8/19/10 ar

[Jgoding]

Mosied on out to the river about 7pm with my little girl strapped to my back. Ran into a huge kingsnake on the way in. Hit a back channel for nada. River's has dropped a lot. Made it to one of my favorite seams and something made a commotion in the shallow shelf below me. Made a few casts and hooked a nice schoolie that actually got on the reel and made some strong runs. Got the fish to hand. Asked the little girl what to do and she said "let it go home daddy" so off it went. Got a crappy cell phone pic. Fish was probably around 5 lbs or so.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e336/jgoding/ImportedPhotos00000.jpg

[Scott V]

Smart daughter, let the fish go home, love it.

[Jeff C.]

Nice schoolie Jeff! I was thinking about catching smaller stripers driving home yesterday so I pulled out my vice as soon as I walked in the door. I tied a small clouser on a size 6 hook using chain eyes and white UV and caddis green ice dubbing. When it is wet it looks great. I hope to try it out this weekend.

[Jgoding]

What's smaller? Schoolie size? Dinks will crush just about any fly you throw except really big ones but I catch all kinds of little guys on 5-6" flies. Smaller flies will yield more smaller fish though but you never know what you will hook out there. My PB fish came on a pretty small fly actually.

That fish actually fought pretty well for it's size. I was thinking it was going to be larger by the runs it was making and I do use a 9wt when striper fishing.

[Jeff C.]

Schoolie or smaller. I know that dinks will try to hit anything. I've been spey casting 2/0 clousers, striper caviar and airheads with my light switch rod and they don't turn over very well (big lag between the time the line hits that water and the fly hitting the water). I was just thinking of a smaller fly that I would turn over easier. If I hooked a big one, the hook would probably straighten out.

[Jgoding]

Hmmm,

When I throw airheads (ones I make myself) I've noticed they're usually better at keeping their momentum and turning over but maybe casting mechanics of throwing a spey as to a shooting head as I'm doing makes the difference. I find my larger flies with synthentics are more prone to losing momentum quickly due to drag as they shed water a little too well and tend to flair on the cast. Airheads don't have this problem typically as the headshape keeps the materials in compact profile.

Last night I was throwing a waking rainbow. As it's not weighted it did rely on turnover but the twisted leader Charlie G gave me last year turns it over beautifully. I was fishing it subsurface though on a type VII head.

[Scott V]

In regards to small flies, my biggest striper came on a tiny clouser that was about 2 inches long with tiny little eyes. I seem to catch small fish on big flies and big fish on small flies.

[Jgoding]

I think it's more of right place.... right time. Unless fish are actively keying in on an abundant bait supply, which I have not witnessed on the A personally, I think they'll hit just about anything presented well enough. I know you can find fish herding bait at times but I've never seen it and of course during shad season we all know what most of the big fish are chasing.

The American is filled with plenty of forage though, salmon smolts, steelhead smolts, squawfish, crayfish, mosquito fish, bass, tadpoles, baby ducks, lamprey, sculpins, carp, and god knows what else.... so in my book anything is fair game.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Andy caught a nice hot 4 pound Steelhead last night while fishing a small white streamer on a Spey rod wading on the Lower American River.

He was fishing for Stripers.

[Blueracer]

Jeff - nice catch! I'm glad it put a nice fight for you.