FishwithJD

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Kokanee Time!

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Full limits baby!


The weather’s turning nice (finally) and kokanee all up and down the West Coast are starting to chew! With high water levels in most Nor Cal reservoirs, it looks like 2011 is going to be one heck of a good koke year!

Guide Monte Smith of Gold Country Sportfishing had a ball with a couple clients on New Melones Reservoir, where he had the fish cleaned and the boat back on the trailer by 9:30 a.m.

Stay tuned, mini sockeye junkies…we’ll have lots more on “The Year of the Koke” coming up!

Fishing with a True American Hero: Major General Erbon Wise

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General Erbon Wise and JD with a big king from the Nushagak River in Alaska


To commemorate Memorial Day, here’s a salute to one of the true heroes of this country: Major General Erbon W. Wise, 90, of Sulphur, Louisiana…a man I feel extremely privileged to have been able to spend some time with (I guided him two seasons in Alaska).

General Wise has lived a life that makes me feel like I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing. He put in 29 years of service defending this country — including slogging his way ashore and up Utah Beach under heavy enemy fire as a twenty-something year-old Army Captain during the invasion of France in June 1944. He was also active during the Korean War and Vietnam. Because of guys like General Wise, we are able to live the lives we have today and for that, we are forever in his debt. Click here to read more…

Lawsuit filed to Stop California Salmon Fishing!

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This is incomprehensible: The very same group that has had a profound effect on the decline of California’s salmon population is now suing to get the recently opened recreational season fishing closed!!

I’m sure it won’t surprise you to hear that a group of Central Valley irrigation districts that supply water to farms and cities is behind this one. The San Joaquin River Group Authority filed the suit on Thursday in federal district court in Fresno (hmm…Fresno…a perfect place to get your case heard by sympathetic ears!). It argues that the National Marine Fisheries Service and its related agencies violated their duty to protect the threatened Sacramento River fall run of Chinook salmon by allowing a full commercial season.

My blood’s boiling on this one…it’s like the guy who ran over your dog is now suing you…only worse! What an amazing slap in the face!

Read the whole story here in the LA Times

New Utah Record Cutthroat Trout!

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Curtis Robinson released this 31½-inch cutthroat trout at Utah's East Canyon Reservoir


Talk about a great way to shake off Cabin Fever! Curtis Robinson caught this massive 31½-inch cutthroat trout at East Canyon Reservoir and it’s being recognized as the largest cutthroat trout ever caught and released in Utah.

It’s great that Robinson released the fish and what’s also very cool is that he caught it on a homemade marabou jig.

Read the whole story in Brett Prettyman’s column in the Salt Lake Tribune