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Hey..don't scratch the paint!
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The big traveling circus of fishing, hunting and boating…the International Sportsmen’s Expo, rumbles into Sacramento at Cal Expo Jan. 20-23 and, as usual, I’ll be there doing seminars.
This year’s topic: Delta & river stripers using lures like topwater, swimbaits, ripbaits, jigs, etc. I’ll be talking striper at the California Sportsmen’s Theater at: 3 PM Friday, Jan. 21 and then again at 6 PM on Sat, Jan. 22. As the San Mateo show is no longer around, these are my only two ISE appearances in 2011.
Come on out and say hi!
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Ok, so we didn’t catch this thing on a #22 BWO on 7X, but there’s just something so cool about the idea of tangling with a rainbow trout that’s big enough to grab a K15 Kwikfish intended for salmon. I recently found this old photo of me guiding on the Nushagak River many moons ago and meant to include it in my recent Nushagak Dreamin’ photo essay but it somehow slipped through the cracks.
There just aren’t many places left on earth where big bows like this live…and there will be even fewer if that damn Pebble Mine gets going…but I digress. What an awesome animal, eh?
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Here’s reason to think twice about letting your kids swim in the river this summer! This giant 40-pound striped bass was landed by Mike (“The Headless Angler”) Woodman while fishing with me last month on the American River in Northern California. After a quick photo, the old greybeard striper was released. We hooked the fish on a kid on a boogie board….Kidding of course! A live minnow did the trick.
For his efforts, Woodman (or at least his torso) is entered into our July Hawg of the Month Contest. If you’ve got a big fish from a recent trip, send us the photo…you’ll have a chance at winning a free fishing trip. Details HERE
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It’s funny…the stuff you find in the garage! Digging around, looking for something else…I came across an old photo album with this inside. My own personal record fish from 1983. I am pleased to announce that I’ve broken all these records in the ensuing 27 years (that 3/4-pound steelie was tough, however!), though there’s one fish on this list that I’m no further along with than I was in high school. Any guesses??
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Before you quite your day job and get a guide’s license, here’s a little behind the scenes look at the life & times of a fishing guide…
SKREEANT! SKREEANT! SKREEANT!
A series of horrific screeches pierce the silent evening. My heart rate’s suddenly gone from 0 to 100 mph in just under a nanosecond and I jolt upright, trying to figure out where the terrible sounds are coming from.
SKREEANT! SKREEANT! SKREEANT!
It takes me a bewildered moment or two before I realize that it’s my alarm clock. It’s hard to believe that this little white plastic contraption — no bigger than a Kleenex box — can produce such an atrocious noise. I pound on the snooze bar with a closed fist, hoping to smash it into oblivion and then I fall back to sleep. [click to continue…]
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This one's my presonal best...
I had Team Flores from the Santa Rosa area out on the boat today and, despite the wind and muddy water on the Feather River, we managed to have a pretty damn good day of striper fishing. These guys are super cool and invited me to do some fishing with them, which, as you can see, really turned out well for me!
This 30-pound hen (released, of course) is my personal best…and a fish that I’ll not soon forget. Fishing with light bass gear and artificials as I normally do, this ‘slab absolutely mollyhocked my plug and fought as hard as anything I’ve caught in a long while. Good times!
I guess it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to enter this fish into my own Hawg of the Month Contest does it?
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Anybody got a cracker??
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