There was no doubt it was a steelhead. Until it wasn’t. The grab had been so jolting, the head shakes so violent, that no consideration was given to the fish being anything but a steelhead. Yet there at my feet, in six inches of water, lay a brown smallmouth of grotesque proportions. Pulsing and flexing, flaunting its outsized strength.
Let’s Go Bass’nIt’s time to test the warmwaters By Beau Davis and Tom Bie Photo by Jeremiah Watt Want to avoid bumping elbows with ten million new trout-chasers this summer? Then consider a guided day on some warmwater. You’ll surely face a less-pressured fishery, and if the trip includes kicking around in a float-tube, you…
Until January 4, I’d never even heard the term “float-n-fly.” It sounded like a kid’s ride at the fairground, or the street name for some illicit new drug. But I Googled it that day—the same day Oroville, California-based flyfishing guide Ryan Williams, and his partner, Logan McDaniel, won the Shasta Lake Wild West Bass Trail tournament.
Every year, a small number of striped bass winter over in the bays, marshes, and salt ponds of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. We call them “holdovers.” They’re not big, they can be tough to find, and by the middle of the winter, they look a little haggard. Their flanks, once polished a gleaming silver by a…
Clyde gets his groove back, in Arkansas Clyde is docked in the parking lot of Little Rock’s Ozark Angler, his big ass hanging beyond the lined allotment and his bigger-still nose hanging yards past the curb. He’s been baking in the 90-plus degrees for several hours. I yank once and then again on his heavy…
In this episode of the DrakeCast we float down Wisconsin’s Chippewa River in search of Midwestern, river-dwelling smallmouth bass. But what do you do if the fish just aren’t biting like they normally do? While searching for answers, we hit the water with Lucky Porter, a guide who makes a living on these fish, learn…
This episode of The DrakeCast is a two-fer, and both segments focus on the backyard bass of Southern California. We start in Long Beach Harbor with Captain Vaughn Podmore where we search for sea creatures in the shadow of lighthouses, cranes, and military helicoptors. For the second half of the episode, we head south to…
Past the Far East Restaurant, and Big Daddy’s Buff n’ Wax, we turn left at the Mexico Congregational Church and find the boat launch empty. This is normal in the mill town of fewer than 3,000 residents, but surprises me on a spring morning: the Androscoggin is at its most fishable (around 4,500 cfs); it’s…
It starts in early Spring when the water is cold and flinty, the wind an unceasing bully. Sure, there may be a schoolie here or there, a member of the Hudson River group that’s opted out of the migration. But the great fish are still south. I don’t care, though. I just need to reacquaint…
Like Dirk Nowitzki, Clyde was stuck in Dallas. But what I thought might be little more than a quick rescue mission turned into two of the more interesting fishing days of my summer.
GLASS AND RUSTED METAL on the beach. The deafening sound of planes landing. And a steady striped-bass bite. The mussel beds and grungy shores of Boston Harbor may not be pristine, but they reliably produce fish—stripers, bluefish, carp, even the rare bluefin. When I tell people I fish here, they scoff, laugh, or plain don’t…
“I THINK THE BEST TIRE is the spare in the trunk,” says Pete, handing me the keys. The other four tires vary in brand and age but seem to be holding air. I drop onto the seat and close the sagging door with a little extra encouragement. Amy does the same on the passenger side.…
Five on six, from sockeye to smallmouth. HANNA PERKINS, BROWN TROUT, BIG HOLE RIVER,MT. PHOTO: AUSTIN TRAYSER KATHRYN HICKMAN, SUMMER STEELHEAD, DEAN RIVER,B.C. PHOTO: JEFF HICKMAN
I passed the Rock Bottom Brewery on the final mile of my evening bike loop, where more than once I’d stopped for a thick porter to celebrate not being killed riding the second busiest road in Houston. Restaurants come and go quickly around here, but this place had a twist: A lily pad-filled concrete moat…
You go to florida to fish the salt. But if you also happen to love largemouth, as I do, and you live in a place that’s a mile high, with a nine-week window to fish for them, then you take advantage of every opportunity to chase them elsewhere. Attending this summer’s annual flyfishing trade show…
The latest installment of GEOBASS is live. Follow the squad as they uncover the meaning of the “Botswana burrito” in Africa’s golden bass backwaters. #GEOBASS is a new award-winning epic adventure series following four expedition anglers on an around the world ultimate bass slam journey. Read More
Team bass takes on a whole new persona, when the MotivFishing crew reunites to crush—or get crushed by—bucketmouths, peacocks, and smallies across the globe. Series sponsors now include booze-giant Budweiser and Evan Williams Whiskey. Bring on the swamps and glittery boats. Via Costa: “A group of experienced fly anglers and explorers take on the challenge…
Sneaking onto a golf course to catch a few unguarded bass is one of the most time-honored traditions in flyfishing, especially if you’re a golfer. Who among us hasn’t walked down some random Sun Belt fairway (or rough, more likely) only to peer upon a hungry four-pounder lurking in a water hazard along the way?…
He regularly casts 80 to 100 feet, with no accuracy whatsoever. He doesn’t seem to think it’s in any way weird to fish in the dark, all night, every night, sometimes for weeks at a time. He thinks a 1/0 hook is small. He assumes that the hot chicks at Lighthouse Beach are checking him…
In the heart of the northwest part of the Amazon basin, Agua Boa has exclusive access to its namesake river. The river boasts some of the world’s best fly-fishing for peacock bass, a ferocious fish adorned in festive yellows, oranges, and greens.
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