I’m Baaaaaaaacck…! I just arrived back home on 11/1/11 from my month-long guiding adventure at Heller Bar, WA on the Snake River. I was able to guide 27 of those 30 days with some great people on my boat. The scenery was epic and the weather, except for three rainy days, was fabulous. Summer-run steelhead were the fish of choice, but we caught many Chinook adults and jacks, plus catfish, squaw fish, white fish, sturgeon, bass, and suckers — all side-drifting good eggs. The Snake is a very healthy river system to say the least.

If you missed this fishery in 2011, not to worry: I am already working on my 2012 season on the Snake River at Heller Bar, WA. I will start around 9/15/2012 and finish up around 10/10/2012. I would recommend two days on the water, if at all possible. This year was wall tent central and I’m looking to rent a house next year. If nothing is available, I will run my trips through the Red Lion in Lewiston, ID which is 45 minutes from the boat launch and is surrounded by restaurants and stores for your convenience. Otherwise, you’re more than welcome to camp out at Heller Bar right at the mouth of the Grande Ronde River with me. Fish, big horn sheep, turkeys, chukar, deer, fires, glo corkies and spinners from the bank, drinks, and that day’s fish stories are all a part of the Heller Bar experience.

I was looking over my fish log for the month of October and my boat landed over 250 steelhead, not including king salmon and jacks! You can expect double-digit fish days on this river. We did have a couple of slower days where we caught 5-8 steelhead and kings. But, again, only a couple of slow days. The water was at a 20-year high for that time of year, which definitely changed the fish holding locations a bit … it took me a day to re-figure it out. But after that day it was on. Our best days were 25-30 hook-ups on salmon and steelhead — NO joke! Below are some of the fish that we caught. FYI those un-clipped fish (you will see in the pictures below) are legal to pull out of the Water with an Idaho fishing license. Get a hold of me with any questions regarding my favorite Jet Sled steelhead fishery, hands down!

I am now booking winter-run steelhead trips on the Cowlitz, Skykomish and Snoqualmie Rivers starting 11/29/11 through 12/30/11. Get your date before you’re too late! Fish ON! and see you on the water.

Bonner’s FishON! Guide Service
Website bonnerfishon.com
Cell 425-281-8772
Email bonnerdaniels@live.com

Also, don’t forget to check out Steelhead University’s fishing report as I put up a fresh weekly report there, you can go directly there through the links section on my website’s home page. Mention Salmon/Steelhead University and take 10% off of your next fully guided trip from now through December!

Well, with the first frost of the year here, and some high water in our river systems, don’t be afraid to move around to find some chrome coho in our local rivers. We have been on the Snohomish River System and will continue to be there as we are having one of the better seasons in a long time with limits of coho the norm. Chum are also definitely showing up in our catches (must be released) as well….

Last year we got our first winter-run steelhead Nov 15 so it’s a very fun time of year to be out on the river. If you want to get out in a heated boat, give a call. Prime dates still available.

Todd
Tall Tails Guide Service
(206) 437-8766
email

Originally published on Steelhead University’s weekly fishing reports.

FishON and see you on the water.

Bonner’s FishON! Guide Service
Website bonnerfishon.com
Cell 425-281-8772
Email bonnerdaniels@live.com

Here are a few pics from the last few days:

Originally published at Steelhead University.

Hello all!

Well it’s time again, steelhead is open on the Wenatchee and Methow Rivers! We have been fishing and already have had some great days catching lots of fish in the sunshine! We have over 17,000 fish in the system between the two rivers and it is shaping up to be another great season!

Bobber Down Guide Service

Brad Wagner

509 670 3095

www.fishwenatchee.com

Also, there are still plenty of pinks around to get your rod bent and if you pick through your catch, there are still bright pinks coming in on the tides.

Then I’m off to the Snake River to chase around feisty summer-run steelhead and up-river bright chinook salmon! I still have one open date left (10/26/11). I’ve been in touch with my local buddies and fishing has been pretty good, so far. Give me a call if you want in on this slayfest of a salmon/steelhead fishery!

There should be close to 150,000 steelies over lower Granite Dam by mid-October . . . not including the 50,000-plus chinook salmon! See you on the water and FISH ON!

Bonner’s FishON! Guide Service
Website bonnerfishon.com
Cell 425-281-8772
Email bonnerdaniels@live.com

Here are a few pics from the past week’s guided adventures:

Originally published on Steelhead University (Sept. 27, 2011).

Originally published at Steelhead University.

