It was a day of steelhead fishing results that could be biblically epic in proportion to anything else in comparison of a river fisherman’s world.
It is likely that 90% of us out there reading this blog will never have a day of steelhead fishing like Big Jake J Money Reardon and Brennan The Brick Ingram had last week.
I am dang proud to have two such successfully passionate river anglers contributing to this passion of mine, Allaroundangler.com.
Big Jake J Money has made a hat trick movie compilation of their day of steelhead slamming. 17 FISH HOOKED folks. Watch on for that one.
The third movie is ‘Mini Rod’ Jordan and J Money steelhead bank fishing as well.
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These movies were created and produced by Big Jake J Money Reardon…
You may remember Kim’s photo he shared recently of his huge winter steelhead…….
Here he is again being kind enough to share a recent springer on a spot I tipped him to. So very cool.
Words from the angler….
“Hey there Mr. Chris, thank you for the information on where you caught those fish on your birthday, it paid off for me and here’s a pic of the little 13 pounder we caught. We also released a nate out in the Columbia up by the ***********. Thanks again for your help!!! Kim”
A check in from Bear Hunting……his sentiments are being echoed across the Pac NW.
“Well hallelujah the rains have finally come to give us the flush the
river and give me a reason to wait to fish.
Since I got to work in the
dark I had no idea of how the river looked till I crossed the bridge
this afternoon.
I am very excited to see this coming after such low
conditions have been lingering for a month.
So me and the Bear Pup
will be patiently waiting for the water to taper off and begin to
clear to hit the river and hopefully some chrome will be in the deck
for us.”
Here is Wild Bill Ruediger again with yet another contribution for Allaroundangler…..this is great stuff Bill, thank you. These fish are real trophies bud.
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Words from the angler…..
“Just got back from a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. My third trip to PV. We have an all-inclusive resort we go to called the Riu Jalisco. Each time I go I arrange a fishing trip. This time, I got in touch with a charter near the hotel. Not sure why as I’d been looking on the Internet for months. One of the problems with fishing Mexico is that there are many, many rip-offs. My first trip this time around, which was to be off-shore for dorado and sailfish turned out to be one of several rip-offs I’ve experienced. Julia and I wanted to share the fishing boat with another couple to reduce the cost – which averages $500-$800 per day. When we got to the dock, the Captain was one I’d gone out with years ago and did well. However, time did not serve him well. His was old and so was the first mate – so was the boat and fishing gear. The second couple never showed up and so he was going out with only half a fare – I knew immediately that this was a problem because the other fare would pay for the gas to go 10-20 miles out. Anyway, he fished in the harbor for Bonita and jack crevelle. We caught two small Bonita. The first mate would go up on the for-deck with a fishing rod and screw around up there doing his own fishing while the lines tangled in the trolling rods. He was lazy and didn’t take care of business. I knew within an hour I’d made a mistake. After half a day I asked him to go in. It was hopeless. Pour boat, poor equipment and poor attitude of the Captain and mate.
After getting over this experience I decided to try another trip using a guy named Stan Gabruk. Stan runs a sports fishing service called Master Baiter’s – a name that would have dissuaded me if I hadn’t heard of it from previous trips. The problem was that Stan could not find a second couple to share the trip with. On second thought, I called Stan and asked for a half day Panga trip. The cost would be $195 with only me in the boat. I decided to go. When I got to the dock, Stan met me. He’s a friendly and talkative soul, but I’d been conned before by the like. “No denero before I see the boat and captain, Stan.” I told him. “The equipment and boat have to be up to par before I go out.”
To my surprise the Super Panga was really nice – named Policon Fundica. Two years old with a 115 HP Evenrude outboard. Fish finder’s, new radio and GPS. The Captain, Jose’ Garcia was young, yet experienced and the rods were new, well organized and fully spooled with new line. Both he and the mate spoke English well. Stan is an American who lives in Puerto Vallarta.
We took off, got bait and headed out to the same area in Bandera’s Bay that I’d been the day before. The deal was we’d try the bay first, then if I decided I wanted to fish another spot further out in the ocean, I’d pay an additional $50 for two more hours. Basically the running time to get to the off-shore island where Captain Garcia recommended we go for rooster fish, grouper and other tasty fishes. Since I wasn’t going to bring fish home, this aspect didn’t have a strong appeal and I was still leery of being screwed over a second time – hence the shorter half day trip.
