Catching Catfish at the Kids Fishing Derby at Howe Park in Sacramento

Over the weekend, my buddy James and I took his daughter, Sorelle, to a kids fishing derby at the pond at Howe Park in Sacramento.  Sorelle , who is now 4 years old, is no stranger to fishing and has gone out with us for lazy afternoon trips from time to time.  She did not catch any fish herself, but she absolutely fell in love with a catfish I caught while we were there.  We had a great time…watching kids fish has got to be one of the most hilarious and adorable things ever.

Floating down the Yuba River…that scouting paid off!

Scouting the Yuba River a couple weeeks ago paid off!  My buddy James and I took off for a half day afternoon float…we caught some beautiful trout, and James thought he caught the mother lode, but it was just a big old sucker fish.

Family Fishing Day on San Francisco Bay!

If you follow Nick or Erin on Facebook or Twitter, you will know that  we had a blast on Monday fishing out of the Berkeley Marina with Erin’s Dad (Eric), brother (Matt), and the guys from Right Hook Sportfishing!  This was a birthday present for Eric’s 60th birthday…

We met at Matt’s house in West Sacramento around 4:30am to drive to the Berkeley Marina by 6am.  It was still dark out when we set out on Captain Jay’s 26-foot Parker.  It did not take too long to get our first fish of the day – a very respectable Halibut.  The next two fish of the day were not quite what any of us expected to catch.

We figured it was a pretty big fish that took down Nick’s rod by the way it was fighting and how much line it was taking out.  When it jumped out of the water about 100 feet away, all of our jaws collectively dropped.  Nick had what turned out to be a 47.5-inch white sea bass on the line!  After a good 15 minute fight, he landed that monster in the boat!  Our guides said that all season they had only landed two white sea bass, and they were babies by comparison!

Matt hooked into the next fish, and in the same fashion, we knew it was also another fatty…sure enough, when he landed white sea bass #2, it measured 51-inches!  Erin then caught two more white sea bass.  They were a bit smaller than the first two.  Our guides were absolutely shocked that we caught more white sea bass that day than they had all season!  We caught a total of 7 halibut as well.  All in all, it was a very fruitful day on the bay!

Scouting the Yuba River via Browns Valley, CA

If you follow Erin on Twitter, you will know that yesterday we scouted the Yuba River!  We took a leisurely drive, minus the fishing gear, on Hwy 99 heading north, over to Hwy 70 north, through Yuba City, and then cut over to Hwy 20.  We heard from a friend that the Hwy 20 “Parks Bar” Bridge in Browns Valley was a great place to launch a drift boat for a short half day float.

By the looks of things, our friend was right! 

Once you cross the bridge, you go down a narrow, barely paved road down to the river…there are several access points where you could launch a drift boat.  We recommend making sure your vehicle has 4 wheel drive…there were a few places that were sticky, even for our Ford F250 that DOES have 4wd.

We also talked to the folks at the Sycamore Ranch RV Park.  They provide shuttle services for the float from the Parks Bar Bridge to the RV Park (about 4.5 miles).  Apparently right now the Brown and Rainbow Trout are running pretty thick, and because of the recent stone fly hatch, they are biting on Rubber Leg flies.

Labor Day Weekend Fishing – Lower Sacramento River in Redding, CA

We got a wild hair last week and decided to spend the first part of Labor Day weekend fishing the Lower Sacramento River in Redding, CA! 

Our adventure started Friday night…we flew the coop as soon as we could detach ourselves from work – around 5pm.  We got on the road from Sacramento, Northbound on I-5.  Hungry as hell, we stopped at this place called Granzella’s in Williams.  We thought it was a glorified truck stop, but were shocked at just what a neat place it was!  There was an amazing deli, gelato bar, and restaurant.  We shared a pesto veggie pizza in the restaurant.  Highly recommend it if you are passing though that area…

We arrived in Redding at the Red Lyon Inn around 9pm.  Nick jumped out of bed the next morning around 7:00am!  We went to the nearby Safeway to stock up on sunblock, snacks, and most importantly – coffee and donuts (who are we kidding here!!).  Ironically enough, we spotted our soon-to-be guide, Larry Lewis, in the Safeway parking lot…

We arrived at The Fly Shop in Redding around 8:30am, absolutely chomping at the bit to get on the water.  We had been told the fish do not start biting until late morning, and it is the strongest through the middle of the day – but we were excited nonetheless.  We spent a few minutes shooting the breeze with Justin Miller, another fly shop guide, and stocking up on nymphs. 

After what seemed like an eternity, Larry rolled up, approved our fly selections for the day, and we followed him to the lanuch at the Sacramento River RV Park.  We rigged our gear and finally got the boat in the water…Nick then shuttled Larry’s truck to the take out at Balls Ferry.

We cast our first lines around 10:30am.  We were rigged with Rubber Legs, and a Super Flash Pheasant Tail dropper.  In addition to the thick cloud cover, there had been a full moon the night before.  We had a couple nibbles, but not much action until after lunch.  Luckily, our guide Larry was not short on stories, and kept us reasonably entertained despite the lack of take downs.

After lunch, we could not keep the fish off our flies.  They were really biting on the Super Flash Pheasant Tail.  While Nick landed the most fish, Erin landed the lunker of the day – a 22-inch rainbow trout.

Happy Anniversary to us! Fly Fishing the Provo River via Heber City, Utah

Well if you follow either one of us on Facebook or Twitter, you will know that we just returned this evening from a week away. We went on a fly fishing trip to the Provo River in Utah! We take a fishing trip every year on our anniversary…past anniversaries have included fishing on the Trinity River in Northern California, the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, the Deschutes River in Oregon, the Puget Sound in Washington, the Columbia River in Oregon…we wanted to try a different state this year.

Neither one of us had ever been to Utah. What a gorgeous state! We stayed in a small hotel in Midway, UT (which shall remain nameless because it was nice, but roach and spider infested – YUCK!!), which is about 20 miles from Park City, UT where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held. We hiked into different parts of the Provo River with  professional fly fishing guide, Jeremy Allan with Four Season Fly Fishing for two different days. The weather was unseasonably cool – mid-80’s and cloudy, and it made for some great fishing! Jeremy told us there are about 3,000 fish per mile in the Provo River!

Over two days, we caught around 60 fish. On the days we were not fishing, we tripped around Utah. We heard from some locals that Moose were native to the Wasatch Mountains – so we took a loooong drive through the mountains hoping to see one. We saw a few deer and some huge birds of prey, but alas no Moose. =(

Hello world!

We are Nick & Erin Attardi…and we plan to blog about our fishing adventures!  Nick is a self-employed Electrical Contractor, and his Sacramento company is called H&H Electric Inc. Erin is a Realtor with Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento. Stay tuned!