Right now fishing is pretty good in the Pacific Ocean right off our coast, where you can find excellent salmon and rock fish action. San Francisco Bay fishing is also picking up, with lots of stripers being caught and halibut starting to show. Even closer is the Napa River off Cuttings Wharf Road where, not too long ago, Vic Zarzana, his son Max and grandson, Maximillian, all had fun catching striped bass.
But travel for fishing is also a great idea. Last month my friend and neighbor Vic visited Mike Tomasello in Vancouver, Washington, and fished for giant white sturgeon in the Columbia River with guide Charles Whitt. They had an amazing fishing day bringing five sturgeon to the boat for release. Most were eight to nine feet long and weighed several hundred pounds. Vic said some more than 30 minutes to bring in.
While Vic’s sturgeon adventure only required a drive up to Washington State, if you are in an Indiana Jones state of mind check out the offerings of Untamed Anglers, who operate several lodges in the jungles of South America. They include Kendjam Lodge in Brazil – it’s winter down there with day-time temperatures in the 80s. The fish count for eight guests at Kendjam last week was 640. The biggest was a wolf fish, three feet long and looking just like its name.
Kendjam Lodge is near the headwaters of the Iriri River in one of the most remote areas of the Brazilian Amazon, the Mekragnoti Indigenous Territory. Untamed anglers, untamedanglers.com, has a couple of other jungle-based lodges in Brazil and Bolivia as well.
But, Dottie, my favorite fishing partner, prefers something more civilized. She liked Montana-based Sweetwater Travel Company’s itinerary in the British countryside on the world’s most famous chalk streams, including the Tess and Itchen. The package includes guided fly-fishing, accommodations in a 17th-century country house owned by nobility set stream-side next to a 13th Century chapel and Victorian garden, and close to the old Roman city of Bath and ancient Celtic Stonehenge.
Of course, we’ll have to mind our manners, take breaks for tea, and perhaps commune with the spirit of Izaak Walton. But, if it sounds good to my fishing partner, I’m in. For more information contact fish@sweetwatertravel.com.
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