50#+ Caught On The Sac. tooooo,

[Tony Buzolich]

We have some huge fish here in our own backyard too. This striper was taken on the Sac River two years ago on a fly, and we've had several this past year that just couldn't be stopped or turned.

Some of these big Ol' Mo's I'm sure are resident fish that don't migrate with the crowd and simple eat whatever they want as it passes by from squawfish to shad to half-pounders to smolt.

Speaking of smolt, when F&G begins dumping their steelhead smolt in the river around March, stripers like these really turn on for a short period until they're gorged full and then they don't eat for a week afterwards. This time of year though really is the start of the spring season up here.
TONY
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/striiiiiper.jpg

[BigOkieWhiteBoy916]

What A nice fish.

P.S. It was great meeting you today Tony!

[Tony Buzolich]

Hey, That is you. The guy putting away the rods. Geez, I wish I'd known it when some-one from the board speaks up.

I'm terrible for remembering names but I'll look for you next time I'm up.

Who do I ask for when no one knows who "BigOkieWhiteboy" is? :)

TONY

[huntindog]

This is a pic of John Bryan from the chico fly shop...it is all photo shopped, that fish only weighed 17 pounds...he caught it on a live minnow. :D

[Tracy Chimenti]

I like late February, Tony.

Tracy

[Tony Buzolich]

I don't know if it's a doctored picture or not but it sure looks good and there seems to be a chartruese fly laying on the deck of the boat, soooo we're only able to assume........

Last season I had several on the line that I just couldn't hold, or turn, or stop. One I was able to get to the surface looked like this guy's big brother when he spit the fly.

Several of these bigger fish seem to take the fly, close their mouth down hard, and actually clamp onto the leader without really hooking themselves.

You'll be fighting these big fish for a while and then all of a sudden, the line goes slack, and you'll simply reel in the fly.

When this happens you'll almost always see chaffing on the leader 6 inches or more above the fly. I can only assume that this is where the fish's jaws were clamped down onto the line and the fly didn't actually get hooked.

Tracy, yesterday I got out with a couple of friends to do a little sturgeon fishing. Before daybreak stripers were already busting bait coming through one of the pumps up here. As often happens we had the wrong rods set up not expecting stripers here so soon.

Depending on the winter storms things will definitley be happening by the end of February and usually they begin dumping the steelhead smolt about then too.
TONY

[huntindog]

.....um...i was...like....ummm...JOKING....

[Darian]

No Fooling.... :D :D

[huntindog]

You know, if anyone is interested you can actually book a trip with the guy that caught the 50 lb striper (John Bryan) ...you can contact him at through the Chico Fly Shop (use the Google)..Since his picture is being used for marketing he may as well get some business out of it.