Stripers & Steelies Going Good

[Tony Buzolich]

I was a little unsure as to where to put this thread because of the duality of the fish but, here it goes.

Stripers are doing better than ever and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight in the near future. The water dropping has turned things off a day or so at a time but then it kicks back in. The water temperature dropped again last night from 57 degrees down to 54 degrees this morning. I'm sure yesterdays tornado over Jack Slough dumped a little murk into the river too along with lots of hail. But all of this foul weather is just slowing down or postponing a lot of spawning fish. There seems to be more females in the mix now as well. Don't ask me how to tell a male from a female striper except by the milt or eggs they drop on my deck because I can't tell just by looking.

Okey, so now for you steelhead guys. In the past week I've had three steelhead come in to my boat while fishing stripers. These are all bright pretty high jumping half-pounders in the 18"-20" range that have slammed a striper fly. Two of my buddies have also taken steelhead recently as well. One even took a cut bait sardine. And today, we saw our first salmon taken on a trolled striper lure. Bright as a dime as well.

So I'm thinking, you steelhead guys ought to be looking at the lowflow if there's this much activity down lower in the system.

Now if the shad would just kick in :)
TONY

[Tracy Chimenti]

Just goes to show-- when the waters running hard, so are the fish. When my son was just a knot on a log, I used to take him during high water out to the Feather with worms and split shot. We always, always hooked into a burner around the logs that invariably got away or broke-off. I always felt these were steelhead. We're they clipped?

Tracy

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Great Toni

I think that there is a good annual spring run of Half-pounder Steelhead in most valley rivers.

Probably some spring run salmon too.

[Tony Buzolich]

Hi Tracy,

All of the steelhead I've seen have had their adipose fin clipped.
TONY

[Mr T]

Thanks for the report Tony,

Has the water level dropepd to the point where a prop boat is out of the question now?

[Tony Buzolich]

Hi T,

Not yet but it's getting that way fast. It also depends on the size of your boat and the outboard being used because of all the sandbars that are coming up.

This past week there were more snags showing than ever before and quite a few in the middle of the river that I ran over a week ago. There's already some 4' and 5' water in the middle of the river too that will soon be dry ground. Because of the sandy soil you don't get good channels to follow and when you do there's usually a guy anchored in the deep spot fishing bait blocking your path.

I use a prop on my boat but I also know most of the river quite well and I don't take chances getting stuck. Right now the unseen snags scare me more than anything especially in the low light.

Just be careful out there, TONY