This took a lot of time and sweat to put together, so I hope you enjoy! The gathering of the old clips, converting them to a usable format, and then putting them into the movie in fragments. Really fun but time does loose itself while you’re at it. Amazing that ten minutes is all I have to show for it! Truth be told, my original effort was TOO LONG for youtube to host….so this is the revised version.
One of the highlights is never before seen footage of H2O fighting and landing a steelhead that pushed twenty pounds. A true beast of a fish. Another might be the opening slide of Sal with his bank-caught 95 incher. That’s an eight foot bank-caught fish! Or maybe you are into some Columbia River action…….I’ve got it all on there. From regular contributors to rarely seen (Big Jim), they’re all on here.
If you have ten minutes sometime, sit back and play this movie. I think it’ll pump you up. You’ll see rare appearances as well as a soundtrack if you’d like. If not, easy enough to mute right there on the movie clip. Either way, enjoy this five year celebration of Team Salmon & Allaroundangler.com. Officially five years. Unofficially, more like 25 plus. Go ahead, kick your feet up and watch some big fish get caught. Some of the clips you have seen, maybe even all. Most of you won’t have, though…..or seen them arranged in this way. This project has kept me sane this last week. Uh oh. What now? Cheers!
BE ADVISED: THIS MOVIE IS 10 MINUTES IN LENGTH AND IS ACCOMPANIED WITH A SOUNDTRACK
TEAM SALMON & ALLAROUNDANGLER SAY ‘THANKS A TON FOR WATCHING’!
What’s up fellas? Just wanted to chime in from down south and give you guys a warm water report. Well the water is not as warm as I’d like it to be, but it will be soon.
I took a trip with the family out to my favorite reservoir, Sand Hollow for some largemouth bass fishing. This is only about 20 minutes from my house and is one of, if not the best bass fishery in the state of Utah.
Last week the water was warming fast with the hot weather and the fish were in a full prespawn mode fattening up for the love fest. Then the weather took a turn and the water temps went from 55-56 back down to the low 50’s, which screwed things up a little for our day at the lake.
This was the first trip of 2009 for my old Seaswirl and she ran like a champ like always. We were taking my wife’s brother, who lives in NY, out for the day like we always do when he comes to town.
We got on the water around 10am and fished hard until about 4pm. The lake was pretty crowded with bass fishermen and the bite was slow the whole day. I decided to go to my deep spot first since the water was 52 at launch. Found the hump sitting in 25ft now that the lake’s water level has been rising over the last 2 weeks, threw out a marker bouy, and hooked up my brother-in-law and wife with some sure-fire drop shot rigs and oxblood robo worms. Both got fish on the first cast. My bro-in-law nails a nice 3 lber and the wife nails a soild 2lber. Great way to start. I always like to experiment with new baits and techniques when fun fishing, so I’m struggling at the start. My wife catches a couple more in the first hour and the shit talking begins. The bite dies off and we make a move to the shallow hump now sitting about 15 ft underwater. At this point I have no bites and the wife is kicking our ass. Her bro hooks up again and then the bite dies again. We continue this pattern of catching a couple and moving and catching a couple and moving for pretty much the whole day. About 2 hours in is when I finally get a bite and start catching fish.
To make this long story shorter, we did ok, catching about 12-14 fish with the biggest being my brother-in-laws 3lber. I did finish strong with a nice 2lb 12oz fatty, that I though was gonna beat his when I was reeling it in, but it came up a bit short. I did catch her on one of my home poured senkos, which made me pretty happy. It was just great to be out on the boat again and catching bass. Soon the spawn will be in full swing and I hope to top my near 5lber that I caught last year…we’ll see. Peace out brothas!!!…….
After visiting my website many times to check river levels, hoping to see forecasted drops….and…committed to an unwavering promise to take my great friend, Big Burge, out for a day of steelheading…… After hearing that Nookslayer couldn’t dump his Hyde drifter in a river without a swollen brown flow……we decided to fish on foot. Armed with gear from Sal and I, Big Burge was suited up for the ball game.