I recently had the privilege of fishing with a good friend of mine, Captain Linda Cavitt, this past September. She is the premier inshore kayak fishing guide in Panama City, FL. I was down in Panama City on business for the week and had a morning off, so I booked a trip with her to check out the new kayak fishing craze. Let me tell you, it is one of the most rewarding fishing you can do. I had an absolute blast. There was just something special about paddling out on your own and tracking down redfish and trout on the flats.

I can’t say enough about the level of professionalism Captain Linda had. She truly is on top of her game. We were on good-sized reds and trout the entire trip. I managed to find my stability on my kayak and stand up so I could sight fish some. The new Hobie Outbacks are incredibly stable by the way! This proved to be my most productive move of the day. After I stood up, the fish seem to be at the end of every dock we hit. My bait of choice was yet again, a white Slayer Inc 1/8 oz jig head paired up with a smoke color Z-Man Minnowz and it proved to be the only productive lure of the day.

If you’re ever interested in doing some kayak fishing, I highly recommend Captain Linda. She is a true professional and provides everything you need to fish with except a fishing license. Go check out her website CaptLinda.com, she has a bunch of awesome fishing videos and all of her guide information listed on her site. I definitely plan to do this again.

Tight Lines,

Chris W.
Team Fish Happens

The final regular season tournament stop for us was in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Grand Isle was one of the hardest hit places of the 2010 gulf oil spill. The impending devastation from the spill was frightening for everyone here on the coast, especially the ones who make their living from these waters. The spill changed our lives whether we liked it or not. But after spending this entire year on the same waters that this spill threatened to destroy completely, I have to say, its looking like its going to make a full recovery.

Kirk and I pre-fished for weeks prior to this tournament and settled on a little spot in Venice, LA. Our confidence was high going into this tournament. We truly felt like we could catch 15.5 lbs or higher in this spot on tournament day and make a good showing to bump us up higher in the Team of the Year standings. We spent countless hours researching, looking at maps, getting reports from fellow fisherman, and looking at past tournament weights to get an idea of the weights needed to win this tournament.

Unfortunately, as with most tournament situations our hopes were swept away with the unforeseen conditions ahead. The pending high winds and low pressure from hurricane Irene were moving in fast. The Friday night before the tournament the conditions changed drastically and it went from typical 5-10 knot winds we always see here on the gulf coast to 25 knot winds. Our trip was about a 60 mile run one way across open gulf waters in very rough water. Upon arriving at our spot, the wind and the high tide muddied up all our water and our fish vacated the premises. Switching gears from our usual sight fishing techniques, we changed our baits and our attitudes and began beating the banks in search of our tournament bounty. Putting to good use our Slayer Inc Spinner Baits paired up with a Z-Man Minnowz/Bio Edge Menhaden scented wand, we managed to catch two decent fish a little over 7 lbs a piece giving us a 19th place finish.

Keeping up with our positive attitude and our momentum from the good performances this year, we are now concentrating our efforts on the grand finale, The IFA Championship in Chalmette, LA on the first weekend in November. Last year, we placed 5th in the championship, and we plan to place even higher this year. We are excited that the championship will be held in our home waters, lets see if our home field advantage comes into play on this one. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Until next time,

Chris W.

The Jones group showing off the results of an excellent day of fishing with guide Kurt Ferse, including the largest Yellow Eye caught this season at just over 24lbs.

Though they were plentiful, big kings were harder to come by this season. Finally, in late July and early August we saw a push of trophy kings, with several in the fifties, and King of Year coming in on August 5th at 60.2 lbs

After a relatively late arrival, silver fishing turned on in the second week of July, and limits of silvers were had nearly every day through early August. By mid-August they had largely moved out of the area, but fortunately there were enough kings to chase around that everybody stayed busy.

King of Kings Derby Hostess Rachel Egger shows off the King of the year caught by Joseph Kinder on August 5th. It tipped the scales at an impressive 60.2lbs.

We were blessed with relatively light winds and stable weather systems throughout the season, which provided for some excellent opportunities for bottom fishing offshore for halibut, lingcod, and rockfish.

Anticipation and excitement is already building for the 2012 season as hopes that the big numbers of kings will continue, and the vast quantity of feeder kings will return bigger and stronger.

A nice hen caught on a beautiful morning at the Pineapple.

So if you missed out on this spectacular season, it’s time to start planning your trip for next year! Contact Waterfall Resort and make a request to fish with guide Kurt Ferse and you will get to fish with some of Fetha Styx finest rods in some of the most productive fishing grounds in Alaska.

Be sure to check back in this winter, as I will be posting the latest news from Southeast AK. Until later, tight lines to you all!

