More Stripers

Perfect day for Striped Bass on the fly. High 70s-low 80s with light wind and hungry Stripers.

Stripers..

 Many Stripers were captured today. Sore lips and sore arms.





Local fishing..

Went to check a out a local creek that I had a feeling  would be a bitch to get into. And it was. Once I finally worked my way down into the canyon I didn't see much life. Sweet little stream but it's dark with not very much light penetration. There were a few midges and a Caddis here and there. Big Caddis though. After an hour or two of hiling and hitting some really nice little holes I had nothing. One one of the last pockets before I had to figure out how to get out with out getting cvovered in Poison Oak I had a little bow come up and eat a dry. So, there is some trout there but I suspect not many. Think I'll leave the place alone and maybe check it in the spring and see if any fish move up from private property below. It's always cool to fish a new creek so it was worth it.

Yesterday I spent the day on Stripers. Fishing was solid but most were in the 18-20" ranger with only a handfull of fish above that. Really nice clean fat fish. Seriously a guy could catch a hundred a day but I think I like the chances on bigger fish other places give. Pretty good late afternoong topwater with Crease flies, which is also when I caught most of my better fish. Water was still in the high 60s low 70s and air temp was in the low 90s mid day. Not exactly Fall here yet! Quality fish are still hunkered down.

Sunday on the bay

Monterey Bay that is. I cant think of a better place to hang out and fish from a small craft when it's nice. It's a great diversion from other fishing I do and I'm really glad it's there. As the sun rose, and the marine layer almost completly erroded away, I thought we might be in for a snotty, more than likely windy SOB that would have us back at the barn by 10am. Strangely, as the fog burned off, the wind layed down to about 6kts and there was just a hint of swell and the drifts were perfect. Not to fast, not to slow. I guess all the bitching I was doing about the weather on the ride out worked! Ha

 I would have loved to have roped into a big White Sea Bass on fly and post some grand hero shots, but again, it didn't happen. But, it will happen and I'm a lot more cast's closer after yesterday. With all the bait, the Olives, Blues and Blacks were on top on a sunny day and that doesn't happen all the time. Some keeper size Lings were in relativly shallow water and they can be a lot of fun to mess with on light tackle and flies. But, there is NOT a more bold fish than a hungry school of Olive Rockfish in these parts.

They crushed Dan Blantons old School J hook Whistlers. I have a bunch I've had for year and few and  a few still have some hair on them. I've sure caught a ton of fish on those flies.

Lots of life on this day everywhere you looked. Seems like when it's flat, and you dont have to pay so close attention to toy or a mate falling in the drink you can really take in the scenery. We have a beautiful coast!  The highlight of the day, and maybe the year for me was when I was just finishing up a cast to where I could see my fly on a school of Macs. I noticed what at first looked like a large ball of bait following it in. A dark mass, maybe Jack Smelt or something. As it got closer I thought it might be a Dolphin and  then it showed itself. It was a 7-9ft Thresher shark tracking my fly! About that time my partner saw it who was fishing the bow and it went right around the in front of the bow and came back down the starboard side and was gone for second. It came into view quickly and swung under neath the transom area and made a huge boil about 6 feet behind the outboard and was out of there. THAT was exciting for sure. I'm 90% on this fish being a Thresher as I ve seen smaller pups bust bait out here in the past. Usually in the Fall, and usually on Macs.The only other option was it was a juvinal White. It's head seemed too wide to be a White though. I was so focued on the front of the fish that I didn't notice the dead give away tail at all and couldn't get a clear side view of the animal. Ive seen tons of Blues and it definitly wasn't a Blue Shark.

Anyway, not exactly steller fishing but one of the best days Ive had in a while on the salt.! Heres some sites.

First Light

Olive Rockfish

Black Rickfish

Greenling

Sea Otters



Surf & Slurp Carpin

Enticed my wife to hit the beach this morning. Low 80s and just beautifull out. I already had the beach in mind. It is unique in that it is walking distance to decent Carp fishing. She went onto the sand and I made about 100 paces into one of only a couple of access points. Patience is the key here. You cant move around and have to let them come to you and take your roll cast shots as you get them. Forget a back cast and it's just get it on them. They are pretty forgiving of errant casts since they recieve little to no pressure. I had two shots in an hour and they both slurped up the bugs.  I then walked across the road, found where me lady had staked out a prime spot and took a nap on the beach over looking Monterey Bay. Don't kids have school anymore? Seemed like there used to be less ''people" out on weekdays in October to kick sand on your shit. Or, maybe i'm just getting older and grumpy. Anyway, some good family time.

