New Year’s Steelhead on the American R.
December 18, 2001
Holidays treat you nicely? Hope so — I sure had a good time, though I must admit, I’m feeling a little spawned out after doing various family functions for the past 9 days in a row. This year, our holiday tour made stops in Huntington Beach, Los Angeles, Yucca Valley, and of course, Sacramento and Auburn. After all that, it’s certainly nice to be home! With Christmas out of the way, it’s time to start thinking about the next really big event of the season…the opening day of steelhead fishing on the American River!
The Toe Drain
September 27, 2001
Sometimes you find paradise in the strangest places. If I could be anywhere this time of year, it would probably be on the Trinity River, with its surrounding hillsides ablaze with fall colors and its own crystalline flows blackened by wave upon wave of migrating salmon. However, my busy guiding schedule keeps me close to home in Autumn, and while I love being on the local rivers, I occasionally need to get away from it all.
One of the oddest sanctuaries I’ve found is a small waterway near Woodland called the Toe Drain. Considering the name sounds a lot like something you’d need to cure a foot infection, you’d think that this hidden body of water would be, well, less than scenic. And you’re absolutely right.
Beat the Summer Heat at Lake Tahoe
July 12, 2001
The heat getting you down? I’m okay as long as the mercury stays in the double-digit range, but I lose it when the temperature breaks the century mark. Anything over 100 degrees and all I want to do is hang out in a bath tub full of ice, drink about 10 gallons of Gatorade and eat Peppermint Patties all day long with the air cranked down to minus 30. When it’s hot enough to melt your hair to the top of your head, it’s hard to think about fishing. However, there’s a place you can go to beat the heat, enjoy some amazing scenery and have some excellent fishing this time of year: Lake Tahoe.
Northern California Gem: Bullards Bar Reservoir
July 5, 2001
I get a lot of calls from people who are looking for places to go fishing. Some ask for suggestions on day trips, while others want to get away for a week or more. So, over the next few weeks I’m going to take some in-depth looks at places where you can have a little summer fun in the north state. Today, we’re going to stick close to home — Bullards Bar Reservoir — which is only an hour or so from Sacramento and makes for a great day trip.
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Big Spring Trout at Shasta
April 12, 2001
Looking to catch a bunch of big trout this spring? Head for Northern California’s Lake Shasta, where football-shaped rainbows, browns and landlocked king salmon all await your line…
California Smallmouth
March 28, 2001
If it were up to me, I’d like to go back in time and keep the DFG from ever planting largemouth and spotted bass in California.
Say what? Am I anti-bass? No way!
I just think smallmouth are the most interesting variety of bass and they, unfortunately, have been overrun by these other types of bass in most of our local waters. Of course, we could debate this until the Chicago Cubs win a World Series, but in my estimation, smallmouth are better fighters (I once mistook a smallie for a steelhead on the Russian River because it was so strong) than their big mouthed and spotted cousins and are pretty cool-looking as well.
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Spring Steelhead on the American River
March 22, 2001
The mere mention of steelhead fishing often conjures up images of storm-gray skies and furious rain that defies gravity and falls sideways; glacial wind that bores though as many layers of Gore-Tex and Polar Fleece that you care to throw in its path; benumbed digits incapable of tying the most simple fishing knots; long hours spent on the water without a shred of evidence that even a single fish exists in the river and high, turbid water that seems to ooze, rather than flow, along its streambed. Winter steelhead fishing is definitely not for the faint of heart nor the weekend warrior. It’s serious stuff that requires dedication (some may call it stupidity).
Floating the Talachulitna
September 14, 2000
Being one rung removed from the top of the food chain is not a feeling I’m comfortable with. Yet there I was, with three buddies — Chris Hayes, Jeff Darlington, Ty Shalley, and Rico — standing on a river bank in the middle of the Alaskan bush. Nobody said a word as we stood there, gawking at the huge grizzly bear tracks in the sand. Fresh bear tracks, each the size of a salad plate with 5-inch claws. I’m not sure what the others were pondering, but I kept thinking about the fact that grizzly bears can out-run a horse. That they can kill a 1,200-pound moose with one blow to the head. About how they could easily beat you in a swim race. About how “grizzly” sounds a lot like what your remains would look like after a bear got through with you.
SF Bay Halibut: Time for Good Eating!
June 29, 2000
Question: What’s the best eating fish we have here in Northern California? King salmon? Nope. Cold water trout? Not even close! Mahi Mahi from Bullards Bar Reservoir? (old joke) Nah! Sixty-pound baby heron-eating brown trout from Mentiroso Lake? No! How about lingcod? Wrong again! Of course, this is very subjective, but I feel that you just can’t beat fresh halibut. Ohhh yeeaa!
We’re talking California halibut here, not Pacific halibut (the kind you get up in Alaska). California halibut range from Baja up to southern Oregon. They’re much smaller than the barn door-sized Pacifics that can weigh up to 400 pounds, but who the heck needs a truck load of fillets the size of a pool table, anyway? Use a heavy bass rod or a steelhead stick here and our flatties will give you all the fight you want. California ‘butts typically average about 10 pounds, but they can get into the high 30’s and, sometimes, the low 40’s.
Drive-by Trouting in the Gold Country
June 15, 2000
If you’re looking to do a little stream trout fishing, now’s not a bad time to head up into the high Sierra. While a lot of the back country is still snowed in, there is some very good water you can easily hit from the road. One good trek is the 49-50-89 circuit. I did it earlier this week — here’s what conditions are looking like right now:
