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Getting to know California’s Landlocked Salmon

by JD on June 9, 2011

Do you know your landlocks??

While California’s ocean salmon stocks were down in the dumps the past few years, it was an entirely different story inland. Thanks to the efforts of the DFG and organizations like Project Kokanee and Kokanee Power, landlocked salmon are thriving in more Golden State waters than ever before. Of course, they’ll never be able to outgrow or taste better than their ocean-going cousins, but these pint-sized inland salmon provide anglers with plenty of good action throughout the year.

While there are similarities between the three, each species has its own attractive qualities – and unique fishing techniques attributed to it. Let’s take a closer look at California’s Inland Salmon Slam and get to know landlocked kings, kokanee and coho a little better. [click to continue…]

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Ah, remembering those epic trips: Guess I won’t be getting any work done today!

by JD on December 9, 2010

Well, only 99 more of these babies to go today!

Damn, it’s happening again! Here I sit at the ol’ keyboard..trying to bust out a magazine feature and a newspaper column…and my brain is trying to sabotage the whole thing. Instead of generating some fantastically interesting and useful prose, it’s wandering off and recalling epic fishing trips past. And, man, when you get off track like that and start going down memory lane, it’s over!

Today’s little trek down the Street of Dreams starts deep in the Alaskan bush, where K-Dawg and I are on a self-guided float trip. The weather and scenery were awesome…and the fishing, well…how does 100 rainbows and dollies from 3-7 pounds per day on 5-weight fly rods sound? We’ve both agreed that that was probably the best fishing either of us had ever experienced. Then there were all those trips to BC… [click to continue…]

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Diver & Bait for River Salmon

by JD on June 13, 2009

Diver 2Headed for a river that has salmon in it this summer and fall? Take some diver & bait rigs with you — it’s a super easy and extremely deadly technique that you can pick up in no time!

While there are several good ways to get a big, juicy glob of hot red sulfite eggs (or sand shrimp) down in the faces of river salmon, the ol’ diver and bait is often the first one to which I turn. [click to continue…]

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