Kurt Ferse

Wrangell Silvers are awesome!! There has been great fishing for almost a month now for us “hook and line” guys. My clients have had a great time trying to keep up with these Silver Bullets as they run, jump and run straight back to the outboards. Awesome!! I have been using the “Sledge Hammer” made by Mack’s Lures in blue and army truck. I have added a herring fillet as a trailer and for scent enhancement and it is the best thing going. These Stikine River Silvers are now reaching 15 pounds, hook nosed, and full of energy. My Fetha-Styx rods are managing these fish perfectly and even though they might be a little heavy, they play flawlessly and give my clients plenty of control. Fetha-Styx is the best around… Trolling around 2.5 knots and fishing as shallow as 15 feet, I am finding Silvers everywhere and taking lures very aggressively, even on the drop! Over the last month we have boated 97 Silvers onboard the “Timber Wolf” and there is more to come! These Silvers will continue to get bigger each week and hopefully provide us with some excitement before they head up the Stikine to spawn. Gotta love it! Wrangell Alaska!

Good fishing!

John Yeager
Alaska Charters & Adventures
1-888-993-2750

Originally Published on the Wrangell Alaska Fishing website.

The 5^th and final tournament of the Washington State walleye circuit was held on July 30^th & 31^st on Lake Roosevelt.  This year’s walleye championship was put on by the Spokane Walleye Club and sponsored by Marks Marine & Lund boats.  Team Fetha Styx along with 56 other teams showed up all trying to win the coveted title and the top prize of $10,000.

This year’s Championship was based out of Kettle Falls but the tournament boundaries left the entire Lake Roosevelt system open for fishing.  With well over 100 miles of lake open to fish, Jeff and I’s pre-fishing strategy was to cover as much water as possible to locate areas that were holding larger fish and then to concentrate on fine tuning our presentation in those areas.  Our primary tactics were bottom bouncing crawler harnesses and pulling crankbaits with Homewater Walleye 763-C rods.  We quickly found out that all of the larger fish we were catching were feeding heavily on crawdads while the smaller fish seemed to be feeding on minnows.  With this information in hand, our primary areas for the tournament were rocky underwater points and rocky shorelines.  The Homewater Walleye 763-C rods are very versatile and are extremely effective at pulling bottom bouncers as well as pulling crankbaits and planer boards.  We were able to quickly transition between these tactics using the same rods!

Day one blast off was at 6:00 am and after a 20 minute run down river, we started pulling spinners in crawdad colors with small night crawlers in 24’-28’.  We fished all 3 of our rocky underwater point areas and had caught a great 6 fish limit between 17”-20”.  We spent the rest of the day pulling crankbaits looking for a good kicker fish but unfortunately couldn’t find one.  At the end of day one, we had weighed in 11.66 lbs. and found ourselves in 9^th place.  With three teams weighing in baskets of 16 pounds, we knew that we had to have a great second day if we wanted to have a chance at winning the $10,000 top prize.

Day 2 again began at 6:00 am and we kept the exact same strategy as we did on day one.  We were quickly rewarded with better fish on this day as all three of our underwater points produced 17”-21” fish and a pair of really nice 22 ½” fish.  Having around 14 lbs. in our livewell, we decide to start pulling cranks to try and find a big kicker fish as we figured we needed to have around 20 lbs. to have a chance of winning.  At the end of the day, even though we couldn’t find a big fish, we knew that we had a quality basket of fish and were hoping for a top 5 finish.  As we were waiting to weigh our fish in, we started to hear that the leading weight was around 26 pounds.  Jeff and I started to get a little anxious as we knew that we had a weight that would put our total really close to the leaders.  After weigh-in, our day 2 weight of 14.62 lbs. gave us a two day total of 26.28 lbs. giving us the win and barely edging out the second place team of Steve and Lynzi Romig who had 26.14 lbs!

As with anything that you do, having the best tools for the job always makes a difference.  The 763-C Homewater Walleye Series rods definitely helped us catch the fish that led to our win.  This 7’6” rod is extremely light and sensitive enough to feel the slightest bite, and yet it has enough backbone to handle 2-3 oz. bouncers or even pulling cranks on a planer board.  Having a versatile rod like this in your arsenal definitely ups the odds of putting more fish in your boat.  Thanks Fetha Styx!

Jeff and I would like to thank all of the volunteers and organizations that are involved in putting these tournaments on for the Washington State Walleye Circuit.  If you would like to find out more information about entering these tournaments or about walleye fishing in Washington, go to www.northwestwalleye.com and check out the forums.  See you in May for the start of the 2012 tournament season on Potholes Reservoir!

Tight lines and good fishing!

Rod Hewitt and Jeff Dickinson