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.
[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.
Here’s a quick photo log…
[click to continue…]
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…]
by JD on February 6, 2009
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 in Kauai last week it was mainly a trip to hang out with the family, but you know I couldn’t be surrounded by all that water in Kauai and not wet a line!
Generally, the the inshore fishing there didn’t seem all that hot, but there were enough critters around to keep things interesting.
[click to continue…]
On Friday, the Vin-Man and I made our first-ever trip to Pyramid Lake. It’s funny that we’ve lived within 3 hours of the place forever, but neither of us had ever made the trip over the hill. Friday’s mission almost didn’t happen — I had a last-minute guide trip cancellation and I made the call to the Vinster at about 9 p.m. Thursday night.
So, a few hours later, off we went — woefully unprepared in terms of tackle and knowledge.
[click to continue…]
by JD on February 6, 2008
Sometimes, the real world gets just hectic enough that you just have to say F-it all and check out for a day. Go back to the basics like eating junk food, talking about spots and celebrity hotties… and, oh yea, maybe mix in a little fishing, too.
To that end, nothing beats a road trip. Of course, with jobs, family and all the other stuff that keeps us so busy these days, extended roadies are tough to come by. One-dayers, however, are easier to pull off. That’s exactly what trusty side-kick Reilly and I embarked on yesterday.
With most Coastal rivers blown out from the big storms and the majority of stuff close to home either muddy or snowed in, we opted for a little wild trout fishing in the “upper” Lower Sacramento River near Redding. After stocking up on high calorie, low nutritional value snacks, we dumped the Red Rocket in at the Posse Grounds and started hunting trout…
[click to continue…]
