Yes We Have Fishing Too, MDF Livermore-Pleasanton Banquet March 15.

How about salmon fishing in Alaska: The winning bidder of this awesome Alaskan fishing adventure will enjoy four (4) full days of
fishing covering two (2) trips for salmon on the Kenai and the Kasilof rivers. Your river fishing will take place from drift and power boats, followed
up by one (1) full day of salt water fishing for halibut, and what better way to complete an Alaskan fishing adventure than to spend a full day on a fly out
salmon fishing trip to either the Kustatan for Silver Salmon or Wolverine Creek for Sockeye Salmon & Bear viewing. Included in this trip are full
accommodations and meals while on this Adventure, along with all transportation while moving between fishing areas. This trip may be upgraded for additional
days of lodging and fishing and the winning bidder may add additional guests to join him or her by making arrangements with Steve. DONATED BY: STEVE
TAORMINA OF KENAI LEGENDS FISHING http://www.kenailegendsfishing.com/

Or your choice of salmon or trout fishing for four on the Sacramento River with Scott Kenyon’s guide service.  Fully donated by Scott Kenyon. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Kenyons-Guide-Service/207934385930044

Or, trout fishing at Lake Margaret for four people, three days and two nights. A boat is provided as well.  Fully donated by Wilderness Unlimited. http://www.wildernessunlimited.com/

Here’s a link to a flyer:Livermore 2013 flyer

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Ruby Mountains Drop Camp Offered at MDF Livermore-Pleasanton March 15

Here you go. Purchase this drop camp offering and use it to hunt high during the early deer seasons. This is a perfect fit with archery deer hunting in the Ruby Mountains.

Drop Camp on Top of the Ruby Mountains

Hidden Lake Outfitters will take you and a friend to the campsite of your choice, and back, with all your gear. Your trip can be to the top of the Ruby Mountains in Elko County, Nevada,  between July 1^st and Oct 15^th.

The outfitters will provide one saddle horse and one pack horse per person.  This is the area of the world famous Ruby Crest Trail.  You have your choice of alpine lake fishing or hunting. This offering encompasses time periods that include, archery, muzzleloader, and early rifle deer seasons.

If you are up for a unique challenge, you can hunt the Himalayan Snowcock. The Rubies are the only place in the United States where the mountain dwelling bird can be hunted.

Your packer, Henry Krenka, has been outfitting and guiding in this country for years and has agreed to make this offer good for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasons to increase the chance that the high bidder can obtain a deer tag through the Nevada draw system.

Henry is also ready to assist you in acquiring a tag through the guide draw system or locating a landowner deer tag.  Hunt, fish or hike, this will be an unforgettable trip.

Livermore 2013 flyer

Here’s a nice Ruby Mt buck tagged with a landowner tag in 2010

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Clearwater River Steelhead

With my first-ever whitetail buck hanging in the shed, the next phase of the Idaho trip was to go for a first-ever steelhead. That effort was accomplished fishing by jet boat, back trolling with shrimp and lures on November 16th..

When his rod bent over, Monty graciously let me take over in my quest to land a steelhead. In the end, we hooked about eight fish, but only landed two. They were both hatchery fish, so we kept them.

Here’s mine:

Couldn’t keep my eyes open for this photo.

The Clearwater River is known for large steelhead, some over 20 pounds. It’s also where Lewis and Clark built boats and drifted in them downstream to the Pacific.

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Kids Fishing Trip in MDF Livermore-Pleasanton Live Auction

I know a place where children can catch one-pound bluegills and large mouth bass over three pounds. The bluegill are a slam dunk, but the bass require modest effort. Not only that, but  the pond is located in Monte Sereno and it’s available to the high bidder at the Livermore-Pleasanton MDF dinner.

My grandaughter, Summer caught her first fish at the Atwood's pond last spring.

Pamela and Stan Atwood have generously donated this trip the the Livermore-Pleasanton Banquet on March 10, 2011. The event will take place at the Palm Event Center on Vineyard Avenue, Pleasanton. Doors open at 5:30 PM.

