Fish with JD

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The Toe Drain

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Sometimes you find paradise in the strangest places. If I could be anywhere this time of year, it would probably be on the Trinity River, with its surrounding hillsides ablaze with fall colors and its own crystalline flows blackened by wave upon wave of migrating salmon. However, my busy guiding schedule keeps me close to home in Autumn, and while I love being on the local rivers, I occasionally need to get away from it all.

One of the oddest sanctuaries I’ve found is a small waterway near Woodland called the Toe Drain. Considering the name sounds a lot like something you’d need to cure a foot infection, you’d think that this hidden body of water would be, well, less than scenic. And you’re absolutely right.
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September 11

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Tuesday, while I was on the Sacramento River, people were dying and I didn’t even know.

While I was busy cursing my misfortune that a low-pressure front had slowed the salmon bite, people on airplanes were smashing into the sides of buildings where thousands of other people worked.

While I was feeling the sting of a beautiful king salmon lost boatside, people were being crushed by millions of tons of debris. While I was driving home from the river, feeling frustrated by a slow day of fishing for my customers, I turned on the radio and heard the news.

Immediately, I felt like a big, fat jerk. Most of the way home, I felt so ashamed and embarrassed for worrying about trivial things such as salmon fishing and the weather.

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Beat the Summer Heat at Lake Tahoe

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The heat getting you down? I’m okay as long as the mercury stays in the double-digit range, but I lose it when the temperature breaks the century mark. Anything over 100 degrees and all I want to do is hang out in a bath tub full of ice, drink about 10 gallons of Gatorade and eat Peppermint Patties all day long with the air cranked down to minus 30. When it’s hot enough to melt your hair to the top of your head, it’s hard to think about fishing. However, there’s a place you can go to beat the heat, enjoy some amazing scenery and have some excellent fishing this time of year: Lake Tahoe.

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Northern California Gem: Bullards Bar Reservoir

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I get a lot of calls from people who are looking for places to go fishing. Some ask for suggestions on day trips, while others want to get away for a week or more. So, over the next few weeks I’m going to take some in-depth looks at places where you can have a little summer fun in the north state. Today, we’re going to stick close to home — Bullards Bar Reservoir — which is only an hour or so from Sacramento and makes for a great day trip.
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California Smallmouth

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Nice Smallie

If it were up to me, I’d like to go back in time and keep the DFG from ever planting largemouth and spotted bass in California.

Say what? Am I anti-bass? No way!

I just think smallmouth are the most interesting variety of bass and they, unfortunately, have been overrun by these other types of bass in most of our local waters. Of course, we could debate this until the Chicago Cubs win a World Series, but in my estimation, smallmouth are better fighters (I once mistook a smallie for a steelhead on the Russian River because it was so strong) than their big mouthed and spotted cousins and are pretty cool-looking as well.
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