Favorite Non- Fly Fishing Stuff

The JetBoil is one of my favorite pieces of non-fly fishing gear. Because it is designed for backpacking, it is very light and compact. It's always in my gear bag. You can purchase a French press accessory to make your coffee, but I'm a fan of Starbuck's instant coffee, " Via ". Everyone that has seen this little stove is amazed at how quickly it heats the water! Another great feature is that it has a built-in lighter. Check out this YouTube video.

Facebook Launch

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Sierra Snowpack Status, 2010

Snowpack map for 2010, above.

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 Snowpack map for 2009, above.

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As you can see, this winter has been much better for snowfall than last year. This coming week promises to bring a little more!

Monster Striper!

Captain Mike Costello ( left ) holds his client's 47 pound striper!

Captain Mike Costello guided his client to a monster striper, recently. Here is his story, as posted on Dan Blanton's forum:

" The Fishing Gods were smiling...

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of fishing with two of my regular clients who definitely have the "fish gods" on their side. Jeff Sasaki and Garrett Kubota have had some incredible trips with me over the last several years, including a day last October when they landed 92 stripers between 4 and 10 lbs. all on intermediate lines with the same two rattle Clousers.

Once again we had an amazing "Delta Experience" as we started off the day by passing numerous boats on the way up to our fishing grounds. After retrieving a seven inch, black over chartreuse rattle Clouser from a tree in which my client two days before had lost it in, we were ready to get down to business. I attached the weathered fly to Garrett's leader and he responded by saying that the fly had been observing fish all night long ,and now it had picked out the striper it wanted to catch. To sum it up, the grab was violent, the great fish peeled off around 75 yards of line, and we were very lucky to land and photograph such a remarkable fish. I probably should add that Garrett and had some bad luck on landing big linesiders lately, but that has definitely changed now. The end result was a gorgeous 49 inch fish that had an incredible 31 inch girth, and on my sixty pound boga grip it weighed an astounding 47 lbs.

We caught the fish on an intermediate line in shallow water with 20 lb. tippet, and we carefully released this awesome specimen back into the Delta so that another angler might possibly share the same experience. Congratulations to Garrett and a once in lifetime fish! "

Mike Costello 

A little over a year ago, I had the pleasure of landing one nearly as large (45" )  for my friend, Mike Baisdon and witnessing another monster ( 46" ) landed 20 minutes later, 200 yards farther down the slough. We were not able to weigh either fish as Mike had only a 30 pound Boga Grip that bottomed out!

Fly Fishing and Technology

Google Earth image
Click on image to enlarge

One of my favorite technology gadgets is Google Earth. A great tool on Google Earth is the " ruler " function located in the toolbar. You can measure distance " as the crow flies " or click the " path " tab to create your path such as shown above.

Memories of Waters Past

Location: Rock Creek, East of Farmington, CA

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My earliest memories of fishing are those of my mother taking my grandmother fishing with me tagging along. I was about 5 years of age. I can still see, in my mind, the small pond at " Archie's place " a cattle ranch owned by Archie Moran. By the looks of the map above, the pond may be silted in. I remember fishing with bobber ( strike indicator !? ) and a worm and Mom landing a bluegill for me. Some guys tease me about fishing with indicators and I tell them that the site of seeing the indicator go under is still a thrill!
My dad and I continued to fish at " Archie's place " for a number of years afterwards and fishing with dad there will always remain vivid in my memory.

New DVD: Metalhead

Of all of the fishing that I've done, winter-run steelhead fishing is probably the most challenging. You not only face the challenge of finding a fish that are few in numbers, but the most challenging of conditions. Conditions that include extremely cold water, timing the water conditions ( clarity, flows, etc. )with the runs of a nomadic fish, etc, etc... The reward is a chrome bright, fresh from the ocean, incredible fish!

Image from: http://www.trout-salmon-fishing.com/