A quick note about fishing locations: Kevin will start fishing on the Smith River for steelhead on 12-23-11, starting the annual cycle all over again!

Annual Fishing Summary for 2011

Hello everyone,

Huge 64 lb. Kenai River Salmon in 2011 Happy holidays, and a big Thank You to all of you that fished with me this year. The memories were great, and we have the photos to prove it!

To sum up the year so far - 2011 has been an awesome year for fishing! On a scale of 1-10, it's right up there by the top.

Steelhead on the Smith River
We started the 2011 fishing season on the Smith River, fishing for steelhead. It turned out to be one of the best steelhead fishing seasons that we have had in the last four years. We caught a few trophy steelhead over twenty lbs., and several in the high teens. We fished 64 days, and we caught steelhead every day - there were no skunk days. Score: 64 days, no skunk days.

Then along came all the rain in March. We really needed it, but it blew out the Smith River for the season. It was time to move to the Sacramento River for spring striped bass fishing, which was fantastic!

Sacramento River Striped Bass Fishing
April striper fishing was the best I've seen since I started guiding in 1995. The action was consistently red-hot, often with multiple hookups up at once. We had doubles, triples, quadruples, and even a quintuplet. We landed lots and lots of fish, typically in the 4-8 lb. range, with a few larger. Wow, those stripers really are great fighters. In the 43 days of striper fishing on the Sacramento River this year, we didn't have a single skunk day. Score: 107 days, no skunk days.

Wild Trout Fishing on the Upper Sac
Next up in 2011 was the spectacular wild trout fishing in the Sacramento River near Redding, California. We started trout season there with a bang, landing over 60 trout on the first day, up to 5.4 lbs. In 31 days of fishing, the average was 32 trout landed per day, with lots of doubles. The Sacramento River trout fishery is really something special. We had lots of fish, great springtime weather, and incredible wildlife - all in downtown Redding, minutes from I-5. Amazing! 31 days, no skunks. Score: 138 days, no skunk days.

Other Northern California Fishing
In late spring, with so much good fishing going on in Northern California we jump around a bit, depending on what the client wants to catch. The 2011 fishing for coho salmon and spotted bass on scenic Lake Oroville was great, and the shad fishing on the Feather River was also great. We caught lots of coho, bass, and the speedy silver acrobats called shad, and everybody had a really fun time. In total, we fished a combined 18 trips on Lake Oroville and for Feather River shad, and again, had no skunk days. Score: 156 days, no skunk days.

Alaska's Kenai River
And then, with summer on the way, we were off to Alaska's famous Kenai River. Wow, what a season there! There's typical good Alaska fishing, and then there's spectacular Alaska fishing. 2011 fell into the spectacular category. Our biggest salmon for the year was a 64.3 lb. king salmon,see the above photo, and there were lots of jumbo salmon in the 40 lb. class landed too. There were days when we landed 60 sockeye salmon (bam-bam-bam, for ten people), and then in the ocean, we caught halibut caught over 100 lbs. It was an incredible year.

Then, it happened. After 198 days, a skunk day. Sort of.

In Alaska, on the very last day of king salmon season, we got the first skunk day of the year. The clients showed up a half day late, and only fished for a few hours before wanting to go in, without catching any fish yet. While it was only a partial fishing day, it was a skunk day of sorts, so we'll have to count it. Aside from that one day, I have to say - Wow, what a incredible Alaska season. 43 days of fishing, one skunk day. Score: 199 days, one skunk day.

King Salmon season on the Sac, Klamath, Feather and American Rivers
With the Alaska season over, it was time to head back to California for fall king salmon action on the Sacramento, Klamath, Feather, and American rivers. Fishing was just simply excellent everywhere we fished!

It was a relief to find out that "The Sac is Back!" after several dismal years. We had limits of salmon day every day, not just for two people, but for 4-5-6 anglers every day. Wow. Then when the season opened on the Klamath, the fishing was awesome, with lots of hard-fighting fresh salmon right out of the ocean. When that closed, it was back to the Feather River. for a while the Feather was consistently good, then when that run started showing its age, the American River kept up the excellent fishing.

Hightlights on the Sacramento River included day after day of limits, with over 30 days in a row, and no skunk days. On the Klamath River, we had day after day of multiple limits, and a memorable huge salmon, at 52 inches in length with an estimated weight of 45-48 lbs (in Photo #1). What a monster! It was oversized and released back to the river to continue its journey. (At first we thought it was closer to 42 lbs, but after later calculations using length/girth measurements, we realized it was bigger.)

On the Feather River, the highlight was a great plug bite - the fishing was awesome. Day after day, those wiggling Kwikfish were slammed by eager salmon, often on the very first drift of the day.

Then the American River had tons of fish, right in downtown Sacramento. We had limits everyday, and a 39.10 lb king, in photo #2 was our biggest there.

Between the Sacramento, Klamath, Feather, and American Rivers, we had 78 days of salmon fishing and no skunk days. Score: 277 days, and still just the one skunk day.

All in all, it was an epic California salmon season. The phone rang off the hook, and some days I was fishing doubles and up to 6 people per day. Day after day, it was limits, limits, limits. It just doesn't get much better than that.

Late Fall Salmon Season on the Sacramento and Smith Rivers
Then, things changed. It was time for the late fall salmon on the Sacramento and Smith rivers, and compared to the earlier sizzling bites, both of them were really spotty. The late fall Sacramento River salmon are just now starting to show up, and the season is closing in a few days. The Smith River fished good, then bad, then good, then bad. It was really hit or miss, depending on water. We didn't get there soon enough this year to get into any consistently good salmon fishing. We had a combined total of 16 days of fishing on both rivers.

Year End Memories
By the end of this year, I will have fished right around 300 days. So many fish, so many good memories. To be exact, so far we have landed 4,266 fish worth of memories:

256 steelhead on the Smith and Chetco rivers;
1193 stripers on the Feather and Sacramento rivers;
992 trout on the Sacramento River;
323 sockeye on the Kenai River, Alaska;
46 king salmon on the Kenai River, Alaska;
1081 king salmon on the Feather, Sacramento, and American rivers;
375 assorted coho, spotted bass, and shad;
1 rare sockfish (they travel in pairs, but only one was caught).

Total: 4,266 fish over 293 fishing days so far this year! Now, that's what is called consistently good fishing, or maybe it's just consistently good guiding. In any case, it's a lot of fish!

If you'd like to see some of the many pictures, videos, and comments from throughout the year (including the rare sockfish!), be sure to check out the blog at http://www.tumblr.com/blog/fishkevinbrock.

And that brings us to the present. On December 23rd, I will be on the Smith River fishing for steelhead, finishing out the year and starting the crazy schedule all over again.

The incredibly scenic Smith River is well known for its huge steelhead, and it's a very popular trip. There are only a few open dates left, but give me a call at 1-800-995-5543 if you'd like a chance to catch the steelhead of a lifetime. Better yet, it makes a great Christmas present!

Happy Holidays!

Ready to go fishing? You can give Kevin Brock a call at 800-995-5543 to book a trip, or use the contact form on the fishkevinbrock.com website. Either way, you'll be sure to have a great time fishing!