Fish with JD

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Help Fight the Good Fight!

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Here in Northern California, our fisheries are under attack from all sides! You have the huge water users down south that are lobbying our Governor and Fish & Wildlife Department to eradicate striped bass to help save salmon — all while they divert record amounts of life-giving water from our estuary.

Salmon are under siege as well. The same water diversions I mentioned above are wiping out our salmon runs. Then you have this new narrative from the state and feds that calls for reduced hatchery production in lieu of a wild fish program that will pay dividends, maybe, in 100-300 years (their words, not mine).

This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks! Steelhead, salmon, largemouth bass, panfish, sturgeon and many more of our beloved species are in the crosshairs right now!

What can you do? Well, if you are like most folks, you care about these fisheries you hold so dear…but you have family and job commitments that leave you with very little extra time.

The best thing you can do is drop $20 to join the Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association (www.ncgasa.org). Even without doing anything else, adding your name to the membership makes a big difference. When our association goes into meetings with policy makers and department heads, we can say we represent X-number of California anglers, it makes a big impact.

We are constantly fighting for our fisheries and your help in this endeavor helps immensely.

At NCGASA, our goal is to unite anglers of all persuasions — fly, bait, sport, commercial, fresh and salt so we have a united front with which to enter these fights.

Here’s a quick glimpse at some of the projects we have been involved in recently:

• NCGASA lobbied successfully to get 1 million extra salmon raised at Feather River hatchery

• Fought to get thousands of downer steelhead released into the Sacramento River.

• Worked on sediment removal projects on the Feather River.

• Constantly fighting against programs and legislation aimed at removing largemouth, smallmouth, spotted and striped bass from the Sacramento River/Delta system.

AND SO MUCH MORE!

Please, lend a hand (and your voice) to the fight for California fisheries by joining for $20.

We of course have plenty of need for volunteer assistance as well and if you’d like to get more involved, we’d be happy to have you. For more information, visit the website www.ncgasa.org

How to Fish Glide Baits for BIG Stripers

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Glide Baits have become extremely popular in recent years. And with good reason: They flat-out catch fish!

They got their start in the world of big bass fishing but striper anglers quickly realized that glide baits were also the ticket for targeting big linesides.

Here are some tips for catching stripers on these deadly lures:

How to Pick a Glide Bait

There are so many companies out there that make quality gliders that it can be a bit overwhelming to try to pick a few out. So, let’s take a look at a few things down here and try to narrow it down a bit.

First off, in my experience, two-piece baits work way better than the multi-segmented kind.

As far as size goes, it really depends on what your goals are. If your only goal is trophy fish, consider going with one of the big 9, 10- or 12-inch baits like the Megabass I Slide 262T Glide,

Megabass I Slide 262T

 

or the even larger Gan Craft Jointed Claw Super Magnum 303.

Gan Craft Jointed Claw Super Magnum 303

These are expensive baits and you won’t get a ton of bites on them, but when you do, chances are they will be really big fish!

 

If you’d rather go a little less expensive, the River2Sea S-Waver 200 is a good bait for under $50.

River2Sea S-Waver

I generally run smaller gliders so I can catch the non-trophies as well. The good news is, big stripers will also munch these baits so you aren’t taking yourself out of the big fish game by using them.

The sky’s the limit here on what you want to spend. Generally, the more you pay the more refined the bait is but that’s not always the case. Some companies put out lesser baits and charge a premium just try to get get in on the action.

If you don’t mind spending the cash, the 5.5″ Gan Craft Jointed Claw Kai 148 (around $65) is deadly…

Glide Baits

Gan Craft Jointed Claw Kai 148

The River2Sea S-Waver in the 168 size is an excellent bait in the $20 range. Also in the less expensive but still effective range is the the Savage Gear Glide Swimmer in either the 5 1/4″ or 6 1/2″ sizes.

Savage Gear Glide Swimmer

Regardless of the bait you choose, be sure that your glider rides balanced in the water. What I mean by that is it shouldn’t be nose or tail heavy and able to stand ups straight without rolling over on its side.

Customization
Some baits come with hooks that clearly weren’t designed to handle big stripers so you may have to change them out to stouter models. The trick is to make sure you don’t adversely affect the lure’s action by adding too much weight. On some lures, I’ll add a second split ring between the lure and the hook to give the treble the ability to rotate nearly 360 degrees — this helps reduce a big fish’s ability to use leverage to twist the hooks out.

