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Headed for a river that has salmon in it this summer and fall? Take some diver & bait rigs with you – it’s a super easy and extremely deadly technique that you can pick up in no time!
While there are several good ways to get a big, juicy glob of hot red sulfite eggs (or sand shrimp) down in the faces of river salmon, the ol’ diver and bait is often the first one to which I turn.
So, I had some guys out shad fishing on the American River last night and Mike O’Connell of Danville hooks into this thing that looks like a striper in the water…wait, no, is that a small king?? That can’t be a shad…what the hell is it?
Holy crap…that is a shad!
In fact, it was definitely the largest shad I’ve ever seen. My Boga had it at 6 point something pounds and a quick guesstamation put her at about 24-25 inches. Even at that, she was still a pound and change off the state record and 5 pounds off the world mark. Can you imagine an 11-pound shad? If these things got to 20 pounds, you’d never land ’em!Click here to read more…
Well, the Feds finally understand what we’ve all been saying for a looong time: The way the Northern California’s water is managed is a bad deal for fish like salmon, steelhead, sturgeon…and even, as it turns out, southern killer whales.
Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its final biological opinion that finds (surprise, surprise!) the water pumping operations in the Central Valley by the federal Bureau of Reclamation jeopardize the continued existence of several threatened and endangered species under the jurisdiction of NOAA’s Fisheries Service.
Federal biologists and hydrologists concluded that current water pumping operations in the Federal Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project should be changed to ensure survival of winter and spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, the southern population of North American green sturgeon and Southern Resident killer whales, which rely on Chinook salmon runs for food.Click here to read more…
JD,
For Father’s Day, my wife and mother-in-law wanted to organize a camping and fishing trip for my father-in-law and I.
We’d like to stay within a 4 hour drive of Granite Bay (near Sacramento, CA), and we’d like to camp in our trailers (so moms+kids can come along and play while dads fish).
We are both novice fly fisherman. Can you recommend a good spot at that time of year and also a good fly shop to hook up with on what to use? Thanks, Mike R.
Hey Mike,
I’d probably check out Martis Lake near Truckee. Good trout fly fishing and plenty of other stuff nearby to do. There’s no RV camping there, but you can stay nearby at the United Trails
For info: Tahoe FlyFishing Outfitters
Have fun!
Well, we had a good day on the ol’ Rio Americano Wednesday…I have a couple of shad/striper trips — a half day morning run and then a full day mission until dark after that…and the fishing was about as good as you can get!
We started off throwing swimbaits for stripers and caught a couple dandies…the 20ish pounder above taken by Bryce Roberts of Auburn, CA and then another nice one, caught by Jay Lopes, who was taking the day off from running halibut charters in the Bay…
Even the salty skipper needs to get bit once in a while!
But that only tells half of the story…
Click here to read more…