Captain Garcia ran the boat into big schools of thrashing birds and bigger fish feeding on baitfish. Almost immediately, he hooked up a fish and handed me the pole. We had now fished maybe 1 minute and I was into a nice Bonita on light gear. The second fish was nice jack crevelle that took out a hundred yards of line three times before being gaffed. From then on, it was one fish after another. I’m going to estimate that we caught 20 large jack crevelle, some going over thirty pounds. We probably didn’t go more than five minutes without a fish on. We caught them on bait and small jigs. Jack Crevelle are tenacious fighters, very similar to yellowtail tuna and any of you who have caught yellowtail know that catching 20 yellowtail 25 to 35 pounds is a rod bending experience! After three hours of grueling fish fighting, I told Captain Garcia to head back in. I’d had enough! We kept enough for his friends and relatives and released the rest. Jack Crevelle are not great eating, but the Mexican’s have several ways they like to prepare them, sushi being one.”
Wild Freaking Bill. Amazing. Can’t wait to meet you bud.
Sal Monid is one of my biggest cheer leaders. This isn’t news to those of you who read this site regularly.
He is constantly telling people about the site and asking for people he knows to contribute. After all, it makes the site much better to have varietal content.
That’s right. I said ‘varietal’.
Without further ado…..here is Bill “Wild Bill” Ruediger:
Words from the angler……
“Well, spring trout fishing is here and I’ve been out on the ******* River within two miles of home. The river itself seems to be slowly coming back to life after several years of heavy sediment and heavy metal discharge from the Dam removal.
Still not what it was before, but interesting nonetheless. These fish are spawning rainbows and cut-bows that are staging to go up into a small river that empties into the Clark Fork. Fish is steady, but not great, I’m catching 3-5 trout in an hour or two.
The largest trout caught so far was a beautiful rainbow male that weighed near 4 pounds. Unfortunately, my camera went on the blink and he threw the hook and took off while I was trying to figure out why it wouldn’t work! The fish are left in the water during the photo session.
In the first picture you can see a small red “egg” in the trout’s mouth. This is a soft plastic egg pattern I’ve been trying to work out for several years and believe I’ve finally got the right recipe. About half the fish are caught on the egg pattern and the other half on small BH Prince nymphs.
Those of you out there that have followed this blog for any length of time know who ‘Nookslayer’ is: For those of you who don’t……Nookslayer aka Shawn Richey is one of the very first contributors of Allaroundangler.com.
Shawn has provided print for this website for many years and without him I would not have one single business card to hand out.
Shawn is legacy Team Salmon and is part of my 30+ club (friends for over 30 years)…..you can find a highlight film of Shawn’s successes in my movie section entitled “Nookslayer’s Movie”.
PLEASE WELCOME Shawn’s young boy, Tommy, to the Junior Team Salmon! Shawn came in to buy his son this rod the other day and these pics are priceless. Great job, Nook.
Here is ‘mini-nook’ with his new gear and even an action shot! Cheers Richey, thanks for sending these in buddy.
Meskel and I headed south out of Eugene to do three days of floats in the midst of the March Brown hatch. We got on the water Friday about noon and did a short float down to the house we’d be based at for the next couple of days. I was supposed to hit the pull out about an 1/8 of a mile up river from there, but nobody’s perfect. Friday brought a skunk as the weather was gorgeous and we were a bit high in the system and a little early for the hatch.
Satuday started with me solo on the stick and humping to meet the guys at he next pull out. After oar walking the Hyde through a couple of sketchy rock gardens without a sound, we put it back on the trailer and headed down river to start our next float. This day, timing and bugs were on our side. Huge hatches of black caddis came off and fish started looking up. The only problem was they weren’t looking at our bugs. We threw the whole box at large rising fish and only managed four. 6 hours on the water and 4 fish, not my idea of production but it was a nice day…
Sunday we did our final float on yet another stretch of the river. This one was significantly shorter and was far better springer water than trout. The rain came in that morning and almost caused us to pull the ripcord. We sacked up, suited up and the water though. Nada. Not a single fish in that float.
Overall not what I was hoping for, but it was a lot of time in the boat on the water which is always good. With the days of nice weather heating up the river and bringing off swarms of caddis, not March Browns, the fish had engorged themselves and gave us the cold shoulder. I’m all about just being on the water but can you throw a guy a bone? The Browns are still yet to come. We’ll get ours next time….
I’m really happy to introduce my main man Kevin Hart to all of my readers out there.
Kevin is an incredibly smart fisherman that has always had the swagger of a river fisherman that gets it done.
In 1995, while chum fishing with Kevin I watched him catch the only King out of a chum hole on a day when the chum were thick as mud. Kevin finds the fish.
And I can see that 15 years or more later…nothing has changed. He’s still got it. He’s got these two absurdly gorgeous spring fish to share with us today.
With an impending trip for me this week…I know this picture gets me super pumped. Thanks a ton Buddy. Good to have you back.
