Gary Anderson's Guide Service

08/22/2023

Traditionally, this is the time of year when our rivers begin to fill with beautiful King Salmon. Although this is the first year of a complete closure since 2008-2009 it feels like the 3rd straight year since our river fishing was horrible in 2021 and 2022. I started guiding due to my love of these fish. A day or two a week on the water with friends wasn’t enough. I wanted to be on the water every day when the fish were here. I loved the fight, the hunt to find them every day as they moved, the way they taste and as anyone would tell you that spent any time on my boat…the smell of salmon slime. As I write this I’m sitting in my shop staring at my dust covered boat and missing these amazing fish that have been destroyed by drought, water mismanagement and poor science. They contribute nearly a half a billion dollars to our economy. I hope for a recovery of the species and all it provides.

03/12/2023

Now that the collapse of California salmon has progressed to the point of closing recreational and commercial fishing I hear a lot of recreational anglers theorizing why this happened. This is the factual information from those know. If you haven’t seen it before you need to keep in mind this is 3 years old. It was the prediction of where we are now. Sadly, it came true.

The uncovered truth about our California hatchery practices. Our leaders have chose to lower hatchery mitigation production, kill unspawned salmon, and gift ...

04/23/2022

Went north of my usual area today which resulted in limits for all. Ramon put a really nice fish in the pile and lost an absolute monster. We will be talking about the one that got away for a long time.

04/07/2022

355 days since my boat has been on the water due to major life events. So great to see that everything on the boat still works like it’s supposed to. Went through about 40 fish to get our ten “TACO” fish over a few hours.

06/20/2021

My dad talked about this day for years. We were out with Bob Sparre and couldn’t keep the stripers off the hook.

06/19/2021

I’ve needed to post this for some time. I have had significant events in my family life over the last year. My father in law (great man) developed stage 4 pancreatic cancer some time ago. I started blocking off weekends from guiding as that is when my wife and I could visit him. More recently, my 87 year old father fell while doing yard work. He toughed it out for weeks but required my help for shopping as he lived alone. My mom also needed help as she was in assisted living and relied on him to do her shopping and pick up prescriptions. A week and a half ago my dad called an ambulance and was admitted to the hospital. They found that he had two crushed vertebrae in his back in addition to cancer in his spine and liver. I was sure he would make it to 100 as he walked 5 miles a day and was the oldest player on his 50 and over softball team. My dad died a week later. My mother has required extensive care for some time and the same day my dad died we found out she has terminal breast cancer. All of my family in need of care and estate planning are far away so I’ve been doing lots of driving and I am rarely home. The totality of Covid on my business, no water, dwindling salmon populations, more regulation on guides and the overwhelming demands to be available for my family has caused me to close the doors on my guide business. I want to thank all of you that have help me build my business from nothing. I was doubling my bookings every year. Last April alone, I was booked 20 days before having to cancel due to COVID-19. I am happy to refer you to quality guides for your future fishing trips. I will continue to keep my business page up to give fishing reports when I start fishing (for pleasure) again. I know many of you follow it just to keep another avenue of information open. Thanks for taking me fishing Dad. I miss you.

04/29/2021

Limits have been the rule. Get them while they are here.

04/21/2021

Did a 10:00 am start today. Think this may be my new go-to start time. Slept in, met at 10:00, start fishing at 11:00, full limits by 3:00. Fewer boats. Everything was better. Lots of action and lots of fish tacos to come.

04/16/2021

Very good day today chasing delicious striped bass. Six clients took home limits of striper up to 13 lbs (yes, it was a male). Great group that was just happy being on the water but it sure is nice to wack em too.

04/10/2021

This morning was frustrating as we just weren’t where the fish were. Only 3 keepers in the box a 1 pm. Persistence paid off and I found a nice school where we filled the box with limits in an hour. Nice family from San Jose. Great kids.