Photos and Video

Surfacing History: Drought reveals flooded Gold Rush town of Mormon Island

January 2, 2014 By JD 2 Comments

The old road to Mormon Island has been hidden far beneath the surface of Folsom Lake but the driest winter since the 1970’s has left it…and remains of the town…high and dry.

I took a hike Weds far down into what used to be Folsom Lake to see for myself what is left of the town.

Mormon Island was strategically located near the confluence of the North & South Forks of the America River and, at one time was a busing gold mining town with a population close to 3,000 people. Here’s a picture from www.myfolsom.com…

By the 1950’s, when the town was close to being inundated by the rising waters of Folsom Lake, there we just a handful of residents left.

Today, there’s still some evidence scattered in the dry lake bottom that a town once stood there…

The trip to Mormon Island was extremely interesting. But, honestly, I’d rather look at the town about 100 feet down on my Lowrance graph!

The Kings of the Mighty Sacramento

September 16, 2013 By JD 7 Comments

Phase Two of Salmon-a-Palooza 2013 is now complete…I just finished up on the Sacramento River’s upper reaches and am now headed for Phase Three (more on that later!).

Here are some highlights…

World Record King Salmon??

August 22, 2013 By JD 15 Comments

Is this a 100-pound king salmon?? I don’t know much about the pic other than the mammoth fish came from the Skeena River in British Columbia.

It was posted on Fly Water Travel with minimal details…but you can read more there.

As far as a hoax goes…Who knows? From all my famous April Fool’s articles over the years, I know a thing or two about Photoshop and this looks legit. However, I’ve only had a chance to look at it on my phone and not a large computer monitor.

She appears to be struggling to hold the fish, which would be accurate but her grip on the caudal peduncle looks a little “fishy.” Unless the fish was dead, it would really, really hard to hold such a beast without loosing your grip.

I’m not saying this thing is faked. I fact, I hope it’s not.

What do you guys think??

My greatest fishing moment…ever!

August 19, 2013 By JD 14 Comments

Took my kid out one afternoon last week on the Sacramento River, where he caught his first-ever salmon.

He fought the fish all by himself and the only thing I did was hold the back of his life jacket so he didn’t get yanked over the side.

So freaking awesome!!!! :)

Is this the lost photo of George Perry’s World Record Largemouth Bass?

June 19, 2013 By JD Leave a Comment

The evening he caught the World Record largemouth bass in 1932, George W. Perry cooked it up for his family.

Unfortunately that was well before everybody had a camera in their phone so, photographs of the record bass have been hard to come by.

The above pic recently surfaced mysteriously on the 81st anniversary Perry’s catch and is said to be the long lost pic that was always rumored to be out there somewhere.

You can read the whole story at Fox News.

There is plenty of speculation that the photo may be a fake…and it’s not all that difficult to make a photo look old. I downloaded a free app on my iPhone and did this one of me in about 20 seconds.

The Perry pic looks pretty legit to me though I’m not vintage photo expert. There’s some water damage and fading. Either the work of a star photo editor…or it’s real.

I hope it’s a legitimate photo…it’s such a cool shot and a piece of angling history.

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