Author Archives: Chris Shaffer

Tips to Catching Northern Ontario Perch

By: Tom Armstrong Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world. That brings visions of deep, crystal clear, cold water inhabited by a variety of large salmonids. While this is true the lake is diverse and also harbours a variety of warm water species. My favourite place to target warm water species through […]

Change Up Eggs to Catch More Great Lakes Winter Steelhead

By: Stephen Shen This time of the year in the Great Lakes we are forced to fish more limited sections of our rivers due to winter conditions such as low flows, cold temperatures and ice flows. Because of that the brown trout and steelhead that are in these accessible winter holes see much more angling […]

California’s Smith River Has Steelhead Now

By: Mick Thomas After no fall salmon season (due to no water) we’ve finally got some good news on the Smith River. The rain we’ve been waiting months for brought in a large number of fresh steelhead. Since we’ve received heavy rain the last few days the numbers of steelhead in the river have been […]

Why Natural Trout Eggs Are Perfect For Great Lakes Steelhead

By: James Swearingen We are in the heart of spawn sac season in the Great Lakes and for the first time in more than 20 years I’m using something different in my sacs. Historically, I’ve had to fish with salmon eggs and brown trout eggs that I harvested in the fall in New York. Meanwhile, […]

Colorado’s Stagecoach Reservoir Fishing Well Through the Ice

By: Chris Shaffer Conditions are prime for ice fishing in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. And, after filming Pautzke Outdoors on Stagecoach Reservoir this week it’s safe to say we are in for another excellent season on the hardwater. We were fortunate to team up with Yampa Valley Anglers to film two episodes that will be released […]

Chetco River Steelhead Outlook

By Andy Martin Judging by the first few weeks of the 2020 steelhead season on the Chetco River, anglers may have to deal with high water conditions. The year is off to a wet and stormy start. In between rainy weather, steelhead fishing has been good. Hatchery fish are showing up and plenty of wild […]

Catch Big Pike With Brined and Dyed Bait

By: Kim Anthony I just finished a seminar about brining and dying baits for ice fishing and tend to get the same question every time. I get asked the same question online, too. People often ask me why it’s so much better to have bait that’s brined and dyed verses using natural bait. People want […]

Learn the Ultimate California Salmon Egg Cure

By: Scott Feist As everybody knows I’ve been a true Pautzke fan for many years, even before I was on the pro staff. Fire Cure has never let me down. In hard times it always catches fish. When curing eggs I always use Fire Cure as my base, but I do multiple things to enhance […]