Colusa/Tisdale w/ review of new ramp

[Tracy Chimenti]

I fished from Colusa to lower Princeton the other day in hopes I might run into a few stray pods. I only caught squaw fish and lost a largemouth. Water temp 59- to 60-degrees. The sturgeon boys are out in full force using up the last of their bait and they are still hooking plenty of oversize fish to their dismay-- they like to eat them and are having a hard time getting one in the slot. Lots of night trippers and I saw a few big diamondback roll near the old "Cruise and Terry" (completely overgrown), and a few guys fighting sturgeon in the evening on the way back down. Everyone warned me to fish lower, but I wanted to check out some new water.

Yesterday I put in at the new Tisdale ramp at the weir. Believe me when i say it will get crazy there this year. The ramp is positioned apx. 45-degrees to the river. There is no dock, breakwater, pier or anything to tie up on, so if you come alone, you will have to tie-up to the rip-rap and pick your way up through the boulders to get to the parking lot, and hope the mega-sleds don't blow your craft up on the rocks. Hell, come summer, if I were alone, I'd consider anchoring 20-feet off and swimming in. I can see the falls and bloody knees already. There was 24 boat trailers there already. Rush hour this striper season will turn this place into "Hell's kitchen", especially if the wind blows all those huge 24-foot jet sleds around! The parking area has a driveway on each side, so if somebody stops the truck to bullshit with a buddy, the entire operation will come to a screathing halt! Best advice is to hustle and just plan on getting wet-- drop the guy off on the ramp and back out and stage. I normally drive the little boat onto the trailer, but the current coming at a 45 makes it hard to drive-up on the trailer unless you have a top-of-the line drive-up rig. They really need a no-wake zone here. Other than that, the ramp is sitll pretty nice, very grippy, and they moreless got alot of bang for the buck by reinforcing the weir with concrete while giving the boater a place to launch between Meridian and Knight's Landing.

Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, "... the rest of the story." Got one soft grab near the Meridian marina fishing rip-rap and fished some really nice looking water. I used big olive/white/flash and chartreuse/white Clousers/Whistlers and Deceivers the entire two days. The best fishing is below Tisdale right now, but the water is still a little murky here for the fly guy to excel. Perhaps one more week. Above Tisdale the water is nice color, just not as many stripers. Bait guys are catching them though. I heard of about 2- to 3-fish per day all told at Colusa and Tisdale, all on bait. Just coming into ripeness.

Wish I had better news...

Tracy

[matt johnson]

Appreciate that update Tracy.

I had mixed feelings about the ramp going back in at Tisdale.

I guess on the bright side it may cut down on some of the congestion around Meridan/Wards?

When it gets really crowded you can always just run in an opposite direction away from all the other boats. However, I have only succeeded in finding some peace and quiet by doing this, not a school of stripers all to myself! Matt.

[Dabalone]

I figure that place will be a zoo all of Spring and into the first part of Summer. Wondering what it will be like loading and unloading people with no place to tie up and with rip rap above and below the ramp, will you also have to use the ramp to do this? Loading a boat in a side current can be tuff for the experienced boater, might be a good place to get some entertaining video's.

[Tony Buzolich]

Tracy, great report and you didn't miss much. Even if there was no one there it would still be tough getting people in and out of the boat, and if you try to load or unload AT the ramp you're going to have to drive your boat up onto the cement and wade or get on the rocks and beat your boat up.

There was supposed to be a dock put in but like everything else money ran out. I was told that the dock that was scheduled for Tisdale was actually cut up and stolen for the scrap aluminum. Yep, that's a lot of soda cans.

You covered a lot of river for a couple of days but I'm unfamiliar with what you called the "Meridian marina" ? Going upstream from Tisdale you have Grimes, then Pearson's Landing (not public), then waaaaaaaay up you have Lovey's Landing, and then Ward's, and then the Colusa area.

Are you referring to that little beach area on the west side just below the Hwy. 20 bridge?

[Tracy Chimenti]

It was Grimes. Sorry about that. The one on the west side of the river, up-river about 5-miles from the Tisdale. Nice looking water-- no fish caught. Thought I could be the early bird. Going to see the volcanos in Hawaii this week and will be back after them when I get back!

Tracy