Here’s the official description:

This is a fishing trip for two kids under 15 years old at the Atwood Bass Pond in Monte Sereno (next to San Jose).  This is an incredible place to visit once in your life.  And your kids!  Includes all rods, reels, tackle and bait, lunch, drinks, a prize for the first one to find his/her way through the maze, playing in the two story tree house and a tour of the gardens.

 This is a rare opportunity.

Kids and adults too love the topiary garden, maze, tree house, rose garden and trophy room.

 

The Mule Deer Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organziation and its mission is to conserve mule deer and their habitat. For tickets contact Bob Holm, (925)447-2044.

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Kennedy Meadows Pack Station adds Pack Trip to the Livermore-Pleasanton MDF Auction

A five-day drop-camp trip for two people will be offered at the Livermore Pleasanton Mule Deer Foundation banquet on March 10, 2011. Each person will be provided with a riding horse and pack mule along with a packer to load the animals  and guide them to camp.

On day one the packer will deliver the riders to their camp site and on day five he will return to pick them up.

Kennedy Meadows pack station is known for its excellent riding stock and experienced wranglers.

A drop-camp can be arranged in the immigrant Wilderness adjacent to Yosemite National Park or in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness along the Clark Fork of the Stanislaus River.

We’ve hunted with Kennedy Meadows several times and had great service. We’ve hunted deer in the Carson Iceberg Wilderness serveral times in the both archery and rifle deer seasons. These packers will get you where you want to go.

Here's a nice buck taken in the D6 deer zone.

If you’re interested in bear, you’ll probably find one.

I photographed this bruin during the D6 archery season a few years ago.

If fishing is your thing, then Kennedy Meadows pack station can take you to one many lakes with excellent fishing. And, the scenery is impressive.

Daughter Betsy and I spent a few days fishing out of Kennedy Meadows a few years ago.

 The fair market value of this trip is $920. For more information, send me an email. To order tickets, call Bob Holm at (925)447-2044.

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Montana, Land of Plenty for the Outdoorsman

Just back from a week in Montana. What a place. Here’s a snippit of what we saw.

We viewed Merriam turkeys and whitetail deer constantly from the porch.

 

Whitetails were present along the river while we fished and in town when we passed through.

 

These four bucks were watering at the river as we fished.

 

Left to right, Jerry (guide), myself, brother-law-Bill and Monte (guide)

 

We caught lots of smallmouth and some pike. The smally in the photo is three pounds, our largest. Fishing at Thompson Falls, we caught two others about that size and a zillion small bass. Largest fish caught was a five pound pike.

We spent the week with Flat Iron Outfitting, owned and operated by Ross Fratzke. He runs a hunting operation on about 3,000 acres of private ground for white-tails and elk. He also guides on the Lolo National Forrest for deer, bear and elk.

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Kodiak Part 4: Loud Snoring Has Its Advantages – Keeps the Grizzlies Away

Day four of our Kodiak adventure was very enjoyable. If only we could have figured how to reel those silvers in quicker, we could have caught a plane load – all with fly rods.

In addition to silvers, we even caught a couple dolly vardon, but no steelhead. The fishing was everything Alaska fishing can be, but the mountain was calling for me to climb it and bag another deer which would include venison for the trip home if we could figure out how to hang  onto it.

During the night of following the fourth day we could hear soda and beer cans clinking in the night. Could it be that the grizzlies liked soda and beer?

We attempted to save a slab of silver salmon by inserting it into a zip-lock bag and sinking it to the bottom of the river (by putting a rock in the bag along with the salmon) in four feet of water. No luck, the bears got it too.

On the fifth day (one day before our departure) I climbed the mountain again and this time turned to the north at the top of the ridge. I wanted to hunt an area not previously disturbed.

I was a little discouraged by the lack of deer, but eventually found a decent buck in a large brush patch. Always concerned about having time to shoot, find, clean and carry the deer back to camp before dark, I decided to waste no time and shot the buck.

It went down in the brush and before long I’d recovered it.

You’ve probably heard stories about rifle shots being like ”dinner bells”  for the grizzlies of Kodiak Island. So had I, and I wasn’t a bit comfortable skinning and gutting that deer in a brush patch where I could see about ten feet.

My loaded .7mm and my .44 magnum revolver were stationed at my side. It was an eery feeling.

