We didn't catch a lot of monsters on the 'Nush, but this was clearly a beast...that we released.
During the last week of June and into the start of July, it’s hard for my thoughts not to wander up to the incomparable Nushagak River in remote Southwest Alaska. Before I was a papa, I spent 7 seasons guiding on the word’s greatest king salmon stream…which always seemed to peak about this time of year.
The ‘Nush is simply one of those places you must fish before you turn into fertilizer…there’s just no other place like it. You won’t find better king fishing anywhere. Looking back over all those seasons, I can clearly recall my worst-ever day of fishing, which still resulted in 18 kings to the boat! And the best of days were well into the triple digits, though after a dozen or so you kinda lose count. I’d say the average day during the meat of the season saw each of our boats hooking 20-40 per trip.
Most of my photos from those days are all on slide film, but I recently found a few digitals. So, here we go a little walk down memory lane…
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Does it live up to the hype??
Yakima Bait Co’s MagLip has been selling like hotcakes in the Pacific Northwest lately, but is that just a case of everybody rushing out to buy the newest thing on the market or does this plug actually catch fish?
Recently, we spent a couple weeks thoroughly testing the MagLip to find out. Read on for the full review.
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Okay, all you budding steelhead anglers out there, here’s a little quiz for ya: Say you’re pulling plugs for steelies with a guide on a drift boat. The guide hands you and your buddy these two plugs with the same paint scheme to snap onto your lines. Which would would you pick?
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JD-
I’m looking for a new Hot Shot rod. Was looking to add to the HSR collection but forgot that the 930 is spinning only. Wanting to keep things light, what do you think about the HS 795C from Rogue or the Lamiglas G 1336 T. The Lamilgas seems a little short at 7′6″ and I’m not sure what ” Flame Tip” means? What’s your take?
Thanks, Derik
Hey Derik,
A sweet little number for plugging steelies with small plugs is the XCF801 from Lamiglas. It’s 8 feet long and rated for 6-15 pound line. The coolest thing about this rod, however, is the fact that it’s fiberglass. Glass is truly the way to go with plug rods — you get much better plug action and tip “readability” with glass, plus hooks stay buried better…which, of course, is always a huge plus when you’re plug fishing!
And this isn’t your granpapy’s old clunky glass, either. Modern manufacturing processes make it much lighter and thinner than in the old days… Check out ‘em out at: monsterfishingtackle
by JD on December 14, 2008
You know that old saying that “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it?” Well, I kinda figured that was going to be the case with Luhr Jensen’s new K15x Kwikfish. More to the point…if it’s not broken, don’t break it.
After all, why take the world’s greatest salmon plug and change it? I just don’t get it, but then again, the company was recently purchased by Rapala, who, if you’ll recall, also bought out STORM Lures and took the perfectly good Wiggle Wart lineup and completely re-tooled it to the point that no steelhead angler worth his salt would ever buy one. But I digress…
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by JD on September 8, 2008
I almost cried the day I heard that STORM Pee Wee Warts were going to be discontinued. Though small, those little babies packed a mean punch when it came to pulling plugs for steelhead. [click to continue…]
