FishwithJD

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Top 5 Smallest King Salmon Ever Caught

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Okay, you’ve seen my list of the 10 of the Biggest King Salmon ever taken so I figured it was time to have some fun and give the little guys a shot at being in the spotlight.

So, here’s my list of the Top 5 Smallest King Salmon Ever Caught. To qualify, the kings had to be of the sea-run variety. Landlocked salmon were ineligible.

Have you ever…er…topped any of these?

#1 He May be small but at least he’s dark!

I had a client catch this ocean-run king in Alaska while we were fishing for trout. I’ve see a lot of small jacks in my days but this one got high marks for being extremely brown too!

#2 Eyes bigger than his stomach

Well, you gotta admire this Klamath River micro chromer’s desire! For scale purposes, that’s a 4.5-inch long plug he latched onto. Could be that he thought it was his mama…

#3 Not much longer than a tube of sunscreen

You know they are small when they can be measured with facial product containers! We caught this brown guppy  on California’s Trinity River.

#4 Fly-caught mini record

If they kept records for such things, Tristian Lund may have a plaque on his wall for holding the record for the smallest fly-caught king of all time. A natural born angler, the kid even has the classic fly rodder’s “rod in mouth because my fancy gear should never touch anything but skin or velvet” pose down pat!

#5 Crazy weight to length ratio

The kings on Alaska’s Nushagak River tend to be very heavy for their size, as evidenced by this 15-inch, 31 pounder!

Don’t Blink: Crazy-Fast Striper Attack

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This quick clip I shot with my [easyazon_link identifier=”B01MAWGG0S” locale=”US” tag=”fiwijd-20″]Okuma Water Wolf Camera[/easyazon_link] shows how incredibly fast a striped bass can go on the attack. It’s also interesting to note that he comes to the bait head on, but decides to eat to from behind…

Hot Surf Perch Fishing Tips!

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With the 13th Annual San Crab Classic Perch Derby coming to Santa Cruz this Saturday, March 11, 2017, I figured it was time to help you brush up on your perch fishing tactics!

You can also check out my eBook, Light Tackle Surf Perch at Amazon

The derby is full for 2017 and is an awesomely fun even that gives money back to the Monterey Bay Trout and Salmon Project

Be sure to sign up early for next year’s derby if you missed this one!

Crazy Pix: Lake Tahoe from Drought to Near Record Snow in 2 Years!

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With the Sierra snowpack sitting at almost 200% of normal as of March 6, 2017, let’s not forget how far we have come. Here are some photos I shot on a trip to our place in Tahoe back in February of 2015. What an amazing difference!

It looked like summer in the winter of 2015. Here’s a view off Eagle Rock on the West Shore…a spot I’ve never been in the dead of winter…

Looking south off Eagle Rock towards Sugar Pine Point and, eventually, South Lake Tahoe. It was so depressing and scary to see it in February with no snow…

I took a picture of the monkeys that snowless winter, pretending to sled on the driveway, where they normally have their pretend Olympic Games…

And here’s that same driveway now…

The lake level this year is back up above its natural rim but in in Feb of 2015, it was looking bleak…

With the lake back up, the Truckee River is now reaching it’s outlet at Tahoe City. In 2014 that was clearly not the case. This is the view off the dam looking out towards where the lake is supposed to be…

The Truckee was all but dry below the dam too that winter. Here’s looking back upstream towards Fanny Bridge in Tahoe City…

Summer? Nope…Dead of winter 2015…

 

So, just how much snow have we had this year? Well, here are the totals as of March 1:

Mt. Rose: 650″
Sugar Bowl: 635″
Boreal: 598″
Kirkwood: 577″
Squaw Valley: 575″
Northstar: 561″
Heavenly: 556″
Sierra at Tahoe: 492″
Homewood: 483″
Diamond Peak: 411″

Short answer: A LOT OF SNOW!!