If a bait seems to be riding a little to shallow, I will also sometimes add a split-ring and barrel swivel to the nose to give it a little more weight forward attitude.

Glide Bait Colors
The best color for a glide bait is pretty subjective. It depends a lot on water clarity, weather and natural forage. My top three favorites are rainbow trout, bone and white or silver with chartreuse. But again, every water is going to be slightly different. Start with finding out what they main food source is and then expand from there.

How to Fish a Glide Bait

Everyone has their own style for fishing these baits, but for me I find I do best when is all the action is imparted with the reel…not the rod. After the lure hits the water, I may let it sink a bit and then, with the rod tip pointed down, I’ll start retrieving it. Some days, the fish like a straight slow and steady retrieve. When you slow grind the lure in this way, it will slowly slide left and right. More often, however, I’ll also impart some stops and starts to the action as well.

By reeling a crank or two and then pausing, the bait will glide off to one side. Then another couple cranks and a pause will send it drifting off the other direction. Sometimes a steady grind punctuated by a couple speed cranks and a pause is the ticket.

You’ll just have to experiment with the action — the fish will tell you on a given day what the want. What you will find is if you go too dramatic with your stops and starts, the bait will sometimes do a U-turn and the hooks will wrap up in the line.

This is what happens when you do it right!

When you get bit, the key is to stay focused and reel into the fish. If you make a quick haymaker, tuna-tosser hookset, you’ll often jerk the bait away from the striper. Some bites are crushing blows, but more often you’ll feel a quick “tick” or “thump” as the fish sucks the lure in.

Gearing Up

To ensure you impart the proper action to the lure, don’t wear yourself out on the casts and also capitalize on as many bites as possible, using the proper gear for Glide Bait fishing is really important.

Rods
Starting with rods, I like a stick that has enough oomph to cast heavy baits and fight big fish but it also needs a soft enough tip to ensure accurate casts. The top end also needs to be able to “give” when a striper sucks in the bait so she doesn’t feel much resistance.

I use to main rods for this technique: The Douglas LRS C764MF for smaller sized gliders and the Douglas LRS C784F for medium sized ones. You can also check out the Dobyns Rod Champion XP Swimbait series.

One bait rule of thumb to keep in mind is that of your lure twirls through the air like a helicopter, your rod is too still. You know your have the right action when it doesn’t spin through the air.

You get a lot of follows with glide baits…if the fish are following but not committing to the bait, change your retrieve.

Reels
There are a lot of quality choices out there as far as reels go. In general, I like a big 300-size reel with power handles and a solid drag. Some good choices are the Abu Garcia REVO Toro Beast and the Shimano Calcutta D Series In the more affordable range, some big glide bait fans love the Shimano Cardiff 300A for it’s slow retrieve rate.

Line
Line is a pretty subjective topic — everybody has their favorite. I have found that braid with a fluorocarbon leader works great on the smaller sized gliders but if you want to throw the mega-sized ones, straight fluorocarbon is the way to go. With those huge baits, you are likely to snap one off on the cast with braid and mono ends up getting too stretched out.

As far as line goes, I have been using 50- and 65-pound P-Line TCB 8 Teflon Coated 8-Carrier Braid with a 4- to 10-foot P-Line Shinsei on my smaller rigs and straight 20-pound Tactical Fluorocarbon

 

Five Must-Have Spring Striper Lures

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Spring striped bass season in Nor Cal is heating up! Here’s a list of my must-have lures to catch them with this spring…

Topwater

Of course may favorite way to catch stripers is up top on the surface with topwater plugs. The blowups are so fun…and I actually get some of my biggest fish of the season this way.

I think the easiest way to get started with throwing topwater is with pencil popper style plugs. They have a great wounded fish sputtering, splashing action that doesn’t take a whole lot of time to learn.

The Cotton Cordell Pencil Popper is a great topwater plug (I usually go with the 6″, 1-oz size) that won’t break the bank (about $9). I like the Bone and Silver/Black patterns best.

Cotton Cordell Pencil Popper

The only real drawback to these is they don’t feature wire-through construction so there’s a chance the plug can snap in half on a really big fish. It’s never happened to me before but I know some guys who have had it happen.

Another really sweet option (that’s reinforced on the inside) is the Duo Realis Pencil Popper (148 size) in Neo Pearl or Sardine. It’s a few bucks more, but you get that piece of mind that it will hold together if you hook the fish of a lifetime.

