Caples Lake: Beautiful and stuffed with trout!

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???

Perfect fishing conditions!

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

Sure looked fishy, but...

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

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

That's what I'm talking about!

Nothing wrong with a little Alpenglow!

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

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

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

The new EID Ramp is sweet!

The ponds on Bruin Ranch are absolutely teeming with largemouth!

Think you'd like to cast here?

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!

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.

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…

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!

While the Lower Klamath River is packed with people and jet boats in the fall, the middle section is typically very quiet…even when the fishing’s red hot.

From September through November, the stretch of river between Weitchpec and Happy Camp plays host to big runs of king salmon and steelhead. And as the kings peter out, winter-run steelies fill the void. It’s beautiful, rugged country that begs to be explored…

Fall kings here are typically chrome bright!

Great fishing: The confluence of the Klamath and trinity rivers at Weitchpec.

The Locals know where the fish are...

There's some epic steelie water in this stretch!

It's wild, beautiful country along the middle Klamath!

Guides

Spey-Gee Point Guide Service

Cabins

Your home away from home!

Shuttles

For do-it-yourself anglers, shuttles can be arranged through Pearson’s Grocery; (530) 625-4173

You're in salmon & steelhead country, now!

I’ve been up on the Klamath River lately…good fishing, awesome weather and incredible scenery. Here’s a quick post card from the past couple weeks…

The boys side-drifting at the famed Blake's Riffle on the Lower Klamath

Steve R. with a chrome king

There were some really nice wild steelies in the mix...

Not to mention, some dandy hatchery fish as well!

And of course, the ever-present halfpounders kept us busy!l.

A few adult salmon were showing...

Jacks, too!

On the Klamath, you're always going to see plenty of wildlife...

Mouth of the Klamath

Fish on!

Super Mario side-drifting Blue Creek

After a week-long road trip to Southeast Alaska, I think I may have found some of the best fishing on the planet. That is if you like yanking on halibut until your arms feel like they’re full of wet cement and hooking so many coho salmon that it seems a little like bluegill fishing out of a 5-gallon bucket.

And the best part of the deal is this angling paradise is relatively close.

My base of operations was Juneau, which is a short 3-hour flight from Sacramento, with a stop in Seattle. On assignment for Fish Alaska Magazine, my orders were to explore and report back on the fishing opportunities available in the waters within easy striking distance of Alaska’s capitol city.

On day one, my assistant Khevin and I rented a car and buzzed around the Juneau road system, where we found massive amounts of salmon in all the small streams we visited, catching more than we could count on fly and conventional tackle.

Khev with a Fish Creek Humpy

Khev with a downtown coho at the DIPAC hatchery

Glacier Bay/Icy Strait

The next day, we were flown out to South Passage Outfitters near Glacier Bay. South Passage Outfitters (SPO) is located smack dab in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness and caters to small groups of anglers (and wildlife enthusiasts) who like to go the unguided route. Guests stay in beautiful cabins located on the shores of Gull Cove, each with stoves, beds, hot showers and flush toilets. Home-style meals are provided in the spacious cookhouse and after breakfast, you hop into an 18-foot skiff and disappear for the day.

The main lodge at South Passage Outfitters

The fishing is a do-it-yourself type of affair and is a really sweet deal for guys like Khev and myself who are tackle junkies and like to set our own schedules. Each morning, we’d woof down some breakfast at about 5 am and wouldn’t come back until after 8 pm. The many bays and passages in the area were teeming with sea life and we had a ball jigging halibut in 30 to 150 feet of water with swimbaits.

Halibut happy in Icy Strait!

Most of the fish were perfect “eaters” in the 20- to 40-pound class, though I nailed one about 70 pounds and another guest got one that was closer to 100 pounds while we were there. The waters of Icy Straight pump out some gargantuan halis as well, but we really didn’t target the monsters (too much work!).

We also jigged up so many rockfish on light bass gear that it got silly.

Rockfish were more than thick in some spots

As far as salmon fishing went, there were good schools of coho around, but they were deep for some reason and fishing for them 180 feet down didn’t appeal that much to our light tackle sensibilities.

There are also abundant freshwater streams around SPO that hold runs of salmon, trout and dolly varden, but we were having such a blast catching halibut that we didn’t even mess with them. There was simply too much to do and too little time in which to do it.

Other that the two other boats from the lodge, we never saw another angler (there were a few commercial salmon trollers, but that was it) and it felt like that corner of the state was ours alone to explore. In fact, we saw a lot more whales (up close and personal, I might add), sea otters and porpoise than humans. It was definitely a place we felt like we needed another 6 weeks to explore!

