Tony Buzolich
05-16-2006, 06:22 PM
The Feather, as most of you know is fishing red-hot for the bait guys with lots of fish for everyone out there.
But for the fly guys, things are a little tougher. The water has been on a roller coaster rising and falling sometimes a few feet in a day. The Yuba for the past two weeks has been dumping mud and debris from the over flowing Englebright dam all because of the snow melt. And, now a full moon to boot.
A few days ago I got a call from Dan Leichty of Cortland Line Company asking a favor, "Could I possibly take the VP of Hardy Reels and he out for a few hours of striper fishing?" Did I hear that right?
Well, this morning was the day and we agree to meet at Johnson's in Yuba City at 5:00am. We get our gear together and get in the water by 5:30. Some boats are already anchored in the Feather fishing bait as we move past them up the Yuba hoping it has cleared enough to cast a fly.
We see one fish explode on the surface as we're moving up the river and it's as good a time as any to see if these guys know how to cast shooting heads. With only a quick lesson I give the rod to Andy Murray (from Hardy) and he quickly shows me that he can cast quite well.
We move up to some slack water and see a couple more boils but no grabs. But, there's fish here, and we're marking lots of fish coming up.
We drift down stream and cast in some deeper water working our way toward the mouth and repeat this drift several times until Andy's rod takes a sudden stop and I think he's hung up on a tree. The line though takes a sudden charge directly under the boat and we know this isn't any tree.
Finally a good hook-up and it's a big fish and stays deep. Moving in lots of direction, staying deep, this fish doesn't want to come up. With max pressure on the 10w. she finally starts to rise and now we need to get through the line-up of anchored boats.
We get the net out but but find it way too small. After three tries I get half of her in the net and grab the other have by hand.
Yahoooo! She's In. Lots of laughter, lots of cheers, and plenty of picture. She weighted in at an honest 20 lbs.on the Boga. Andy Murray's first striper on a fly.
More and more of the bigger females are starting to show on the Feather. Unfortunately we've had two fish brought in to the shop this last week at 40lbs. and one near 50lbs.
Take a picture, and turn those big females loose,
TONY
But for the fly guys, things are a little tougher. The water has been on a roller coaster rising and falling sometimes a few feet in a day. The Yuba for the past two weeks has been dumping mud and debris from the over flowing Englebright dam all because of the snow melt. And, now a full moon to boot.
A few days ago I got a call from Dan Leichty of Cortland Line Company asking a favor, "Could I possibly take the VP of Hardy Reels and he out for a few hours of striper fishing?" Did I hear that right?
Well, this morning was the day and we agree to meet at Johnson's in Yuba City at 5:00am. We get our gear together and get in the water by 5:30. Some boats are already anchored in the Feather fishing bait as we move past them up the Yuba hoping it has cleared enough to cast a fly.
We see one fish explode on the surface as we're moving up the river and it's as good a time as any to see if these guys know how to cast shooting heads. With only a quick lesson I give the rod to Andy Murray (from Hardy) and he quickly shows me that he can cast quite well.
We move up to some slack water and see a couple more boils but no grabs. But, there's fish here, and we're marking lots of fish coming up.
We drift down stream and cast in some deeper water working our way toward the mouth and repeat this drift several times until Andy's rod takes a sudden stop and I think he's hung up on a tree. The line though takes a sudden charge directly under the boat and we know this isn't any tree.
Finally a good hook-up and it's a big fish and stays deep. Moving in lots of direction, staying deep, this fish doesn't want to come up. With max pressure on the 10w. she finally starts to rise and now we need to get through the line-up of anchored boats.
We get the net out but but find it way too small. After three tries I get half of her in the net and grab the other have by hand.
Yahoooo! She's In. Lots of laughter, lots of cheers, and plenty of picture. She weighted in at an honest 20 lbs.on the Boga. Andy Murray's first striper on a fly.
More and more of the bigger females are starting to show on the Feather. Unfortunately we've had two fish brought in to the shop this last week at 40lbs. and one near 50lbs.
Take a picture, and turn those big females loose,
TONY