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Surface Stripers: Unlocking the Code

November 19, 2004 By JD 1 Comment

striper

“What ya after?” asked the crusty old bank angler after I launched my boat. ?I pointed out toward the center of the lake where, in the glassy calm of the morning, it was easy to see a quarter-acre sized school of striped bass crashing the surface.?? His face looked like a tattered piece of leather that had been chewed on at great length by a hound dog, but it brightened considerably upon receipt of my answer. He flashed me a grin only an orthodontist could love and then snickered.?? “Son, you can’t catch them striper bass… everybody’s been trying but they won’t hit cuz they’re spawnin’.”

Well, I knew that he was way off base because it was mid-October and stripers are spring spawners, but I didn’t let on. I told him I was going to give it a try anyway just for kicks. He nodded and wished me good luck – said I was going to need it.
Click here to read more…

Filed Under: Bass Tagged With: striped bass, striper

The Perfect Storm on a Small Lake

October 14, 2004 By JD 1 Comment

Early Monday morning we were trolling Ice House Reservoir’s main body, heading toward the east side of the lake. The wind was blowing at a gentle clip which made the lake’s surface a little choppy and us a bit chilly — overall, a nice morning typical of the high country in autumn.

As we trolled on, I noticed what looked like smoke from a campfire rising from the eastern shoreline. We were looking right into the blinding light of the rising sun as it reflected off the water, so it was difficult to tell exactly what we were looking at. My buddy Rob thought it was morning mist coming off the lake.??We were both dead wrong.

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Filed Under: Fishing Stories

Bait Drifting Tips for Kings

October 10, 2004 By JD 1 Comment

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First off, let’s get you rigged up. Here’s a good basic rig to use as a foundation:

  1. Tie a snap swivel to the end of your main line.
  2. To the snap, attach either a piece of pencil lead or a Slinky weight
  3. To the other eye of the swivel, run an 18- to 36-inch leader with one or two 1/0-4/0 octopus-style bait hooks. (The roe is fastened to the forward hook via an egg loop snell, which you can learn to tie in a video on this very website).

Most king anglers also like to add a driftbobber – such as a Spin-N-Glo, Cheater or Lil’ Corky – to their line just above the hooks to add buoyancy, action and a splash of color to the bait.
Click here to read more…

Filed Under: Salmon

Chasing Reservoir “Steelhead”

May 8, 2004 By JD Leave a Comment

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With general trout season now open it’s time for a little reservoir “steelhead” fishing. Never heard of such a thing? Well, read on…it’s a blast!

My first encounter with a reservoir “steelhead” occurred when I was a kid, fishing a small tributary to a vast impoundment. Walking upstream and flicking a tiny silver spinner into the pools ahead of me as I went, I was felling pretty smug thanks to the three 10- to 12-inch trout that I had stuffed into the zipper pocket of my backpack. As I rounded a bend in the creek, I came to a deep pool just below a 2-foot waterfall. I lobbed a cast to the head of the run, and as soon as my spinner broke through the greasy smooth surface of the pool and began to sink, a great monster of a fish hit it with the fury of a Japanese bullet train. In an instant, the beast rocketed the length of the pool, flashed near the surface, violently shook it’s mighty head and then it was gone…

Click here to read more…

Filed Under: Trout & Kokanee

Johnson’s Magic Potion

April 1, 2004 By JD Leave a Comment

You’re welcome.??For what, you ask? Well, only for doing the leg work to get you all in on one of the most incredible advancements in fishing I’ve ever seen… way before the rest of angling world finds out, that’s what.
Actually, I just kinda stumbled into this one. Last November, I was in the tiny speck-on-the-map town of Moses Lake, Wash., on a solo fishing/road trip. After two unsuccessful days of trying for big bass and rainbows on nearby Potholes Reservoir, I stopped in at an old, run-down tackle shop/liquor store called Deke’s Bait and Booze.

Click here to read more…

Filed Under: Humor

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