What say we go have a couple pints now, ol' boy?
Our English correspondent and all-around fishing fool, Richard Masters, sent in this report of some very civilized fishing he and a chum did last week in the Lake District of Northern England. Here’s the story..
“This was a post Christmas trip with my bud, Mark Atherton,” says Masters. “Prompted by the wives telling us to ‘get out from under their feet’ so they could visit the shops for the sales….”
[click to continue…]by JD on October 25, 2011
Prospecting for Salmo Salar
Our two favorite English anglers and field scouts from “Across the Pond”, Richard and Guy didn’t make their annual salmon and steelhead pilgrimage to Northern California’s Trinity River this fall, opting instead to stick a little closer to home and fish for salmon in Scotland.
Here’s a quick photo essay of their mission compliments of Richard…
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The river now, looking downstream from Buellton towards the sea.
Santa Barbara, California (about an hour and a half north of LA) doesn’t exactly inspire images of deep canyons and emerald green water full of steelhead…but it would have back in the 1940′s, when the Santa Ynez River was home to annual runs of 25,000 anadramous rainbows!
But only a token handful of the great fish make it back each year now. The usual band of culprits did the river in: Water diversions, dams and development. etc. The biggest blow came in the early 1950′s when massive Cachuma Dam was completed, effectively blocking off the bulk of steelhead spawning habitat.
There are efforts in motion these days, however, to help the river claw its way back. You can read more about it
HERE 
Jay Kennedy and 60 pounds of pure bad-assedness!
You just never know when the biggest fish of your career is going to make its presence felt. Of course, you can narrow the timeline down by heading for a place like the incredible Skeena River in Northwestern British Columbia like Jay Kennedy of Cazadero, California did on August 2, 2011.
Fishing with our guide Gordon McKean of
West Coast Fishing Adventures, Kennedy hooked the fish of a lifetime, this 60-pound Chinook salmon.
But rather than relate all the details, we’ll let Kennedy tell ya the story in his own words…
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And this, folks, is why you play the game...
Here’s yet another prime example why fishing is so damn awesome: Our good friend from across “The Pond,” Richard Masters, fished the River Ribble near Lancashire in Northwest England last week. Unfortunately, the river was still high and pretty much blown out following a recent flood — and the fishing was lousy.
Masters says he threw hardware in the muddy water all day without success and then, on his way home the next morning, he made a quick stop along the river to get a feel for the new 5-weight trout fly rod he had just purchased…and then a funny thing happened:
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General Erbon Wise and JD with a big king from the Nushagak River in Alaska
To commemorate Memorial Day, here’s a salute to one of the true heroes of this country: Major General Erbon W. Wise, 90, of Sulphur, Louisiana…a man I feel extremely privileged to have been able to spend some time with (I guided him two seasons in Alaska).
General Wise has lived a life that makes me feel like I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing. He put in 29 years of service defending this country — including slogging his way ashore and up Utah Beach under heavy enemy fire as a twenty-something year-old Army Captain during the invasion of France in June 1944. He was also active during the Korean War and Vietnam. Because of guys like General Wise, we are able to live the lives we have today and for that, we are forever in his debt.
[click to continue…]by JD on January 29, 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…]
by JD on January 25, 2011
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…