Big Burge
With the higher flows, I had figured people would be away from the water today…..but not the case. Out thick. And you can’t blame ‘em. We fished in the sun with our jackets off most of the day…..and Big Burge got his very first steelhead. I’ve written articles on what he did today. Almost word for word. A true ‘natural’ with his float-flingin’ style that proved him today, successfully, the term..’steelhead fisherman.
I had rigged him up with one of my favorite high water flows rigs….the plastic under a float. Sliding not fixed. I made sure to pepper shot on the leader to drop it quick and also used WAXED dacron for the bobber stop…..nothing worse that farting around with your bobber stop all day….waxed eliminates that.. Anyway, I was impressed at his attention to detail….and also because he listened to me. Look, it worked! Ha ha. Cheers Big Burge!
This fish leaped clear out of the water during the battle….
The thing I noticed about watching Burgie evolve today with his efforts, was the fact he switched up his depth constantly. If he casted short; he would pull his stop down. And vise versa. I mean every time. Really cool to see someone on top of things like that. He was about twice as good as me today. Maybe three times, actually. I think I’ll start calling him The Big Finesse instead of Big Burge.
WATCH OUR VIDEO DIARY BELOW…ALL RIVER NAMES EXCLUDED, ALWAYS.
The more and more I fish smaller rivers for steelhead, the more I realize the need to choose your first spot in the run very carefully. There’s definitely something to steelhead spooking, unlike any other salmonid. So, it’s important with that first spot you choose, to take a moment to choose it carefully. Minimize your impact on the run by considering where the best spot is to fish several different angles, depths, distances etc.
Team Salmon secret water…..
Way to many anglers are inclined to walk into a river and cast towards the other side. Why is this? Same reason we read sentences from left to right: It just feels right….and….that’s the way we’ve always done things. Casting short requires skill and can be uncomfortable to do. Ironically, much more skill is required when trying to cast short, versus casting far. “That doesn’t make sense” you’re saying to yourself, right? Think about it though. Fishing short means making everything MUCH smaller and shorter, perhaps lighter too, unless the water is off color. But I am speaking more about fishing close on a relatively clear water day. These are ‘untouched’ water methods, so get to your river early. If the angler before you already recently fished the water, then just keep moving. Use this ‘choosing your spot’ method on newly fished water for the day.
I walked up to one of my favorite holes on a local river recently, only to find someone standing thigh-deep in fishable water. He probably stood in that spot because he doesn’t know any better. That’s fine, because that’s how we all learn. Only, I didn’t take the energy or the time required to make him aware that his location he chose to fish this run was piss poor. If I would have told him that I have caught several fish RIGHT where he is standing…..it would’ve fallen on deaf ears. In fact, we’d have probably had words, or more even.
So, instead of telling this poor fishless angler that he should “fish the shallower water first, and then move outwards”, I decided to put together what I am calling ‘allaroundangler quick clips’ where I spend one minute or less providing my readers with a, well, quick tip.
QUICK TIP #1……approaching and selecting your location from which to cast is the first thing you do……
Enjoy your time on the water more by spending a few minutes before your first cast to imagine the best starting spot to stand. Remember, this will take a couple minutes. Let your eyes adjust to the water like you are viewing a stereogram.(click the word ’stereogram’ to view) …..now just let yourself naturally read the water. The seams will start to appear more clearly….and your eyes will reveal little things to you that MAKE THE DIFFERENCE when you are steelhead fishing.
You’re going to be changing your presentation rapidly with short fishing….but if you can pull it off you may find the fish are all in close that morning. We’ve all had it happen, if even by mistake (an accidental short cast catching a fish for example ) …..so let’s try this method habitually and see if your catch numbers don’t go up.
“How To” quickly choose a location from which to cast into a run…
Thanks for watching my ‘Quick Tip’! More videotorials to come!
...this fish was a killer fight on my 9′ light spinning rod….
