Yukkin it up with Charlie

[Ed Wahl]

Charlie Gonzales invited me out to fish for Stripers today on the American. We started out working a rocky bank. A lot of casting and yakking. It was while doing this that Charlie pointed out a family of Otters a bit downstream of us. We continued casting and yakking, occaisionally looking at the Otters. They were making quite a commotion down there against the bank. Splashing around, making big waves, climbing out to eat their catch. A Great Blue Heron got in on it too.

We kept on casting where we were, looking at the ruckus and cracking jokes about Otters working bait balls and such, when the Otters moved off to mid stream and the splashes continued. A Great Blue Heron moved in and was eating away also.

It seems to have been a mutual feeding frenzy going on while we fished away just upstream. Otters, the GBH, and a bunch of big stripers, all going at these bait fish at the same time. I can only imagine what that must have looked like under water.

So, finally, we did get a clue and moved in ourselves. The main riot had subsided by now but the Heron would show us unerringly where the next one was going to happen.

Charlie did catch one on his topwater fly, a chicken sized Pole Dancer.
What a fish it was too.
The loudest, most violent take I'd ever seen. As the line from the Monty Python movie goes," I (almost) soiled my armor".
This was also a lesson in landing a striper, he had it to hand in under a minute. Charlie really put the screws, and a 10wt rod, to this fish. Pretty impressive. And this was no small fish either, 15+ on the Boga.

I had one grab but do to my lifetime of trout fishing I tried to set the hook as if a 'bow had just grabbed my dry fly. And I knew just as I raised the rod that I'd screwed up. Oh well, what'cha gonna do?
Here's Charlies fish, so far the biggest one I'd been close too.



That's a huge fly in there.



We worked that spot for a while longer, keeping an eye on our lucky heron, until Charlie tossed his chicken sized fly too close to it and it took off cursing at us.

Then we went off to a run that I'd hit several times but to no avail in my pram.

Man, what an education I got there. Turns out I'd been looking in all the wrong spots for these fish. I managed to drop another here but at least I'd done my part right this time.

Thanks Charlie, I think now I can dish out a little payback in my spot.

And I also know to watch out for Otters busting a bait ball.

Ed

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I guess that's just to close to home for many?

[matt johnson]

Great report guys. Looks like that striper was "committed" to destroying that Pole Dancer! Too cool. Matt.

[Jgoding]

Nice fish Charlie.... and a nice tale of a striper hitting a stripper fly..... good job Ed.

[David Lee]

This was also a lesson in landing a striper, he had it to hand in under a minute. Charlie really put the screws, and a 10wt rod, to this fish. Pretty impressive. And this was no small fish either, 15+ on the Boga.

Pretty neat , beating one that size down that fast .... !

Great report !

David

[Scott V]

Nice fish Charlie, but I was hoping to be reading a delta report from you.

[Charlie Gonzales]

Thanks for the report and pics Ed. I wish I was holdin that fish better though because it looks much smaller than it was.

I have witnessed a lot of feeding frenzies, but this is the first time ever to see otters in the mix. It wasnt until I saw actual fishtails slappin the water that I could tell what was happening.

Scotty, sorry no delta report. I wasnt excited about yesterdays tides, I thought we would have been fishing too much of the bottom end of the low most of the morning. But Im still learnin that game so if anybody disagrees with my logic please fill me in. Did you go on saturday?

[Tony Buzolich]

You're right about starting on the low for the early morning but the best way to look at it is you're going to have a nice incoming tide from around 8:30AM till around 2:00PM,,,,,,,,, depending on where you fish. And, that is one of the keys to knowing what is happening and where. Find your moving water.

I like to use the entrance to False River marker as one of my main guides if I'm fishing the top of the tract or the San Joaquin. Later in the year I'll use Orwood as I start fishing further in when the rest of the area muddy's up.

Hope this helps a little,
TONY

[Charlie Gonzales]

Thanks Tony. Our plan was to fish smallmouth since there hasnt been any consistant striper reports yet. The high in the area was about 7:30 so by the time we there, the level would already be dropping, pulling the fish off the walls. We would have had to fish through the heat for the high to come back in, and just didnt seem to be like the best day. The back up plan turned out to be OK. I do appreciate your input.

[briansII]

Nice fish Charlie, but I was hoping to be reading a delta report from you.

Heck with action and fish like that, why bother with the Delta?

briansII