TheAngle

Author: Doug

  • What the… Koi?

    I didn’t expect this when I lazily showed up at the sludge this afternoon anticipating another routine skunking. Carp were everywhere, tailing, daisy-chaining, cruising, and rooting; big ones, little ones, gold ones, and for the first time, a BLAZE-ORANGE little guy!

  • Shad Run, 2008

    It is the middle of May in California’s Central Valley and the temperatures have been breaking into the triple digits for the last week. The crop dusters are busily buzzing I5 and the cotton has begun to fall from the trees as a little blue truck pulls up to a secluded gravel bar along side…

  • A Crabby Day In The Surf

    This week’s tides were some of the biggest of the year, with flood highs and minus lows. Jeff & I headed over the hill at o-dark thirty to catch the last few hours of the early morning outgoing and see the beach at the lowest tide we’d witnessed yet. We weren’t sure what to expect…

  • The Bow River, Calgary Alberta

    The Rainbows and Brown trout reach 29 & 30 inches! Their average size is said to be ~19 inches, and their “Blue-Ribbon” distribution throughout the watershed is estimated at 3000 fish per mile! Just doing a quick google image search for Bow River fly fishing will make anyone worth their trendiest over-priced Simms costume drool.

  • Surf Perch, slow morning, but not fishless!

    Hit the surf with Jeff for a few hours one morning this weekend. The holes were really gaining definition compared to weeks past, but the barred little buggers were scarce. Other than one little guy that took a pattern Jose had given me during the grey-light hours and a really nice one that grabbed in…

  • Steelhead in the Surf

    After fishing a couple of seasons with Jose Silva I’ve learned quite a few things. Aside from new angles on holding water, fish behavior, tidal influence, and an ancient recipe used by the Peruvians to prepare a fine carp for the dinner table, the one thing that’s been drilled home time and time again, through…

  • Surf Perch, it’s been a few years

    I hadn’t pestered the local surf perch for a couple years and after a long Delta season spent dealing with all the hassles involved in being “the guy with the boat” the simplicity of a short, trailer-less drive, a single rod, a handful of flies, a pair of waders, and the scenery & solitude of…

  • Delta, Spring is in the air

    When the phone rang at o’dark thirty in the morning I sprang out of bed as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on me, “Crap! Sorry! I didn’t even hear the alarm clocks! Give me 30 minutes; I’ll call you on the way”! The first mistake was not getting my stuff together…

  • Carp on the Fly, March 2nd, 2008

    Jeff had reportedly gotten into a few over-sized gold fish cruising & tailing a few weeks ago. A week later I made a quick scouting run out to have a look and sure enough, carp were everywhere! The mud holes that had appeared vacant of fish over the past few months were suddenly teeming with…

  • Delta, Cold Water Stripers IV

    “There we go!”, and Jeff was hooked up. We’d barely got the boat into position for the first spot of the day and his fly rod was already buckled over into a big fish! I couldn’t believe it, a week later, and on the opposite tide, the same big fish my dad & I had…

  • California Delta with Dad

    My dad was in town on business and had managed to schedule in an extra day to fish the delta with me for his first time. With the cold & dirty water typical of this time of year, our expectations weren’t high and I unnecessarily did what I could to emphasize that any fish caught…

  • Delta, Cold Water Stripers II

    The weather keeps getting nastier and the water colder. A break between winter storms finally opened a window for Jeff & I to make the first trip of the new year to check in on The Delta. The recent storms had successfully left the dreaded, gin-clear water of the fall behind us, but not without…

  • Delta, Cold Water Stripers I

    It was late Saturday morning when I lazily rolled out of bed, poured a hot cup of coffee, and hopped online to check the weekend weather forecast for The Delta. The water temperatures had been down into the 40’s and the reports I’d been hearing weren’t good. I had half a dozen new flies I’d…

  • Delta, Jose & Gabriel

    The fact that Jose was still waiting for us at the dock, more than an hour after sunset, was surprising. When I saw the digital camera in his hand I knew why. “How big”? I asked. He ignored me and asked how we’d done. “Terrible”, I responded, “Now let’s see it Jose”. With a sly…

  • Delta with Brandon

    My brother made it down from Seattle to spend a few days on the Delta with me. On the way back in from a windy first day I justified the days slow fishing to him on the water’s drastic drop in temperature last week and the windy conditions. Brandon & I have fished together long…

  • Delta with Jose Silva

    I’d returned from up north in full blown steelhead mode. When I’d heard how well Jeff & Jose had done on the Delta earlier in the week I thought “good for them”. When asked if I was going out the coming weekend I responded, “probably not, too many things to do”. A few days later,…

  • Steelhead, November 2007

    It is a long and sometimes painful search, and sometimes it goes on in vain until there is no chance in finding a fish in the river. It is a succession of long and fruitless hours spent in the rhythmic motions of cast and retrieve… The reward for all this effort sometimes never comes, because…

  • Delta, Striperfest Weekend

    October, November, and December have got to be my favorite and busiest months here in the Bay Area, at least from a fishing perspective. My favorite fishing happens this time of year on my favorite waters and when the local conditions continue to be as good as they’ve been this year, I once again find…

  • Delta, Solo

    Saturday morning was slow to say the least. The only fish I was able to find were most likely the same school of dinks that Al & I had found 2 weeks prior in the West Delta but unlike that day these guys were all sitting on the bottom and it took a lot of…

  • Delta with Erica

    After last weekend’s incredible fishing I invited my friend Erica out for the weekend. With her busy schedule lately I was pleasantly surprised when she accepted. We’d tentatively planned to fish both days but the place I typically stay was booked and unlike last weekend, there was wind forecast, so a day trip it was.