The Duo Realis Pencil Popper

Glide Baits

The glide bait revolution started several years ago and now it’s hard for me to get out on the water and not throw these things at least part of the day. The lazy “s-turn” action of these baits really turns stripers (and big bass) on!

One of my clients with a nice glide bait striper.

Grind these things slow with just the reel (not the rod tip) and then do a few really fast cranks and then pause. Mix up the action — the fish will tell you what the want on a given day.

There are some crazy expensive glide baits out there in the $200+ range but I don’t like throwing a lure like that at fish that can possibly take them away from me. :)

River2Sea S-Waver

So to that end, I fish a lot of River2Sea S-Wavers in the 168 and larger 200 sizes. The bone and rainbow trout are my two favorites.

Another good affordable bait for our local waters is the Savage Gear 3D Shine Glide Bait

The Chartreuse Shad is my top getter but I also like the Threadfin pattern. Generally I’ll go with the 5 1/4″ size when I’m looking for the most action. The jumbo 7 1/4-incher is the one if you want to maybe miss out on some smaller fish and just go hunting for the big bite.

Swim Baits

Tossing rubber swimbaits towards rocks, tules, sand bars and wood is a great way to search for spring stripers. There are lots of models out there and most work well enough. I’m a fan of softer baits with a square shaped tail on them such as the Big Hammer Swimbait Tails

Big Hammer Swimbait Tail


The 4″ and 5″ models are nice because they have enough profile to entice big stripers but are also not so big that the smaller fish won’t eat them. You can, however, size up if you are targeting only big fish. Great White is my top producer and sometimes, when the water’s off color, I’ll dip the tails into Chartreuse Spike It Dip-N-Glo Worm Dye (unscented).

Most days, I run 1/2-oz lead heads but 1/4-ouncers are nice when the water is really shallow. The Big Hammer Jig Heads work well with these (and other brands of swimbait tails). Normally, I’ll use white heads with white swimbaits but you can also go with chartreuse heads in conjunction with white tails.

JerkBaits

When stripers are spread out and you need to cover the water quickly — or you have a nice windy day that’s blowing bait against the points — jerkbaits are very effective.

Probably the most effective (and pricy) is the MegaBass Ito Vision 110. At roughly $25, these puppies aren’t cheap, but man do they work! I like the Elegy Bone, French Pearl and Sexy Shad color patterns for the Delta and rivers.

MegaBass Ito Vision 110

A step down but still deadly is the Luckycraft Pointer 110 in American Shad finish. Retailing from $12-13 you can buy a couple of these for every Vision 110.

Luckycraft Pointer 110

The issue with jerkbaits for stripers is they usually come with light wire bass hooks that quickly get destroyed by stripers. So, I replace all mine with either No. 2 or No. 4 KVD Triple Grips.

The trick here is find a hook that is stronger but won’t affect the action of the lure. I’d like to go with 3X or 4X strong models, but the neutral buoyancy of the lure would be compromised. The KVD hook seems to be a happy medium. They will still get beaten up by stripers eventually but they definitely last longer than the stock models do.

Save the Rivers: Dinner to Benefit Central Valley Rivers

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Lord knows the salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and striped bass fisheries in the Central Valley are hurting!

If you have any interest in protecting and enhancing our fisheries in the Sacramento Valley, please come to the big dinner being put on by NOR-CAL Guides & Sportsmen’s Association

Funds raised from the event will go to many projects designed to put ore fish back in the rivers! There will be an awesome meal, combined with tons of cool prizes up for grabs.

There are only a couple sponsor tables left and the event looks like it is going to be HUGE! Come on out Nov. 4!

Hot Jigging Tips for Fresh and Salt Water

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Spooning (aka: “jigging”) is one deadly technique for ocean salmon, halibut, yellowtail and rockfish, along with trout, landlocked salmon, striped bass and walleye in freshwater.

While it’s a super easy technique to learn, there are some little twists and tweaks that can help you take your jigging to the next level. If you’re game, read on!

RIGGING UP & THE BIG SECRET
For spooning, you want a rod that’s got some oomph in the lower two thirds – so you can muscle fish out of deep water and also move the spoon. But it should also have some give in the tip so that a fish can suck down your spoon and not feel too much resistance. Casting gear is the only way to go, as it’s really hard to make subtle adjustments with spinning tackle.

Inhaled! Stripers and rockfish love the P-Line Laser Minnow!

