Stripers are up near Colusa now.....

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Terry Thomas and I went on our annual trip with guide Shane Harden up on the Sacramento River near Colusa, California.

We boated about a dozen fish from 3# to 12# on mostly chartruse and white Clouser minnows on fast sinking lines.

We covered a very large area finding the fish pretty well scattered for over 20 miles of river.

Shane says that April/May is the average window for the big Striper spawning run up that way.

7012

[Tony Buzolich]

Now that a lot of the crazy boat traffic has gone away we can get back into chasing them again. It seems this is the usual pattern when the main migration is here in April/May. Now a lot of bait and minnow guys just quit fishing them, the water quiets down, and we can get back to our usual summer fun.

Glad you found some fish. Shane really puts the miles on looking for them.
Tony

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yes Tony.....it was nice...not many other boats out there now.

[matt johnson]

Thanks for the nice report Bill.

My Friend Jim Andras and I booked a day with Shane about 7 years ago now. We learned a ton and were off and running after that day! But I will never know the river anywhere near the way old river rats like Shane and Tony Buzolich do....

I'm with Tony on being glad the boat madness surrounding the "peak" is over. I'm not so sure that I really like being down there when the gear guys are going full bore anymore? It is really nuts out there, I think especially since the Tisdale ramp was put in? It is a nice ramp and a good location for folks to get on the river though.

Hoping to get down there for one more day chasing the spawners then it will be time to settle in and pick away at the resdident fish upriver for the balance of the summer. Stripers are fun!