We"ve started the 2013 fishing season on the Smith River, which is turning out beautiful big wild steelhead every day. But first, let's take a quick look at the 2012 season.

A Look Back at 2012's Epic Fishing Season

We started last year's fishing on the Smith River, and it was great! We even caught two steelhead over 20 pounds, exceeding the legendary 20-pound mark the river is famous for. We also took first place in the CA-OR Rowdy Creek Hatchery derby for the second year in a row. The derby is always a lot of fun, and a great fund-raiser for the hatchery.

April and May are the peak months for Sacramento and Feather River striper fishing, and 2012 did not disappoint. The fishing was simply as good as it gets! We caught lots and lots of limits, day after day, and there were tons of stripers. We're looking forward to another banner year this year, so be sure to make your reservations soon for your preferred dates.

May and June are great months to fish in Northern California! The weather is nice, the hills are fresh and green, wildlife is everywhere, and the fishing is great, with lots of choices. As stripers wind down, the shad are arriving, and the coho salmon start biting in Lake Oroville. 2012 was a good year for shad fishing, and the coho salmon fishing was great. We took first place in the CIFFI Lake Oroville Coho Fishing Derby - that was a lot of fun. All derbies contribute money to help support the fisheries, so everybody wins.

And then we have a perennial fishing favorite - the Sacramento River trout spring trout fishing near Redding's famous Sundial Bridge. The fishing here for spectacular wild rainbow trout up to 5 pounds is consistently good, and 25-50 fish is always a good day. No wonder this trip is an annual favorite. It's easy, scenic, and consistently fun fishing.

As summer arrives, so do the salmon, and salmon fishing goes on through the fall months. The king salmon return to the Sacramento River system in 2012 was absolutely phenomenal.

We fished for 91 days in the 2012 salmon season, and caught fish every day. Kids, wives, parents, grandparents, husbands, grandmas and grandpas all had a great time. By the end of the season, we were up to almost 1,000 salmon, with consistently good fishing on every trip. Whoops, hollers, and cries of "fish on!" were heard throughout the day as everyone had fun anticipating that next exciting pull-down on the rods. Tap...tap....bam! Fish on!

Current Smith River Report
Moving forward to 2013, the Smith River fishing is consistently good, and we are looking forward to that next 20 pound steelhead. Our best day recently has been 5 nice steelhead landed, with 7 hookups. It's been a great week for this popular and incredibly scenic drift boat trip.

Sacramento ISE Sportman's Show This Weekend
For those of you near Sacramento, this weekend I am at the Sacramento ISE Sportsman's Show, at booth 3818. I am looking forward to seeing all of you there. On Friday and Sunday I'm giving talks on king salmon fishing techniques, like how to wrap a hognose flatfish and how to catch more kings. I'll also be giving away lots of goodies, like P-Line, flatfish, hats, and all kinds of stuff. We had a radio show with Sep Hendrickson on Saturday morning, on KHTK, which was a lot of fun. Some of the biggest names in the hunting and fishing industry are at this show, so I hope you can make it.

Back to the Smith River
After the show, it's back to the Smith River. After a fantastic 2012, we're really looking forward to seeing what 2013 has in store for us! Be sure to call soon if you have specific dates in mind, because they do go quickly.