Ok trollers pay close attention: You think you know what’s going on down around your downrigger? Think again! I shot this video last summer and fall while chasing rainbows, king salmon and kokanee in various lakes around Nor Cal. Interesting stuff…
How to make a hatchery trout taste good!
Planter trout...the other white meat!
Well, you were having so much fun catching them that you totally forgot that pellet-fed, round-tailed hatchery trout are about as tasty as a wet sock. Now, damn, you’ve got a pile of them and aren’t sure what to do. But wait! Before you plant the mushy biscuit eaters in the garden, there just may be a way to make even these things palatable.
Wild game cooking guru Scott “The Sporting Chef” Leysath shows you how…Click here to read more…
Best time to fish Alaska?
JD,
When is the best time to go fishing in AK. I want to fly into Anchorage and make my way to Homer.
Thanks,
Brian
Brian,
Well, that’s a bit of a broad question….depends on what type of fishing you want to do. Driving down from Anchorage, there’s not a ton of stuff to do off the bank (unless you count combat fisheries like Bird and Ship creeks) until you get down to Cooper Landing down on the Kenai River. Of course, you have Soldotna just past that.
In that area you are in the epicenter of the Kenai’s giant king salmon fishing (May-July), though you’ll need to get on a guide boat to have much of a chance. Also, the reds come in thick in the Kenai and Russian rivers in July and then there are the jumbo rainbows, dollies, silvers, chums and humpies (mainly on even years).
Heading towards Homer, you will encounter the Kasilof River, where you can catch some kings below the Crooked Creek Hatchery off the bank or try Deep Creek, Ninilchik River and Anchor River, which have a mix of salmon and trout.
Homer, of course, is the self-proclaimed “Halibut Capitol of the World” and you can find countless charters down on the Spit that will take you out into Kachemak Bay for flatties. There’s also a fish pond on the spit that salmon return to, though it’s not really the nicest place to fish…
Lake Pardee primed for action!
When Northern California’s Lake Pardee re-opens to fishing on Friday, Feb. 6th., 2009, anglers should see some white-hot fishing…if it’s anything like the action we encountered on Media Day on Sunday.
The preview day of fishing was open to a select few bass pros and media members (organized by Kent Brown of Ultimate Bass Radio and hosted by Pardee Recreation Co. owners Richard and Kerry Copper). Record-class smallmouth bass were the target de jour. Pardee is rapidly gaining a reputation of being a top-notch smallie fishery, and several bronzebacks in the 8 to 9+ pound class were taken there last season.
But’s let’s back up here…
Click here to read more…
Bows not Biting!
JD,
On Nov 6, two of us went to Bowman Lake for the first time with our boat…what a long bumpy road! We used the rock boat ramp down to the lake and launched. The weather was good, plenty of sunshine, but the wind came up and made it hard to troll. Plenty of fish on the fishfinder but could not get a bite. We tried everything in the tackle box, top water, downrigger, trolling close to the shore. Then my friend started throwing rip bait toward the bank and caught a brown. After that he caught three more browns to three pounds! He had just the right rig for the browns. It was late , so we left the lake. Why do you think the rainbows were not biting? Do you have any experience with Bowman Lake?
Thanks, Ken P.
Ken, it’s a good question…in the fall, all trout put on the feed bag as they prep for the lean winter months ahead, so it’s strange that the ‘bows weren’t biting. Perhaps Bowman simply has a better population of browns than it did in the old days. And if the brownies are eating rip baits, I’d be okay with that!