Tony Buzolich
02-04-2013, 09:00 AM
I know,,,,I know,,,, everybody's anxious about getting going again on stripers closer to home. The delta has kind of been a fizzle with no bait,,, the party boats are rapeing everything that comes into the bay,,,, and the Fish and Wildlife people blame everything else that fails on this wonderful game fish we've all grown up with and learned to love. Some of us have even become addicted to it's persuit and I'm one of them.
This past week I've been on the water four days chasing this wonderful fish. No, the spring run hasn't started. This is just sort of the "Pre-season" game that addicts choose to persue. There are stripers in our rivers ALL year long. Maybe not as many as other times but they're here. You just have to look and work a little harder for them. Winter is always tougher because it's cold,,, damn bone-chilling cold. It's cold outside and it's cold in the water too. The water temps up here have been running between 46-48 degrees. And, it's muddy. Sooooo, we wait. We wait for the rivers to clear a little, and maybe warm a little, and it's starting to happen. We haven't had much rain for the last few weeks and things are starting to clear.
We also wait for one more thing to happen about this time of year,,,, the planting of the smolt. Every year F&W plant steelhead smolt into the rivers at several of the boat ramps closer to the bay where the smolt will eventually migrate. This week they are also adding pens at the dump sites to help the smolt acclimate better to the water At this time it also puts a ton scales and slime and scent into the water as the trucks dump their load. And this rings a dinner bell for EVERY predator in and on the water. You'll immediately see birds downstream diving. Usually gulls, and then mergansers, and sometimes terns and even pelicans. You know squawfish (our most prolific "native" predator) will immediately begin to gorge on these downstream fingerlings, and you'll see otters, and hawks, and catfish, and every other predator along the way eating these morsels, and yes stripered bass love them too.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/002_zps608f579a.jpg
But, the stripers were here BEFORE they dumped the smolt too. These are the resident fish that stay around all year. Some are early migrating spawners coming up from the bay and delta before the main run in the spring.
This last Friday they started dumping the smolt. We didn't catch a single striper that day. We saw a couple explosions of feeding fish but no mass gorgings of bait like you see in the ocean. Actually, for the last couple of days ALL of the fish we took were taken upstream (ABOVE) the dumped smolt.
The fish we've taken so far have all been cookie-cutter size 7 to 7.5 lbers. Over on the Sac, Bill Siler took a 7 pounder as well on Thursday.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/004_zps4aad9e04.jpg
And here's a real suprize we got. Jim May took a beautiful 20+" German Brown on a 2/0 Clouser while chasing stripers below the falls at Shang Hai bend. No one has ever seen or heard of a brown this low in the river system. (think they might eat a few smolt too?) I'll get a picture of this for all of you to seen soon.
But, for now, there's a few stripers around if you want to work for them. I'm sure they're in the American as well and any other river that runs into the bay around here.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/007_zps4bab274c.jpg
The water is still cold, and very very low so becarefull if you go out. Lots of water only a foot or two deep and tons of new snags everywhere.
Good Luck, Tony
This past week I've been on the water four days chasing this wonderful fish. No, the spring run hasn't started. This is just sort of the "Pre-season" game that addicts choose to persue. There are stripers in our rivers ALL year long. Maybe not as many as other times but they're here. You just have to look and work a little harder for them. Winter is always tougher because it's cold,,, damn bone-chilling cold. It's cold outside and it's cold in the water too. The water temps up here have been running between 46-48 degrees. And, it's muddy. Sooooo, we wait. We wait for the rivers to clear a little, and maybe warm a little, and it's starting to happen. We haven't had much rain for the last few weeks and things are starting to clear.
We also wait for one more thing to happen about this time of year,,,, the planting of the smolt. Every year F&W plant steelhead smolt into the rivers at several of the boat ramps closer to the bay where the smolt will eventually migrate. This week they are also adding pens at the dump sites to help the smolt acclimate better to the water At this time it also puts a ton scales and slime and scent into the water as the trucks dump their load. And this rings a dinner bell for EVERY predator in and on the water. You'll immediately see birds downstream diving. Usually gulls, and then mergansers, and sometimes terns and even pelicans. You know squawfish (our most prolific "native" predator) will immediately begin to gorge on these downstream fingerlings, and you'll see otters, and hawks, and catfish, and every other predator along the way eating these morsels, and yes stripered bass love them too.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/002_zps608f579a.jpg
But, the stripers were here BEFORE they dumped the smolt too. These are the resident fish that stay around all year. Some are early migrating spawners coming up from the bay and delta before the main run in the spring.
This last Friday they started dumping the smolt. We didn't catch a single striper that day. We saw a couple explosions of feeding fish but no mass gorgings of bait like you see in the ocean. Actually, for the last couple of days ALL of the fish we took were taken upstream (ABOVE) the dumped smolt.
The fish we've taken so far have all been cookie-cutter size 7 to 7.5 lbers. Over on the Sac, Bill Siler took a 7 pounder as well on Thursday.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/004_zps4aad9e04.jpg
And here's a real suprize we got. Jim May took a beautiful 20+" German Brown on a 2/0 Clouser while chasing stripers below the falls at Shang Hai bend. No one has ever seen or heard of a brown this low in the river system. (think they might eat a few smolt too?) I'll get a picture of this for all of you to seen soon.
But, for now, there's a few stripers around if you want to work for them. I'm sure they're in the American as well and any other river that runs into the bay around here.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/buzolich/007_zps4bab274c.jpg
The water is still cold, and very very low so becarefull if you go out. Lots of water only a foot or two deep and tons of new snags everywhere.
Good Luck, Tony