Emergency Salmon Closure in California and Oregon
March 12, 2008
State and Federal fisheries managers imposed an emergency closure today on seven salmon fishing zones in California and Oregon to protect Sacramento River chinook salmon, now in a state of unprecedented collapse. Read more
It’s time to help the fish!
March 10, 2008
With many West Coast salmon and steelhead stocks in a total state of collapse at the moment, it’s time to step up to the plate and lend a hand.
Read more
The upside to downer steelhead
March 5, 2008
Are downer steelhead really…well…”downers?” Lots of folks think so because when you catch them they’re usually skinny, colored up and not the greatest of fighters. Some people even get bummed out when they hook a downer (also known as runbacks, kelts or spent fish) but there’s actually a lot to love about ‘em.
CONSTRUCTION ZONE!! Welcome to the all-new FISH WITH JD!
March 2, 2008
Well, we busy little beavers have been at it all night, completely tearing down the old fishwithjd.com and building the bigger, better version you’re seeing here.
Big Fred in Florida for Wal-Mart FLW Tour stop at Lake Toho
February 25, 2008
Just a quick update on Bassin’ Big Fred Contaoi…(shown here singing a cover of Jimmy Buffet’s Fins…”Everybody — fins to the left, fins to the right…”)
Our man is off to The Sunshine State for the first Wal-Mart FLW Tour event of the season at Lake Toho Feb. 28- March 2.
The tournament will feature anglers from 35 states, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Australia and Japan and a top prize in the pro division of $125,000.
I’ll, of course, keep you posted on how he does but you can also watch Big Fred weigh in live at:
Killing Machine!
February 15, 2008
So, stripers present a bit of a conundrum for California fisheries managers. On one hand, you have a non-native apex predator that can put a serious hurting on several threatened indigenous species like steelhead, Delta smelt and winter-run Chinook salmon. For example I counted 17 salmon smolts in the belly of a 7-pound striper last season. When you start doing them math on how many stripers there are out there and how many salmon they can eat each day, the numbers start to get a little mind-boggling.
On the flip side, you’ve got an extremely popular gamefish that generates millions of dollars of revenue for the state.
Catch more American River chromers, learn why kings bite in freshwater, how to fix you old oar blades and how to bring a river back to life!
February 11, 2008
Check out the Feb. issue of Western Outdoors Magazine for my article of fishing the American River for steelhead like this one and all the other species that call the river home (though I left the carp and squawfish tips out). And if you’ve got a rotting old set of oar blades on your driftboat or raft shafts (like I once did), you can learn how to quickly replace them in my Tips of the Trade column in the Feb. issue of Salmon Trout Steelheader Magazine.
Also in that same issue of STS, look for the photo essay I did on the Stanislaus River Restoration project I worked on last fall.
In the Feb. issue of Fish Alaska Magazine, you’ll find my article about chasing road-side silvers in Cordova and the first installment of my Salmon Sense column in which we’ll take a look at why kings bite in freshwater.
Whew…just thinking about all that makes my typing fingers sore!
Big Fred headed for 1st FLW Tour Event of 2008
February 9, 2008
Big Fred Contaoi of the Orange County Choppers Fishing Team (here yukking it up with FLW’s Big Enchilada, Charlie Evans) is headed for Florida’s Lake Toho, where he’ll begin his assault on the FLW Pro Tour’s leaderboard Feb. 28-March 2.
The event is the first FLW Tour stop of his sophomore season and Big Boy’s looking to have a breakout season. At the first Series Event last month at Lake Okeechobee, Freddy stuck to his ‘08 gameplan and very nearly put himself into the money. It was a good, positive start and something to, hopefully, build on the rest of the year.
Of course, I’ll keep you updated on his progress!
CA Fish & Game Commission: American River to stay open to fishing!
February 8, 2008
Yesterday, common sense prevailed as the CA Fish & Game Commission rejected a proposal to close the American River due to low flows. They will, however, look into adopting low flow regulations in 2009.
Thanks to all of you who let your voices be heard!
2002: The “Good ol’ Days of California salmon fishing????
February 2, 2008
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately, you know that Chinook salmon stocks in Northern California (and much of the West Coast) have dramatically collapsed in just a couple short seasons.
It has just been reported that in California’s Central Valley (the Sacramento, Feather, American, Yuba, Mokelumne, San Joaquin, Tuolumne, Stanislaus & Merced rivers and various tributaries), Chinook runs in 2007 totaled 90,000 fish — down from 270,000 in 2006, which was regarded as the worst season in recent memory. As recently as 2002, over 800,000 kings ascended Valley streams to spawn.
In addition, Central Valley jack counts were down around 2,000 fish last fall — an all-time low and well below the average of 40,000 per year.
With such an incredible drop-off in the fishery, the question begs: will we ever again see fish runs like the “Good ol’ Days” of just a few seasons ago when limits like the ones in the photo above were the norm?