Gull Cove and Icy Strait beyond

Off to Angoon

The second part of the week, we were sent to Whaler’s Cove Lodge in Angoon, which is a fully guided (though they do have self-guided packages as well), luxury outfit located in one of the most perfect and unique fishing spots in the state.

The Whaler's Cove Lodge beachfront

The waters off Angoon are typically very calm (the area only gets about 36 inches or rain a year) and harbor one of the largest herring populations in the world. There’s also a prolific salmon hatchery nearby and several freshwater streams to top it all off.

The combination of huge balls of herring and tons of salmon just a mile or so from the lodge makes for lots of fun as Khevin and I found out. The two days of saltwater fishing we did resulted in so many ravenous coho that we started throwing bass stuff at them just to make it more of a challenge (it wasn’t – they ate all the plastic worms, dropshot rigs, Flukes and swimbaits we threw at them) and we probably caught 30 to 50 a day without much effort.

The coho at Whaler's were overweight slobs!

We also found excellent halibut fishing like we had at Gull Gove and continued our “Three Bounce Policy,” which stated that we’d move to a new spot if our jigs bounced more than three times on the bottom without a bite.
Just for record, we rarely had to move.

Khev with yet another halibut hooked up

The whale watching at aptly-named Whaler’s Cove was also fantastic.

A nice bonus to the fishing

On our final day, we went on an epic quest up one of the area’s lovely freshwater streams, where we found lots and lots of salmon and dolly varden – many of which were all to happy to inhale our spinners. In the afternoon, we paused from casting at the base of a 15-foot cataract to watch salmon trying to leap over the obstruction, which was an awesome sight.

Whaler's Cove had some sweet freshwater fishing too.

So I guess what I can say in conclusion is this: regardless if you’re the do-it-yourself type angler or prefer the lap of luxury, you can’t go wrong with the waters near Juneau. I know I’ll go back…soon!

Okay, so it’s still hard for some folks to believe but the Sacramento River near Redding, CA is one of the best rainbow trout fisheries you’ll ever run across. I know, I know…it sounds kinda bizarre, but this tailrace fishery below Shasta Dam is as good as just about anything you’ll find in Alaska in terms of numbers of fish.

When the Sac is really going, fly and spin anglers can catch as many as 100 rainbows from 12 inches to 3 plus pounds (most are closer to 3 pounds than they are a foot!) per day. And this is a year-round fishery, too, with the trout biting winter, spring, summer and fall!

Team FishWithJD hit the water recently with guide Gary Manies of Stricty Fishin’ Guide & Tackle in Redding for a quickie 2-hour stop to sample the fishing. Well, all I can say is that, due to schedule issues on our end, we hit it dead wrong — 1 p.m. on a 94-degree day…and we still caught a bunch of trout. That’s just how good the Sac is!

Gary lives in a gated community that has its own private ramp, so he’s got quick and easy access to some of the best trout, steelhead and salmon (when open) action on the entire upper end of the river. Another plus to that is you can park your rig in a safe location, which is really nice!

After we hopped aboard his 22-foot Koffler jet sled, Gary bombed us downstream to the first hole, which was only a couple minutes downriver.

In good hands...Gary's got a quarter century of guiding here!

After rigging up with Glo Bugs on some sweet light spin rods that Gary custom makes at his shop, we started drifting and, if memory serves, we got our first bite on the second cast. Reilly hooked up first…

Two casts in and Reilly's already hooked up...

The fish turned out to be a beautiful and extremely scrappy Sac ‘bow…

The trout here are gorgeous!

In that spot, we probably got bit 10 straight drifts and then Gary took us downriver to see some different water. If you’ve never been here, the Sac is incredibly beautiful and full of trout. We got bit in just about every little nook and cranny that our guide took us to…

Hey, next drift...YOU grab the camera!

In only a couple hours of mid-day fishing, we probably hooked 20ish trout!

Another Sac beauty!

And so it went…

Finally, I talked Reilly into manning the camera for a bit :)

The Sacramento River is where I first went on a jetboat ride way back when…and that one day completely changed my life path. Well, all these years later, it’s still a thrill running up and down the river…and the boat ride is worth the price of admission!

Yee..Haw!

As I noted before, we probably hooked 20 trout in just a couple hours in the mid-day heat. I can only imagine how good it is when you’re on the water early!

We had a ball with Gary, who by the way, is one super interesting guy. He grew up in this area and has been guiding on the Sacramento River for nearly 25 years. He’s got every rock, seam and drop-off in the river mapped in his head and damn near knows each trout by name. He’s active in fishery issues affecting the river and is a wealth of information about the local history, flora and fauna. Besides that he’s a damn nice guy and fun to spend the day with.

Contact Info

If you’d like to fish with Gary, check out his website here or give him a ring at: (530) 241-4665.