Stripers on tap all through May
April 22, 2008
Sacramento River Stripers
While this weather has slowed the fishing down a bit on the Sacramento River, the striper action will return as quickly as the weather settles back down again. In fact, I like the cold weather because it forces the stripers to slow down their “business,” which will help stretch the action longer.
The last thing you want is the fish to spawn in a short week and then turn around and head back to the Bay. This way, we’re prolonging the bite a bit!
I’ve been finding some nice topwater fishing on the middle Sac when conditions are right. Otherwise, we get fish on plastic worms and various rip baits. Lately, it’s been very good fishing and we’re getting fish in the mid teens every day and shots a much bigger ones every other trip.
It’s a long drive for me and a long boat ride, but the action has been worth it.
Lake Tahoe Mackinaw
After stripers and a jaunt to Alaska, I’ll be running mackinaw trips all of July on Lake Tahoe. These light tackle jig trips are always a good time and about as guaranteed a trip as you’ll find.
Klamath River
Due to the overwhelming response about our August Klamath trips, I’ve added some more days in early and mid August, so let me know ASAP if you want in.
Stripers Gone Wild!
April 18, 2008
A little action from Thursday, April 17 from a remote corner of the Sac. River…
Stripers Gone Wild! from Fish with JD on Vimeo.
No Salmon Season?
March 15, 2008
No Salmon Fishing?
The way things are going, it’s looking very much like we won’t have a salmon season here in the Sacramento Valley this year. With only 56,000 chinook forecasted to return to the Valley this fall, fisheries managers will likely make kings off-limits in the ocean and Valley streams.
It’s gut-wrenching for me to even write those words, let alone think about the true implications of it all. Our king salmon runs have been world class for a long time and I never imagined that they could fall so far, so fast. The lack of business
and fishing aside, I’m devastated by the thought of my kid potentially may not have a chance to fish for kings on the Sacramento, Feather and American rivers like I did.
Other Options
All is not lost, however! In lieu of salmon fishing this summer and fall, I’ll be switching operations to Lake Tahoe for light tackle mackinaw jigging. From June through September, Tahoe pumps out some of the best fishing around and limits on nice (& tasty!) mackinaw trout are the norm. Plus, you can’t beat the scenery and the weather…
in September, I’ll again jump back over to the the Delta for some awesome topwater striper action. When the conditions are right, we’ll get 10 to 20+ blow-ups per morning on topwater and then we will switch over to tossing swimbaits if the surface bite tapers off. The fish are just coming out of the ocean and bay complex at that time and are in prime shape. We also see some of the larger fish of the year on topwater, which is extremely cool!
In the Meantime
I’ll head to Tahoe in June, but will be chasing Valley steelhead on the Feather & American rivers through April. The fishing has been pretty solid lately and while drifting crawlers, we’re seeing 2 to 6 adult steelies per trip.
Stripers and shad will also be on tap in April, so get ready!!
Fishing Report Feb. 15, 2008
February 16, 2008
Here’s a beautiful, naturally-reared steelhead from the Feather River from Saturday (2/16) that munched a wiggler.
VALLEY STEELHEAD
Well, what had been a pretty good steelhead hot streak on the American River kinda sputtered out last week for me, ending with a day when we could only scrape together a couple halfpounders.
Now, we’re by no means done yet on the American — there’s still a good 4 to 6 weeks left to go on the steelhead scene. But it definitely seems like we’re in a lull at the moment. So, with that in mind, we heded for the Feather on Saturday to see what was cooking. We had plenty of action on plugs — 10 pulldowns which resulted in 1 beautiful adipose-intact winter run (above), a nice handful of beautiful 14-inch ‘bows or small steelhead or whatever you want to call them and several missed bites that we never saw.
I’ll be jumping back and forth to both creeks as necessary over the next month and a half.
Fishing Report Feb. 2, 2008
February 2, 2008
AMERICAN RIVER STEELIES
Overall, it’s been a pretty solid couple of weeks here on the American. While the steelhead fishing has not been world class, coastal-style action, I’ve had my guys land 2 adults per day the last several trips…except on Saturday when my little streak came to an end with nothing landed but one little wild halfpounder.
Fishing Report Jan. 21, 2008
January 21, 2008
Here’s a big blushed-up Feather River buck from today…
And the big fella headed back home!
Busy doing seminars at the International Sportsmen’s Expositions the past couple weeks has kept me off the water. But my final presentation was Sunday and I got back at it Monday morning. I was headed for the American and then, as I woke up, a little something told me to make tracks for the Feather. Not sure why I went north, but it paid off…
We fished fairly low and drifted eggs and pink worms and came away with three bites and one trophy squawfish. After lunch, we switched over to pulling red Tad Pollies and had several grabs — this big boy above, another smaller adult, some trout-sized halfpounders and a few we never got a good hookset on. A pretty nice outing for the Valley on a cold, wet and windy day.
Fishing Report (Jan. 12, 2008)
January 12, 2008
Battle Royal with an American River Steelhead from Fish with JD on Vimeo.
Steelhead fishing on the American River has been on the upswing late in the week as the water continues to clear after the big storm. There’s a perfect green color to it now and, as you’ll see on the video, some nice steelie fishing going on!
Fishing Report, Christmas Eve 2007
December 24, 2007
First off, Happy Holidays to you all and hope you have a fantastic 2008! Now, on with the show…
American River
I did my first couple steelhead trips of the season on the Rio Americano this week and, I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised by the action.
On Wednesday, I had thee anglers and we hooked somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-15 steelhead. In the count we landed 4 or 5 wild halfpounders, 6 smaller adult fall-run fish (like this one above) and lost one good 10-pound hatchery winter-run after a leap and some burned line.
Friday, we had to contend with a viscous wind that made drifting tough, but we still managed to land 4 fall-runs and some halfpounders. In fact, we stared the day with a double on halfpounders on the first cast and then got another couple on the next drift….which made us feel like it was going to be a barn-burner of a day….then the evil north wind kicked up and we had to fight for every bite thereafter.
Fishing Report Dec. 6, 2007
December 6, 2007
It’s officially over — the 2007 salmon season, the most epic bust of a year is done. We had some decent (relatively speaking, of course) fishing in the early mornings with Kwikfish on the lower American River this past week, but this rain has officially sent the small pod of fish that I was working on up the creek.
We were hooking 2-4 kings before dawn each outing and actually had one glory morning in which we hooked 7. All the kings came on K14 and K15 Kwikfish in a strange little pocket below the train trestle in the lower river. I’m not sure why they were hanging out in that little sandy bucket, but they were there for a few days. Like I said earlier, the rain was all they needed to make the dash upstream and yesterday, we skunked out….marking the end of it.
Fishing Report Nov. 17, 2007
November 17, 2007
Okay, so it’s been a while since my last fishing report — believe, me, I’ve been hearing about it! So, would you buy it if I told you that my dog ate it? Wait I don’t have a dog anymore…Um, my kid flushed it down the toilet? It was stolen, yea, that’s it. Somebody stole my fishing report, but I’ve got it back now and here we go…
First off, here’s a nice 25-lb. king Tony Manuel of Sacramento caught with me while fishing the American River on Thursday evening. The way things have gone this season, anytime a king is caught in the Valley, it’s noteworthy. We did a night run on the American, where I saw more boats than fish (3 boats and 1 rolling king). In talking with the other boats, this was the only fish taken that night.
Luckily, we’ve got more interesting things to talk about…
