first trip up the American

[Joshua R.]

Wednesday of last week I confirmed with Sacramento Regional Parks director Jeff Leatherman, and the CDFW warden in charge of the American River Parkway that spears and spearfishing are allowed on the river just not in the parkway which is the land on both sides of the river from the Hazel street bridge to the Sacramento River. Met with a couple buddies Friday morning in Vacaville at 6 and by 7am we were suited up and ready to launch on the Sacramento River. We paddled up the Sacramento to the American and about 3.5 miles more to the business 80 overpass. The purpose of this mission for me was to scout and to lay some rumors to rest about how easy it will be to spear in the river and that you don't even need a wet suit so with temperatures supposed to be in the 100's I decided to bring a gun but to focus on video and go without a wetsuit. I'm just going to say there's no chance of anyone spearing a striper without a wet suit. There's no way someone is going to be able to be still and hunt for any length of time. It's fine if you're just going to jump in to cool off but not for what we do.

Our first stop was under the bridge for highway 160. This is where we saw the most fish, Greg spotted 3 on his third or fourth dive all in the 12-18 inch range. None that were obviously over 18 so he didn't shoot. A little while later he saw another one about 15 inches or so. I spent most of my time with my sidescan sonar looking for structure and fish while they dove and I would call them over to investigate if I found anything with potential but those would be the only fish close to legal that we would see today. Greg did see another school of babies up near the business 80 bridge but they were nowhere near legal, just cute. MIke got to work on some skills, stalking and hunting. How to use the dead spots to rest up for diving in the current, etc. Greg's skills are considerably further along than Mike's. I believe that Mikes noisy style may have scared the fish away which proves that these fish are not going to be easy and not everyone is going to be able to spear them.

The fish seemed to be floating above structure when idle or swimming across the current when spooked so the most success they had was finding structure at about 20 feet on the edge of the current behind or next to the pilons of the bridges, diving up current and drifting on the bottom with the current. Structure is the key. Another rumor was how easy it was going to be to shoot stripers from the kayak, or that they would just swim right up to you. We covered allot of river that day and I was looking intently the whole time and I never saw anything from the kayak that made me even wonder if it was a striper. The fish that Greg saw while diving spooked after one encounter of only a few seconds.

I was impressed that both Mike and Greg asked what size they should target knowing that I'm trying to promote an attitude of conservation in the spearo community and that some are worried about the big hens being targeted. I told them 24 inches should be fine with a little wiggle room either way but I wouldn't target anything over 30". We had discussions about the mercury and compared experience with the meat of larger fish vs. smaller fish. I don't have much experience with striped bass but Greg said he preffers the 10-15 pounders anyway. Next trip I'll be trying to get my first and I'll also be trying to get video of some big ones to see how they'll behave next to divers.

I realize that this is an anlging website and some are going to be incensed by this but I'm trying to start a discussion on how we can all promote an attitude of conservation by anglers and divers and be in this fight together.