Another Windy Day

[Tony Buzolich]

If you haven't noticed it's been blowing like hell for the last few days and today it was supposed to lay down early. I had already cancelled two days of fishing because of the wind and I'm having withdrawl symptoms and needed to get out on the water. The weather man said today,,,, for sure,,,,, it was going to stop blowing.

I had Adam Burke and Jay Vann with me for the first time. Both of these guys are excellent casters and I have to say what a pleasure it was to have a couple of guys on board that know how to cast. It definitely makes my job easier, all I have to do is put them on fish. But we still have this darn wind to contend with.

We started out as usual at the crack of dawn in the Feather and ended our day at Tisdale on the Sac. The Feather has really been dropping and is now lower than I've ever seen it. My one slot channel that I have to squeeze through has barely two feet of water less I hit on big stump. We made it past slowly and got down to work. Still a fair breeze blowing in our face and twisting the boat in all directions making it hard to put these guys in the right spot. Hovering close to the bank looking for a little shelter we get our first hook up and a nice three pounder comes to the boat. We move constantly trying to get out of the wind but neither of my guys complained once. It wasn't long before Jay hooks up again and takes this nice 9 pounder.




I keep telling the guys the wind is supposed to lay down and the fishing is going gang busters over on the Sac, and would they like to give it a shot over there? Sure, let's go. We pull the boat out and head toward the Sac,,,,, but, the wind isn't dying down.

We get to Tisdale and can't believe our eyes,,,, trucks and trailers everywhere. The lot is full, they're parked on the bridge, on both levees, and any flat spot that would hold a vehicle. Fortunately several boats were already done and leaving when we got there.

The water here is green but visibility is only a foot or two. We try anyway still with the never ending wind blowing us downstream in a corkscrew path. Adam finally gets a couple of grabs and a couple of LDRs. Considering all of the boat traffic here it's amazing we even got that.

Still, another great day just to be out on the water with a couple of guys that know how to cast,,,, wind or no wind.
Tony

[matt johnson]

Hi Tony,

You passed me this afternoon well below Tisdale. I was the fly guy in the little green boat getting blown into a rock wall. I was going to swing by your boat and introduce myself, but you were engaged in conversation with your clients, and I didn't want to interrupt....

Anyway, I too was tricked by the weatherman today, thinking today was the day the winds would subside and the Sac stripers would go on a major chew. Things were definitely not calm, but I was happy to just be finally out on my first day of the 2013 spring striper season.

I guess I arrived a little late, since by 6:00 am the parking lot at Tisdale was almost completely full. I got one of the last slots. After me it was overflow parking! The line-up to launch was military style. Definitely needed to have your act together this morning. I was in the middle of a squad of 7-8 rumbling 3/4 ton trucks and 20 foot river sleds. Not a lot of patience in this crowd for a guy in a beat up Toyota with a funny looking green boat. Pulled my solo launch off without a hitch, the old Yamaha/Mariner reliably fired up, and I was off.

Seems like the entire fleet went south this morning, but I wanted to go north to re-visit familar rock-walls and make sure I broke down above the launch instead of below, (I had not had the boat out since last October). I had the river up there pretty much to myself for about an hour and a half, and actually had a pretty good scratch bite going, until the wind started howling at 8 am. This is also about the time that the "overflow fleet" began to overrun me, so it was time to make a move.

With a steady breeze blowing from the North, and the nagging thought that I was missing out on a major bite south of Tisdale, I made my way all the way down to where you ended up this afternoon. From what I saw today, I would say there are fish scattered here and there from below Grimes to well belwo Tisdale. It sure was hard to work on them in the wind though. A gear guide chatted me up at the launch when I was pulling out and revealed that the wad of fish the guides were working on today was a 45 minute boat ride downstream (halfway to Knights landing).

late this morning I was in the midst of a prolonged dry spell so I decided to change to a gray Clouser to keep from getting totally bored. I got a fish 3 casts later and kept that fly on for the rest of the day. I was not tearing them up by any means, but gray, even in the dingy green/brown water, seemed to be what they wanted. Probably looks like a hatchery salmon smolt

Wish I could be out there tomorrow but I have to work. It is going to be a nice calm day. Go get em! Matt.

[Adam Grace]

Thanks for the reports guys. I want to get out there and get some stripers. Maybe someday in the near future I'll pair up with someone with a boat and I'll get into some stripers.

Good to hear from you Matt.

[Tony Buzolich]

Way to go Matt. Gray? That definitely wouldn't be my guess as to a good color but if it works it works. With that water the color it was we stuck the standard chartreuse/white combo and couldn't get them to cooperate. Can't believe the number of boats there and gave up the chase assuming all the traffic put the bite off.

I remember a funny little green boat way down by the pumps but didn't see anyone else fly fishing. Yell and say hi next time.
Good luck out there,
Tony