Tony Buzolich
04-19-2011, 03:57 PM
If you've read my post below about the shad showing up in the Feather you need to start thinking about how bigger flies catch bigger fish. This holds true especially for striped bass when you know there are bigger fish around.
The early season stripers are almost all cookie-cutter size males in the 4lb.-6lb.range. Seems shad are like that too, the males come first, and the male shad are also smaller than the hens that show up later.
This morning I was on the water with my good friend Jim May. We had already taken several stripers when there was a large explosion of water a few yards behind our boat with a shad sailing in the air no less than 5' to 6' above the surface. A quick second boil and then all was quiet except for the ripples in the water. Stripers feeding! Big stripers. A little later we saw another big swirl of a large fish chasing bait in the same area.
Obviously the shad are here and with them come the larger predators, the larger striped bass, and also a sea lion that was spotted last week below the Bear River.
This is just the start of the striper season and the first of any larger stripers beginning to show. You can bet I'll be out there again tomarrow with a 10w and a floating line throwing a fly the size they use for billfish. I'm sure Charlie's Airhead or Pole Dancers in the largest size will fit the need.
The water temperature has dropped to 54 degrees because of the increased flow coming out of the Yuba which has gone up 2000cfs. since last night. This is bringing more fish into the system as they get ready for spawning. Several of the fish we took this morning were already spilling milt.
TONY
The early season stripers are almost all cookie-cutter size males in the 4lb.-6lb.range. Seems shad are like that too, the males come first, and the male shad are also smaller than the hens that show up later.
This morning I was on the water with my good friend Jim May. We had already taken several stripers when there was a large explosion of water a few yards behind our boat with a shad sailing in the air no less than 5' to 6' above the surface. A quick second boil and then all was quiet except for the ripples in the water. Stripers feeding! Big stripers. A little later we saw another big swirl of a large fish chasing bait in the same area.
Obviously the shad are here and with them come the larger predators, the larger striped bass, and also a sea lion that was spotted last week below the Bear River.
This is just the start of the striper season and the first of any larger stripers beginning to show. You can bet I'll be out there again tomarrow with a 10w and a floating line throwing a fly the size they use for billfish. I'm sure Charlie's Airhead or Pole Dancers in the largest size will fit the need.
The water temperature has dropped to 54 degrees because of the increased flow coming out of the Yuba which has gone up 2000cfs. since last night. This is bringing more fish into the system as they get ready for spawning. Several of the fish we took this morning were already spilling milt.
TONY