It feels great to get my first two float fish of the year! That means the water has warmed up enough (just barely) for these fish to come up for goodies under a bobber or float. Love it! Nothing better than not hanging your lead up all day long……while catching steelhead! Here’s the whole story…..
As I sat in my house last night tying up leaders, making slinkies and pencil lead punches, I wondered when the last time I made my famous (only in my mind) multi-colored mini yarn balls….and actually arrived at the river with them all ready to go. Because that’s the only way that get fished. Little history here: These yarn balls were shown to us by a southeast Alaskan local back in 1995. Sal and I used to fish these things a lot…..but for some reason (laziness) haven’t made them in a long time. So, I dug through my bulk sack of at least seven colors of yarn or more, and began to cut and line out my teeny little pieces of yarn…cut the same size. I also had to make sure to tighten the neck of that line down on the middle of where all the yarns meet and then use some sharp scissors to ’round’ it out…By the end of the night, I had tied 20 leaders, made a bucket of slinkies and even had time to and prepared 2 pre-tied multi-colored yarn balls for my first 2 rigs of the day.
H2O nicely works a slot…..
I prepared 2 rods; 1 spinning and 1 casting….for both drifting and floating. Funny, I was so excited to fish these beautiful little yarnies that I only got about 2 hours of sleep. Plenty. We arrived expecting a lot of cars but found only 2. We went to our first choice of locales to assault….But there were those 2 guys already fishing there. Although we then committed to a long hike down river, we never made it past the main funnel, run drift and tail out. H2O and I each hooked 2 fish, successfully each landing 1. The fights were fierce and fast and are really fun to watch (as seen in the video) because those fish used the slightly higher water today to accomplish their respective escapes.
H2O pulls a circus act to land this fish!
Each of my fish were taken on those new lucky yarn balls I tied last night. That is the coolest feeling coming up with a winner once in a while. Pretty bizarre color combinations as well. We also did quite a bit of RUNNING today. Yes, running. Running down the river chasing fish. I felt like a dog chasing a ball every time H2O hooked up. Video camera in hand and not paying near enough attention to the rocks I’m running over. Gotta love every second of it.
We each lost a very large bright fish to the; power of the river in H2O’s case….and in my case….after my chase…this big beautiful chrome slugger of a steelhad swims between a fallen river measure stick laying at an angle against an electric car sized boulder. The chances of that fish threading that needle before effectively sawing my leader in two again……well, you get it. It could only saw me back and forth by our feet while H and I watched the chartreuse-tipped float dart to and fro. This PIG of a fish worked me like Duane “Rock” Johnson beating up a whole football team. Darn.
Here is the 6 minute movie we made about our day today, and please enjoy your visit to allaroundangler.com!
This post comes a little tardie, and for that I apologize. My only excuse is that I was out fishing! Fishing twice in an eight day period has been un-heard of for me in the last 9 months.
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Finally got to pull the Hyde thru the Sandy. Its sad that i live on one of its tributaries yet this was my first time floating it. The sun was out, the water was cold, low, and cracker ass clear. Did i mention that the water was low?
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Yes i did say PULL earlier. With Richey on the sticks your guarantied to leave a mark on the rivers bottom. Yet you have to hand it to the guy for getting us right on top of some fish. The boat went 3 for 5 with nothing to bring home.
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And then it happened. Scott the third in our party broke out his 12′ 9″ spey rod and started effortlessly tossing his fly the length of the river. Reluctantly i fell in line after Nookslayer to give it a try. It didn’t take long to pick up a serviceable cast that was fish-able. It was rather fun when it was clicking.
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All in all it was a nice day on a great stretch of river with good friends. I would be hard pressed to ask for more.
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Just a week later i find myself standing in the Clack, 35 degrees and raining thick. That wouldn’t have been half bad if my waders hadn’t , unannounced to me, been used as a recreation apparatus for my cats.
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Yet here i find myself cold as all can be - standing with soaked frozen feet on a classic Oregon March day.
