agian!

The browns got the memo, too…

Still no monsters, but a few decent fish in the mix.

All too soon it was time to go back to the new EID launch and…eventually, the real world.

The new EID Ramp is sweet!

Though it was a quick trip, we thoroughly enjoyed our mission to Caples. It’s a beautiful, user-friendly sized lake…with a few mysteries yet to be unscrambled. While the size of the fish this trip wasn’t much to get excited about, the numbers were definitely there, which made us think about taking the kids on the next trip.

Nushagak Dreamin’

JD — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:59:35 +0000

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…

Four fish on at a time was pretty common!

A typical Nush king...chrome and fat!

Another day of king salying ready to begin...

I'd sometimes take the dudes to do a little backcountry jet boating for trout. Yeehhhaw!

Once we got where we were going, the trout fishing up the creeks was good!

Midnight sun setting over the Nushagak

Man, who's that young cat on the net??

The VooDoo Lounge..aka the guide tent. Looks like we had a couple ADF&G tickets...

Lots of these guys around...and big brown furry things with big teeth and claws, too!

We caught TONS of Kings off the bank at the lodge, too!

Me & Major General Erbon Wise with a 'slab

We always shot off fireworks on the 4th of July...but we had to wait to nearly 2 AM for it to be dark enough!

Fish on again...notice how nobody's even getting up?

Plenty of wildlife to check out!

The view from the lodge...

I really miss the late evening rides back home...

The backwaters were loaded with pike...and check out the bugs!!

The Goose coming in to take me home for the last time...

The last glimpse of the camp before heading home...haven't been back since

Nor Cal’s Bruin Ranch: A Sportsmen’s Paradise!

JD — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:05:16 +0000

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…

Think you'd like to cast here?

Bruin Ranch is coming up for sale and the landowner has given PLT the first shot at purchasing it. According to PLT’s Executive Director, Jeff Darlington, they’ve got until the end of the year to come up with some serious cash, but if they can pull it off, PLT will preserve the land and make it public… opening up some seriously sweet outdoor adventures for everybody.

To get a glimpse into what anglers might get to enjoy at the ranch, Darlington and I took a quick field trip to sample the opportunities. Purely for research purposes, of course! Here’s what we found…

We didn't catch any monsters, but fish like this one Darlington's holding were nearly an every cast proposition

Of the dozen or so ponds, this one really produced for us...

We didn't spend much time with the smaller ponds, but we saw fish in all of 'em.

We caught fish on Senkos, rip baits and soft plastic jerk baits

DOA jerk shad rigged weedless and weightess were tough to beat!

We didn't taget them, but the 'gills in he pond were plenty hungry!

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Darlington...FISH ON...Again!

The scenery here is awesome!

Though the fish were all 1-3 pounders, I did see one that would have easily gone 11-12 pounds!!

Heck, just riding around on the Ranger was worth the price of admission!

How you can help

If you’d rather see this epic spot preserved as a place for folks like you and I to pursue outdoor recreation and not turned into homes (it’s zones or something like 900 single family dwellings), give Placer Land Trust a call: (530) 887-9222 or hit the website.

Smith River Steelhead Fishing Video!

JD — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:52:27 +0000

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…

Late Season Berryessa Mixed Bag Action

JD — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:12:42 +0000

Northern California’s Lake Berryessa is a well-known producer of king and kokanee salmon, three varieties of bass, catfish, crappie and rainbow trout throughout the year…but something special happens here in the fall and early winter: You can catch pretty much all species in the same day, in the same areas on the same gear. Sounds like fun, eh?

Here’s the deal: As the lake starts to cool, the lake’s threadfin shad and pond smelt gather up in massive balls in the creek channels…and the species fish that eat said bait (all of ‘em) follow close behind.

Shad: It's what's for dinner (& lunch and breakfast)

The trick to success here is to motor around in the channels and watch your meter for bait (also look for grebes on the surface). It’s pretty simple…find the bait and you’ll find the fish.

You know the bait's thick when the graph thinks the bottom is 18.5 feet down in 30 feet of water!

When you see something like the photo above, bust out the shaddy-looking spoons and drop ‘em down…

W.A.S.P. spoons work well here!

Okay, so the real trick is to locate the edge of the bait balls — or smaller, more isolated pods of bait away from the big masses. That way, you’ve actually got a shot at having your spoon seen by the fish. Here’s a screen shot from my Lowrance of a fish eating my spoon…

Just like a video game...

And, just exactly what can you expect to catch off the bait balls? Trusty side-kick Reilly and I went out for a morning just to show what you can do. We started off with some kings…

At least there are some kings you can catch near the Sacramento Valley this year!

Next year's model...

Not to mention some nice rainbows…

Of course, you’ve also got some nice smallies…

Reilly looking all bass pro-like!

Largemouth, too. Though we didn’t get any huge ones, Berryessa pumps out some brutes.

What you do with my spoon??

Spotts live here, too…

Spotts here are small but scrapy!

Of course, all sorts of other critters are a possibility during spoonin’ season…

On light gear, the 8- to 10-pound channel cats were a blast!

Another real benefit of fishing Lake Berryessa this time of year is you’ll have the lake virtually to yourself…

Burr!

This time of year, expect the lake level to be at its lowest. Here’s the low-water ramp at Markley Cove…

Watch that left edge if you launch in the dark!

Clear Lake in the Fall

JD — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:58:05 +0000

Okay, so may it sounds a bit like a sappy chick flick: “Clear Lake in the Fall,” but there is some seriously epic fishing to be had on this Northern California lake in the late autumn.

Everything — trophy largemouth, scads of big catfish and dinner plate sized crappie — are all putting on the feed bag before winter kicks in and the action can be non-stop. Great fishing, nice scenery…and hardly another soul on the water. What’s not to like?

As Clear Lake has been dubbed the “Bass Capital of the West,” it’s no surprise that buckemouths are the primarly target for the handful of anglers who fish in the fall. Here’s Ross England and Jim Dowdy, the dynamic duo of Clear Lake Guide Service into a nice trap bite.

Clear Lake has been, of course, right at the epicenter of the Western swimbait scene. To get a monster sack here, bust out the jumbo baits and take your time.

Here’s one of my better fish…

Okay, just kidding (not really) but our resident bass pro and big fish expert, Big Fred Contaoi shows us how to do it…

You get some epic sunrises and sunsets at Clear Lake this time of year…

Shad, of course, are the main forage this time of year and if you find the schools (not hard to do), you’ll find fish of all flavors nearby.

Don’t think for a minute that catfish don’t take advantage of the shad schools…

And the average size channel is a solid 8-10 pounds this time of year, as Big Boy demonstrates:

So, the bottom line here is: forget all you think you know about Clear Lake…the 100 degree weather, soupy green water and 8 million jetskis…that’s the summer scene. Fall is extremely quiet, the fishing’s great and the scenery is beautiful…