Smallmouth Bass in moving water......

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Aug/Sept is a good time for SMB in moving water.

Some of us will be targeting the entire lower Feather River for them.

The flows need to be low (~1,500 cfs) so it is warm and will be fairly clear.

Having a boat is important to be able to move, drifting down stream and covering lots of water.

they like structure like dead trees, rocks and steep walls.

We will be focusing on the morning and evenings with low light levels for top water fly fishing.

Medium poppers and small Pole Dancers will be our choice of top water offerings.

We talk about an over nighter so we can do the PM and then the AM thing.

We will keep you posted when we go.......

.

[JAWallace]

Bill, I know this is a strong interest for you and as you know, for me as well. I hope you keep us posted on Feather smallies. I am ready to go. Day, night, overnight. I'm glad you think "our" boat can make it up from Verona.

Went back to my fishing notes and I drifted the section south of Gridley with a real nice hardware guide, Bill Adelman, back in 1990, June 21, OAT was 106 peak. Notes say I got 6. I remember the trip. They were pretty small and I remember not falling in love with the scenery as most of them were taken from old car bodies and other river junk.

I am hoping the run up from Verona will be a little easier as I'm nearly certain the outboard would not work in the drift I did with Bill. Really looking forward to this one!

John

[Tony Buzolich]

It might be a while til the water drops to under 1500cfs Bill. Right now it along with the SAC are really flowing because of some water deal made for SoCal or Resnick or whoever. Yes, I'd like to think it's for the salmon coming up too but I doubt it is. The salmon season opens tomarrow up this way and hopefully will be good.

As for the smallies, I actually did a piece for Bob Clouser in his new book at the time, "Fly-Fishing for Smallmouth in Rivers and Streams". It's only a small contributon about smallies in the Russian, the Feather, and the Yuba.

Most of the smallies I get are taken incidently while fishing for stripers. There certainly are good numbers of them in the lower Feather. We're also seeing some that might be a cross between a smallie and a red-eye and don't have all the classic markings and bars of normal smallmouth.

John, those rusted out old cars may not look too nice but they sure are home to some nice fish. There's one old car below Shanghai that always holds fish and it got to be a joke about casting into it's windshield. Further up river above the trussel there's an orchard that has cars lining the bank for erosion control. Definitely not scenic but it is another form of structure.

Smallmouth out here don't seem to targeted as much like they are back east. I remember the first smallmouth I ever took was on the American below the Log Hole while I was fishing for steelhead in those riffles. What a surprise that was. I used to fish the Russian a lot for them too. That area between Cloverdale and Healdsburg holds lots of them.

Hmmmmmm? You guy have got me thinking again I need to get out there too and start targeting them again.

It's just so much fun chasing those stripers though it's hard to think of anything else.
Tony

[Frank Alessio]

Tony... I usually try casting into the engine compartment because that is where the water is the Warmest...Frank

[JAWallace]

Twenty two years ago, not many people in the west fished for bass with a fly rod, and even fewer for smallies. Because of my proximity to Lake Natoma, back when you could actually get good numbers there, that's what I did most of the time. It was kind of an oddity, and that's probably why Richard accepted and published an article I submitted on smallie fishing in lakes in 1990 in California Fly Fisher. I know it sure wasn't because of my photographic skills or my outdoor writing because that was my first run at it. I remember a whole lot of red on Richard's editing:-D

Since then, I find most of them I catch when fishing for something else too, unless it's at the usual spots on Folsom. My largest, 5-6#, was taken from the American. I think I've caught 3 there total.

I got a tip from a hardware/bait guy about a spot in Lake Natoma, and went out last night and found them exactly where he said they would be. I used a fly on which I've taken close to 50% of my smallies. Nothing. Great conditions too, water 62 deg, but the flows from Folsom were almost 5,000 so it's like river fishing, but at 15' with a Type IV and a lot of lead. That lake kicks my ass good anymore but I never give up.

The North Delta is good, but once on the water you pretty much want to target stripers. I'm excited to try any waters that hold good sized smallies. You can fish with trout gear and they fight better than test tube trout, sometimes as good as wild trout. They usually take some air and you can get them on a 4 wt.