Getting cold

It was 30 degrees when I rolled out of bed this morning before the sun came up.  I fished the last 2 nights in a row and the water temps have dropped quite a bit.  The fish aren't in the same places they have been for the last 2 months but when you hook one there's a good chance it might show you your backing.  One from last night.

Cold and Rainy

Had a little to much to drink last night and almost didn't fish today.  It was cloudy, cold, and raining all day which is a big change from how things have been.  The cold weather got the fish moving and they are definitely bulking up for winter.  I was finally able to get this brown in the net after snapping off and pulling the hook out of three others that were all bigger than this one.

Fat Lip/Brown

Snuck out this morning before the sun came up and stuck some nice fish.  I hooked the fish below and had to go in after him because he ran down stream and slipped under a cut bank.  I filled up the waders twice and busted my lip on the net, now I know how a fish feels.

Archives

In the age of digital pictures it is easy to forget about where you came from.  So, after an hour or so of looking through my old timey polaroids and a couple IPA's, I picked out some of my favorites.  Enjoy...

A Little golden trout wilderness action

My gramps killin' it at Pishkin Res in Montana

Big Mo brown in front of gramps cabin

Ice fishing on the private ponds (Kamloops)

A Pishkun cruiser

Smokey

I was out before it even got light out this morning and saw some huge fish.  I crossed the river in the dark and started to head up stream when about 10 feet in front of me the water exploded.  My first thought was that I spooked a beaver, but then I saw the shadow and the wake of a brown trout that possibly eats beavers.  It was one of those fish you hear about but never see, most likely in the 10-12 pound range.  Never the less I scared the crap out of him but it was pretty cool to see.  The first hour of the day I had lots of interest in the streamer but only managed to land 1 rainbow.  The indicator was kind to me today, but no browns.

San Diego Surf Fishing

I spent the last 7 days down in San Diego and had a chance to do a little surf fishing.  It took a couple of days to get the technique figured out, and after visiting the local tackle shop, I finally found the fish.  The locals down there like to use sand crabs that you can dig up right on the beach.  After 3 days of throwing out sand crabs we only managed to catch surf perch.  If and when I dunk bait I like to use the stuff that stinks to call the fish in.  We picked up some frozen squid and some crazy lug worm creatures that smelled like bigfoot's nuts.  The technique was to have a size 3 pyramid weight down at the bottom with two hooks above that all tied to a swivel.  I liked to run the lug worm on top and the squid on the bottom.  On the 4th day the conditions were perfect and we managed to find a little ocean sea life diversity.  Two times that day I had double hook ups.  The first was a yellow fin corbina and a surf perch and the second was two sting rays.  The two sting rays were different species and I didn't see the stinger on the big one so I wasn't careful with the smaller and he stabbed me in the hand.

The sting ray that stuck me.

This is what some other fisherman was calling a guitar fish, it looked like a cross between a shark and a ray. 

This was the fish that the guys from shore were after, it's the yellow fin corbina. 

These were the cool leopard sharks that I was after, they were all about this size like they had just hatched not long ago.  I saw a guy land one of these 8 years back that was almost 6 feet long. 

These are the little surf perch  we caught by the dozens. 

Here's my wife with a nice little shark.