Sacramento River limits

Kewsick Damn down to the Deschutes Bridge, the river is closed to all salmon fishing right now and for the forseeable future. But, you are able to fish for trout and keep one trout up to 16 inches long, either wild or a hatchery fish.

From the Deschutes Bridge down to Red Bluff Diversion Dam, the river also is closed to all salmon fishing until Oct. 9 through Oct. 31. After that, there is a limit of two salmon and two hatchery trout or steelhead. Note that on page 7 of the booklet there is a chart describing the differences between a plain rainbow resident trout and steelhead. The main difference is that the steelhead migrates to the sea and the resident trout sticks around in the river. If the resident trout gets to 16 inches, it is then classified as a steelhead no matter whether the trout migrates or stays at home.

***Make sure to inform your friends who are fishing for the salmon on the Sacramento of the changes that are going into effect.  It is a hefty fine for anyone caught breaking the fishing rules and regulations whether intentionally or not intentionally***

Below the Red Bluff Diversion Dam there is an open season for salmon from Oct. 9 through Dec. 12, with the same limits as the upstream section of the river. This extends all the way down to Knights Landing.

From Knights Landing to the San Francisco Bay, there is an open period from Sept. 4 through Oct. 3. Again, the same limits apply as upstream.

The Stanislaus River appears to have a semi regular trout fish stocking schedule. You can view some of these details on the California Fish and Game site.

And now, in looking back at our horrible fishing expedition last week to the North Fork of the Stanislaus River, I am wondering just how much the fish stalking has to do with our horrible luck.  Someone who we were camping with off the river made mention that if you go fishing right after the river has been stocked….the fish do not bite.  Meaning that it is best to wait for several days after the fish have been stalked before you start fishing for them.

After looking at the fish planting on the Stanislaus, it doesn’t appear that there was any fish stocking or planting going on the week before or after we were fishing the river.  So, now I am more confused than ever as to why we failed to really catch anything.

If you are an expert at fishing the North Fork of the Stanislaus river, please make some comments on what you think about fishing right after or during times when the river has been stocked, because so far, it seems quite a few people are confused as to how the fishing is after that happens.

Another trip to the Stanislaus River has just come to a close today, and here is how the fishing ended up:

For a total of three days spent fishing the river just above and below Boards Crossing near Sourgrass Day Use area on the North Fork of the Stanislaus, we caught a grand total of 1 6-7 inch trout.  Not too great as you can understand.

We used all different types of lures and baits and flies as well.  Compared to last year, the water was noticably higher and several degrees cooler too.

What was impressive was the amount of trout that could be seen breaking water and jumping into the air, but that is only fun for so long. When it gets to the point where you cast our line out and instantly two fish jump right next to it, but nothing hits your lures, then you start going crazy. That is where the funny guys come into play.

The one fish that was landed by Mr B Davis, was taken on a nightcrawler worm. There was one minor strike on the last day on a spinner. One bait that was night tried out were live crickets which seem to work relatively well on this river in the past. We were simply too lazy to go to Ebbets Pass Sporting goods and buy some, as the river is about a 30 minute or so drive to get there each way.

My suggestion to anyone who is headed up to the Stanislaus near Boards Crossing this July is to pick up some live crickets prior to making your way down to the river and seeing what type of luck you have on them. Or, figure out exactly what flies to use, as we surely did not have a clue this year.

Still, fish or no fish, the Stanislaus river is an excellent place to spend some time in the summer. Super nice swimming and beautiful scenery all around.

The Stanislaus is flowing quite heavily this week.  This week may even be the highest volume of water flowing down the river so far this year.  As there was snowfall all the way until the end of May, it appears as though there will be tons of water all summer long in 2010.

Finding some nice slower water is a bit of a challenge right now.  There are several fly fisherman who are having some luck with dry Griffiths Gnat.

Right now, it seems that the fish counts from some of the other locals are less than usual for this time of year, but everyone is optomistic that it will turn into some much better fly fishing on the Stanislaus really soon, hopefully before the 4th of July.

Fishing just South of Boards Crossing on Stanislaus

If you get excited about spin fishing the Stanislaus, you will still have some great luck using live crickets with a bobber or some light weight on 6lb test in many parts of the river.  The water is moving fast, so make sure to use propper hooks so the crickets stay on as best as you can, otherwise you will be casting out your bait all day long without any trout.

And of course, if you land a large trout from the Stanislaus, be sure to make a comment on this post and send the picture on over.

We took hundreds of pictures on the trip to Deep Creek Fishing Lodge in Kenai, Alaska. Here are a few of them.  The pictures are all from early June 2010. During the fishing trip, we fished the salt water for halibut, the river for king salmon, and a remote glacier fed lake for lake trout.  Some of the greatest times were spent just sitting around the fishing lodge which was located just next to Deep Creek, Alaska.  The staff and the guides and the owner of the Deep Creek Lodge are all excellent people.  With the views across the channel that were to die for, it was a vacation of lifetime that will not ever be forgotten.

One of the most spectacular parts of the fishing lodge experience was taking the float plane to the desolate lake to go fishing for trout. We caught all kinds of trout within just a few hours and then we fried them all up afterwards.  It was super tasty and alot of fun at the same time.

The fishing lodge is called Deep Creek Fishing Club and it is located in Kasilof, Alaska.  There is another deep creek fishing lodge so you need to make sure you fish the one with the captain called Captain Crusty.  Otherwise you won’t be getting the same experience you see in the pictures above.  The first night that you spend at the lodge, you will probably dig into a massive dinner of Alaska King Crab legs which should get your fishing vacation started off right.

Here is a brief overview in video of my first fishing trip to Alaska.  We visited the Kenai Peninsula and fished for halibut, trout, and salmon at the Deep Creek Fishing Club.

This place is amazing.  The first day we went out on the ocean and fished for Halibut.  There were two boats of us, 4 people on each boat, and one captain and another crew member per boat too.  All eight of us caught our limit of two halibut each.  The largest halibut of the day was 69.4 pounds on the scale outside the lodge.  It was great fun.  The weather out on the water was a bit choppy, but nothing too bad, infact nobody even got sea sick.  It did get a bit windy towards the end of the day

Kasilof float fishing

On the second day, we went fishing on the Kasilof River on the Kenai Peninsula.  Some of the video is also from salmon fishing on this river.  The fishing that day was pretty good for our drift boat.

We brought 3 salmon to the boat, and had a total of 5 salmon strikes.  We released two of the salmon because they were wild king salmon, and we kept one that was a hatchery fish.  Our guide Todd who works for the Deep Creek Fishing Club was excellent.  He had been guiding tourists who come to Alaska to fish for over twenty years now.

On the final day of our trip, we chartered a small airplane to fly us to some remote lake across the channel.  We landed and started fishing for lake trout.  We were using salmon eggs, and our group of eight caught about 15 trout in about one hour.  Next, our guides and Capta

fly-in lake fishing

in Steve aka Captain Crusty fixed up all the fish on the side of the lake with a bunch of charcoal, and we had some awesome fish tacos.  They setup a nice table and there was everything you could need for a great meal including wine and beer and best of all fresh caught trout for our taco meat.

Please enjoy the video of the fishing trip to the Deep Creek Fishing Club: