Striper Bonanza

[Hatch]

I fished with Chris Brida, a regular on the Striper Sniper and a long time Kienes customer, today on the Feather river. We put in at first light and started looking for feeding fish at one of my favorite spots. We were almost immediately rewarded with a nice double, a pair of 3.5 # stripers. We celebrated with a few pictures and then tried for some more, but only got an LDR and one other grab for our efforts. I thought we should go look for some shad, but Chris wanted to hunt for stripers. We made a big move and a half hour later we found a spot above the HWY. 99 bridge that was holding lots and lots of fish. My Hummingbird was going crazy with marks for long periods of time. "Let's fish here," I suggested. ( Ha HA) After making a few fly changes, we got into them big time. And I mean BIG time. Well over a hundred fish to the boat and probably just as many missed grabs and LDRs. The bite was on like I have never seen it. We had 33 double hook-ups. Chris, who previously has experienced some pretty crappy striper fishing with me, landed 46 fish from dinks to 5#ers. His thumb was wasted from handling so many fish. What a day !!! Without a doubt, the best day I have had on my boat. Thanks Chris for stick'n with it and not wanting to look for shad.
Shad Shmad.
Over and Out
HATCH

[Mr T]

WOW!!!!

Fantastic day out there.

[Tony Buzolich]

Glad you got into them after we saw you earlier. It's been like that when you find a cooperating school BAM BAM BAM. Nothing too big but all a lot of fun. Some schools hold bigger fish too though, ask Jim May about the school he found last week.

We'll both be out there again tomarrow. I'm taking out an old friend in his eighties and I've got him set up with a 6 weight so he can throw and get some distance. This ought to be a fun trip for him too.
TONY

[malbers]

I got the call from Hatch at 12:30. "Dude you need to come fishing and I mean now," I cleared my schedule and hit the road. In the water at 3:15pm leaving at 6:00. Everybody knows that striper fishing is best when done when the sun is at it highest right. Time to fish regardless of where the sun is. Hooks start finding their mark. 1,2 3, #4 runs directly at the boat, I high stick it to keep tension on the rod, fish sees the boat on runs straight down, crack, well time to send the 9 wt. in for replacement, crap. Pick up the 8 wt. and start hammering them again. Hooked something right next to shore but it turned out to be a really nice 4 pound shad. Throw another fly close to the bank and I feel a snag, well this snag had fins. It starts swimming around the boat a couple of times. I decide to put it on the real cause it was swimming like it didn't know it was hooked yet. I get it on the real and remember that I haven't changed my leader in about 18 fish and should probably nurse this fish to the boat. As I adjust the drag the fish makes a run and snaps my 16.5 lb Seagar floro. like it was a strand of hair. I get that sinking feeling of losing a nice fish. That went away, because I was still catching fish. I fished my allotted amount of time and head for home. 25 Stripers from 3 to 6 lbs. and my first Shad of the year in less than three hours. My thumb is also all chewed up. That was a season changer for me. AMAZING.

No pictures, that would have taken up fishing time. Thank you Hatch for the heads up!!