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That is because i know something you guys don’t and at the time only Scott did. It was that at the moment i accepted to throw the Spey rod i was infected. It starts slow but by the end of the week i was thinking of how to go about building a 13 foot two hand-er. Maybe that’s why when i got the call Saturday night for fishing in just seven hours - i didn’t think twice.
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I ended up going 0 for 1 while swinging. On that take i knew then that the tug is the drug and i am addicted.
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Now if i can stay on top of this March Madness maybe i can actually afford this new addiction. Go baby blue
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Meskel
I thought this would spice up everyone’s day: Here is our very own Sal Monid a coupla springer seasons ago up north with a 63lb Springer.
….words from the angler….“Just a bit of history. This fish was caught off the mid coast of BC. Two of us were fishing with downriggers and in making a turn, the port rod dragged a bit of bottom and went down.
We both had caught a fair number of fish and I told my pal to take the fish. He said “no, you take it.” The rod is dancing around and he picks it up, sets the hook and hands me the rod. Well the rest is history.
He ends up video taping me hauling in this pig. There was so much profanity on the tape (we were a bit excited once we saw the size of this thing) that it can only be played for select groups of former sailors or happy fisherman.
Anyway, it turned out to be a white meated chinook. Two weeks after landing this one, my friends neighbor landed a 65 pounder while fishing by himself. So, that’s the whole story and I am sticking to it.
LET ME PREFACE THIS ARTICLE BY SAYING ALL BUT ONE OF THESE FISH MADE IT OUT OF THE TROUGH, TO MY KNOWLEDGE. THERE WAS A NINE FOOT FISH THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT OUT. THANKS FOR POINTING THAT QUESTION OUT, BOBBY. CHRIS
….as forwarded from Sal and his myriad network of anglers……..”A friend took these pics last Thursday at a mudflat north of Everett. He estimated there were 1500 sturgeon stuck in the ditch.”
“This has to be the most fascinating Puget Sound sturgeon event of the
decade (see attached pics).
These are pictures of dozens of sturgeon trapped in
a tidal ditch near Port Susan.”
Folks, these are oversized fish……You are looking at something most of us will NEVER see.
Regarding studying these very mysterious fish…..”In 3 hours two people could collect the equivalent data of 10 years of chasing anglers
and the odd sport-caught sturgeon.”
What Sal says…….“Check it out. It sounds legit but who knows. If so, it is pretty amazing.”
I would say that would indeed be an understatement.
WWW.ALLAROUNDANGLER.COM: Bringing you the latest in fishing news and discovery!!
Having grown up fishing for sturgeon, and really respecting them as animals I want to protect and not harvest….I cannot imagine seeing something like this. It would be a once in a lifetime experience, for certain.
For those of you looking to get out on a river and catch one of the mightily coveted spring chinook….I’ve got lots of good reports. Not only from the CR, but some great news about springer fishing on some unexpected open seasons on some of our local tribs that feed it. This isn’t Ifish, thankfully, so if you have questions about river names and locations, please email me at info@allaroundangler.com.
For now, I’ll leave you with this information on our upcoming 2009 silver season: You never know who will want to attend a meeting. This was originally posted on pursuetheoutdoors
Fish and Wildlife Commission Meets in Salem March 20
by Pursue The Outdoors on March 18th, 2009 in Fishing News
SALEM, Ore. – The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will meet Friday, March 20 at ODFW Headquarters, 3406 Cherry Ave. NE, Salem. The meeting begins at 8 a.m. and proceeds through this agenda.
The Commission will be briefed on options for sport and commercial ocean salmon seasons. Forecasters predict a large run of coho salmon this year, and the options available are all a substantial improvement in fishing opportunities over last year.
The final decision on ocean salmon seasons will be made at an April 4-9 San Francisco meeting of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is responsible for setting fishing seasons off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and California.
Other Commission business includes considering funding for several Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) and Access and Habitat (A&H) Program project requests. The R&E board will ask the Commission to review and approve 11 projects totaling $131,042 to improve or enhance fishing opportunities. The A&H Board is requesting a total of $95,238 to fund eight projects that improve wildlife habitat and/or provide the public with hunting access to private land.
