So, we had a little family camping trip down near Santa Cruz last week, so, of course I had to bring a rod (or 10). A quick call to my pal Mike Baxter, all-around S.C. ocean fishing guru and host of the Let’s Go Fishing Radio Show told me that there was a pretty good shot at getting a striper or two…and maybe a halibut…off the area beaches.
I’ve caught stripers in the rivers, bay, inland lakes and even in the surf from a partyboat, but never while standing on the sand…so the whole concept sounded cool to me! I grabbed a box of poppers and swimbaits and the closest thing I have to a surf rod and headed to the beach.
Well, you know the story of best laid plans and all. It was a family vacation with boo-koo kids running around, so fishing time was very limited. [click to continue…]
Okay, so maybe the comparison to the Kenai is a bit much, but the Sacramento River in Redding, CA is one of the best trout fishing destinations this side of Alaska. While the rainbows here don’t reach the epic proportions their cousins to the north do, they are chunky, solid fish that provide some superb year-round angling.
Team FishWithJD was on the scene a few days back and we found (before the rains hit), a beautiful river with hardly a soul on it…and plenty o’ trout in the 2- to 4-pound class — we landed somewhere in the neighborhood of 30+ fish a day.
Okay, so our first few days on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula didn’t exactly pan out from a steelheading standpoint. Cold rain, sleet, poor fish returns and rising water all conspired against us. But Days 1-3 paled in comparison to what awaited us on our final day…
Mike B. called it the “wost conditions” he’d ever endured on a river. I put it right up there behind the famed “Hunt for Mr. Hogito” day on Oregon’s Elk River many moons ago. Big Worm said…well…he didn’t say a thing but it’s safe to say he’d rather been somewhere else…say in a hot tub with a couple French bikini models, for example. [click to continue…]
This week Baxter, Big Worm and I left the Golden State and made the marathon 473-hour trip north to the “OP” — Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Why would we drive a bazillion miles and swap the 71 degrees of California for 42 and steady rain? Duh — giant steelhead of course!
Well, at least in theory…
Like most trips, this one didn’t quite go as planned. Here’s the photo diary… [click to continue…]
Okay, so she’s not the Dean or the Babine or the Klamath or the Rogue. And she won’t ever be compared with the Cowlitz or the Hoh or the Sandy or the Smith. But the good ol’ American River right in downtown Sacramento (100 miles inland) still pumps out some really nice steelhead. [click to continue…]
There’s a lot of confusion surrounding trespassing rights along rivers. I mean, I’ve always heard that if a stream is navigable, then you could legally hike the banks up to the high water mark. But then I’ve also been told that that only applies in some states. And then there’s that whole nebulous “navigable” definition…
Well, with steelie fishing pretty slow in the low, clear flows of California rivers, Reilly and I headed north this week for Oregon to see how things are looking in that neck of the woods.
Well, let’s just say conditions were pretty much the same…no rain in 2 weeks, freezing nights and below-average fish returns. The rivers were trickles and fresh fish hadn’t moved in to any of the systems in a looong time.
Still, it was a chance to get outta Dodge and see some new water — and hang with ol pal Nick Amato, editor of Salmon Trout Steelheader Magazine. Luckily, Reilly’s got a place on the Oregon coast, so we had a place to crash…
Reilly & Nick: We're gonna catch one Thissss Biggggggg
As I said earlier, most Oregon streams were so slow that even Nick, a crusty veteran of decades of Oregon steelhead fishing, seemed surprised by the lack of water. [click to continue…]
Okay, so maybe the comparison to the Kenai is a bit much, but the Sacramento River in Redding, CA is one of the best trout fishing destinations this side of Alaska. While the rainbows here don’t reach the epic proportions their cousins to the north do, they are chunky, solid fish that provide some superb year-round angling.
Okay, so our first few days on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula didn’t exactly pan out from a steelheading standpoint. Cold rain, sleet, poor fish returns and rising water all conspired against us. But Days 1-3 paled in comparison to what awaited us on our final day…
