They're On Their Way

The other day Andy from the shop called me to say that they were dumping smolt in the Feather. I told him that was old news from a month ago. No, he says, those were steelhead and these are salmon smolt. And when this happens it usually rings the dinner bell for the stripers and things really turn on. We'd been getting a few on the river over the past couple of weeks but no big numbers or size.

So I agree to meet up a little after six AM at the ramp and we'd get an early start before the trucks arrive and start dumping the smolt. With the cloud cover it's still dark and I like to see where I'm going, especially on the water. We launch and head over to one of my favorite spots. Fortunately it's starting to get a little light,,,, barely, and we start working a weed area I like. About five minutes into our drift I get a solid grab and it's GAME ON! And we had only started. Great, this is going to be good day,,,,, I think.

https://i.imgur.com/gixFp9k.jpg

We move the boat back upstream and repeat the drift to no avail. There's got to be more, we just need to find them. And that's how it is,, move, drift cast, and drift some more. All of these spots we're fishing at have produced in the past but today is slow. Another small grab and I pull in a large-mouth, but not what I want and we move again.

We keep moving and hitting all the likely spots and now Andy gets a good grab. Finally got the skunk off and we're both on the board. No really big fish but nice keeper size. Several are already spilling milt and a couple are nice and fat about to spawn.

https://i.imgur.com/weJl8sp.jpg

As we're working our way back down stream we see the trucks moving up and down the ramp. No hurry, lets give them time to let the smolt spread their scent in the water. Three truck loads of salmon smolt had just got dumped into the river. We're expecting to see boils on the surface as stripers would begin to gorge on these helpless little baits. But NO, just the dimpling of the smolt as they begin to drift in the current

The main run of stripers isn't here yet and it's slow in coming. We've been getting a few early fish, and reports say they're starting to show up in better numbers around Rio Vista and over on the San Joaquin but it's been a slow year so far. Let's just hope they're on they way :)
Tony

Great post Tony.............inspiring photos.

Good day to be a smolt. Thanks for the report.