I like a baitcaster with a high-speed retrieve (above 7:1) if I’m working deep water, or a lower speed, more torquey model when trying to wench big fish out of the rocks. When it comes to line, keep this in mind: braid…braid…braid. There’s no other choice for jigging. Braided line has a slim profile so it is less subject to current drag, has no stretch (great for deep water), and is super durable and very sensitive.

Now, here’s the super top secret rigging tip I can throw at you to make your jigging much more effective: Run a heavy mono leader – the heaviest you can get away with without spooking the fish. For example, I’ll run a 10- to 15-foot section of 40-pound when jigging mackinaw. The lakers rarely get over 15 pounds where I fish, so it’s not the strength of the line I’m looking for but the thick diameter. The heavy line acts almost like a parachute for the lure, slowing it’s fall and thus making it flutter more enticingly. You’d be amazed how much of a difference this makes!

If you’re trout fishing in a lake, 20-pound seems to do the trick and I’ve gone as heavy as 60 plus when in the ocean.

SPOONS
When it comes to choosing a spoon, there are several things to consider. What does the natural forage in the area look like? In most cases, I try to “match the hatch” as much as possible and use the jig that best matches the profile and color of the local baitfish. When deep bodied fish like shad or sardines are the main menu items, I’ll go with a spoon like the Revenge or a Blade Runner Spoon. The Livingston EBS Spoon with Electronic Baitfish Sound is a good one at times, too.

But if narrow baitfish are what the fish are dining on, a slender jig like a P-Line Laser Minnow or Hopkins Spoon will get the job done.

Silver or white are great all-around colors as most baitfish have some sort of shiny hue to them. However, when I’m bouncing rock piles for rockfish and lings, I’ll often switch to a darker lure – something brown, dark green or black – to match the myriad of juvenile rockfish that inhabit these areas.

In freshwater, the same concepts apply. I’ll go with a wider-bodied spoon when threadfin shad are the primary baitfish and then use a more streamlined model when the fish are eating pond smelt. Kokanee are a bit of a wild card and they seem to prefer spoons with bright fluorescent finishes like hot pink, flame red and chartreuse.

As far as weight goes, you want to use the lightest lure you can get away with. It’s pretty simple: the lighter the lure, the more flutter you get. And of course, the more your spoon is flashing like a wounded fish, the better!

Swap the Hooks!
The majority of all jigging spoons come standard with treble hooks but I’ve never been all that fond of them. Taking a tip from the tropical saltwater guys, I started testing assist hooks out and have gone all in with them. If you’ve never heard of assist hooks, let me explain. They’re a single hook attached to a short length of cord that is fastened to the top eye of the spoon (yes, the top!). Some folks run two hooks up there but I’ve found one works great. I have to admit that a jig looks strange with the treble removed and the hook at the top, but they are deadly.

Assist Hooks look funny but they work!

Assist hooks are also much easier on the fish and are usually buried right in the corner of the jaw – not down in the gills. They’ve also been a godsend for me when jigging deep like I do for mackinaw at places like Lake Tahoe. So many times I’ve dropped a jig all the way down to 120 feet, only to have the lure flip and the treble wrap around the line just above the knot. Talk about frustrating! But that never happens with assist hooks!

Technique
One basic concept to keep in mind when spooning is: use your wrists, not your elbows or shoulders. Most of the time the best jigging motion is, with the rod tip angled towards the water, a quick upward snap of the wrist and then you allow the tip to fall back towards the water. There’s a fine line here – the lure will have the most action as it falls on a slack line. However, most strikes come as the lure is on the drop, so if you have too much slack in your line, you will miss a lot of bites.

The best way to describe it is, let your lure drop on a “controlled” fall in which you keep a little tension on the line. That’s where trouble comes in when the elbows and shoulders get involved – too high an upward stroke and you’ll almost assuredly have loose coils of line on the water, which translates into a lot of undetected strikes.

Yellowtail on light jigging tackle are a blast!

Bites can be slight “ticks” to outright arm yankers, but most are fairly subtle. For that reason, it’s a good idea to also watch your line where it enters the water. If you notice any slight hesitation or direction change, set the hook immediately!

One final note on technique: Try to keep your presentation as vertical as possible. The lures work best when presented straight up and down over the fish and you’re less prone to snags that way. If the current or wind is pushing the boat along so quickly that you have a pretty good line angle going, either reel up and drop again or try a heavier lure.