Odd Ant Eater looking fish

Flat Seas right there



Almanor

Great trip! Slower fishing than I had invisioned but I had a blast. Trout was fair. I had some great chances and short windows of good fishing for both Browns an Rainbows. I really went with ntentions of really targeting the Browns. I've become facinated with them and really want to stick a beast on fly, and I want it on my own. It will happen, but it wasn't going to be this trip. I have a feeling I might be on the wrong lake for a giant but I love the variety here. Anyway, Browns were hard too find and harder to get them to eat when I did I find a few.  I found an area pretty quick with numbers of Browns busting smelt the first day. Got a couple to grab right away and I was optimistic going in. Forecast was for a front and I was even more excited. The front rolled through and that was all she wrote, the bait was gone, and so were they.

End the end I found a few individule fish and also  had a quality fish saw me off, and another nice fish come unbuttoned mid way through the battle. So, I had my chances on good fish, I just didn't get it done.  As it turned out, this trip ended up being about Smallies. A nice handfull of quality fish. Average fish was over three pounds and I had one that was over 5. It was 3-5 Smallmouth a day if you fished hard. Not red hot fishing by any means. To me, the quality made up for the lack of numbers.   All in all a great trip and it was awesome to have my wife there on this one. We got to catch up and relax a bit.



A hazy shot of Mt. Shasta

Early Morning Smallie

Weather


5Lb+ Smallie on the fly!

Storm brought the big girls up shallow

Mt Lassen

Alaska Images

I really packed a lot of photos on a 9 meg card. So many, that it will take some time before I can go through them all. Lots of fish photos, landscape shots and just general shutter bug stuff. Anyway, here are a few more misc shots and then I'll call it quits for a while. One can tell we had a good time, at least I know I did. I would really like to get back up there soon. Like tommorow if I could. I'm preping the boat and getting ready for another trip to North Eastern California. Lake Almanor in Plumas County to be exact. I'm looking forward to this trip immensley. An awesome part of the state with beautiful Browns, bows and Smallies. SHould be a lot of fun. Were getting an early warm fall rain now for the first time this year.



                                   

Alaska

Just returned from a 7 day trip in AK. Had a great time with lots of laughes and met some good people. Fishing was solid and we had some moments where it was just plain silly good. I would say over all, we had to work for them and we were rewarded with some nice fish in the end. Particularly the Streamer fishing for quality Bows. The rainbows and dollys were a lot of fun both wade and drifting through about 15 miles of river. Accomplished a good hike into lakes that held Grayling and came up empty. I did have have some shots at cruising fish and lost my only hook up that came on a dry. A little dissapointed considering I hiked nearly 10 miles RT for that fish through some very Beary back country.  Pleanty of Bears, Eagels and just plain beautiful scenery through out the Kenai Pennensula. The summer crowds are gone and we enjoyed  large uncrowded stretches of River to our self. .

Since we stayed in Cooper Landing we concentrated on the Canyon run from just out side Cooper to down the the SW end of Skilak lake and also the Middle Kenai where is flows out of the lake too Dotts landing. With in close proximity of Copper Landing is the Russion R, Six Mile, Quartz Cr, Cooper Cr and host of other small tributaries that hold fish from one time or another. Theres lots of water here folks. One things that is strikingly different than the lower 48 is the Trout and Dolly's dependence on Salmon. It really is the catalyst for there survival and there whole life revolves around the returns into the Kenai. With out them, this would be a tough place to fish.

This time of year many of the lodges are closed, or are getting ready to wrap up there season. I had made reservations in Feb at http://www.drifterslodge.com/and they set us up in a small room in the main lodge and we took care of ourselves. Drifters Lodge was clean, affordable and right in the middle of everything I wanted to fish and see. I can honestly say it was a great place to stay and super friendly staff. If something wasn't right, they went out of there way to correct it. What else can you ask for? So, If you want to get up there and dont mind taking care of your own needs give them a shout. They also do more involved fishing packages as well, but we just needed a place to crash, heat up some food and take a shower. It was perfect.

Kenai Lake

The guides that fished us really worked hard. Kept us in fishy water and never rushed us on down river. Really professional the whole time. Water was way up and still is. Infact, it was at flood stage just prior to arriving and had me concerned. But, everything came together and we caught some repectable fish. The river dropped every day we were there and we had sun and mild weather by there standards for almost the entire trip so we were blessed. If you have never been, get up there. You'll love it! Here are a few images from the trip and I will post more in the next day or two.