I reduced the deer to carrying size and moved it onto a nearby  open hillside where I could complete work on it while keeping an eye out for grizzlies.

I was a pleasantly surprized that the buck had four points on one side, a Sitka four-point buck is unusual, but it wasn’t particularly old or large antlered.

I managed to load the animal onto the back pack and carry it to camp before dark – crossing the river by raft one last time. In camp we debated our options. We decided to go with the only option that would give us a reasonable chance of saving our venison.

It was the “Lean the meat against our tent and keep our loaded rifles at our sides” option. It was a little scary (sleeping a couple feet from grizzly bait), but we figured the snoring and odors emitted from our tired bodies would keep the grizzlies away and it did.

On Saturday we loaded the Grummon Beaver and headed back to Kodiak with a couple silver salmon and one Sitka blacktail to take home to California. The venison and the fish were both excellent table fare.

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Does the California Delta Have Big Largemouth Bass?

This photo was taken last year. I was parked on a delta levee and watched this gentleman land a largemouth. It appears to be the largest largemouth bass that I’ve even seen in person while (it was) still alive.

You might still be able to catch this fish as I watched the fisherman release it.

How much do you think this fish weighs?

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Kodiak Part 1: Blacktails, Silver Salmon and Grizzlies on Kodiak Island

One of the top hunting trips of my life took place about ten years ago in Alaska. The original trip was based upon a caribou hunt I purchased at the MDF Convention in Sacramento.

Ironically, it was the self-guided blacktail hunt on Kodiak Island (which  followed the caribou hunt) that topped the list for excitement.

We arranged for a float plane to fly us from Kodiak (on the Island’s east end) to the Ayakulik River on the Islands west end. The plane, a Grummon Beaver, was quite loaded with our gear as we climbed over mountain tops of the central island and then landed on the river at a remote location.

Although we were not alone (a fishing guide occasionally drifted past us while guiding salmon and steelhead fishermen and one other camper joined us for a few days) most of our company was grizzlies, silver salmon and blacktail deer.

We spent the first day of the trip hunkered down in our tent as 50 mph winds battered our site. It was a good thing that we were prepared and had “tarped” our tent down in case of bad weather. After many games of cribbage,  the weather finally settled enough to allow us ta catch a couple silvers in the afternoon.

Note the well worn trail in this photo. It was made primarily by grizzlies not humans.

On day three we used our small raft to cross the river and climbed the ridge to the west of our camp. Although we spotted no deer from camp, we were surprised that the ridge top was well stocked with sitka blacktail bucks – and also grizzly bears.

More on the deer and the bears later, but here are a couple fishing photos. We were using nine weight fly rods and steelhead flies. It took twenty to thirty minutes to land each fish as they were fresh and strong combining their efforts with the current of the powerful river.

Day three produced blacktails like the one below. But there’s much more to the story.

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Fishing at Joe’s Salmon Lodge, British Columbia

The lodge is tucked away in an Island Cove just off the coast of northern BC and seaward of the inland passage. Although protected and calm, it’s only about a mile run to the surf and maybe 10 miles to actual deep water fishing for halibut.

Each group of two fishermen received use of a 16 foot Boston Whaler that appeared to be brand new and each was powered by a 50 horse Yamaha outboard. We were led to the fishing grounds by the fish-master each day and had a lot of freedom to do as we pleased.

We were provided box lunches so we could fish all day or we could choose to return to the lodge for lunch. Food was very good and ample.

The salmon fishing was very good and we landed several nice salmon each day including sockeye, king and silvers. The largest king we landed was about 25 pounds and the silvers ran in the eight pound range. The sockeye were the smallest of the group.

The key to success seemed to be locating fish (boats were equipped with fish finders) and determining the best depth to keep you bait. We fished mooching rigs and most of our salmon were caught at around 25 to 30 feet.

On one occasion we followed the fish-master out to sea a few miles in heavy swells (about ten footers) to fish for halibut. The halibut fishing was pretty good and we caught our three-fish per person limits rather quickly, but none were large fish with the best one in the ten pound class. After about an hour of halibut fishing in the heavy water we were ready to head in.

The three-day stay was too short for us and we would have been happy to stay a few days longer. This is a good trip for hard core fishermen.

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