" The Beaver Had Stripes" - continued

[Tony Buzolich]

If you fish around the Feather River very much you know there are lots of beaver inhabiting the banks, digging holes in the banks, and making small dens along the shore as all beavers do. It's also quite common for them to make a big splash with their tail as a warning for whoever may be approaching to stay away and back off. This tail splash / kerplop is quite loud at times.

As you know the rivers have all been unstable rising and falling with the rains and the repair work being done at Oroville spillway, etc. The guys in our area that fish with minnows and bait have been pounding the stripers unmercifully. The fly guys have just been waiting, and waiting for the water to clear anywhere so we can get out and give it go too.

Finally the Yuba started to clear and Jim and I planned to go out this past Monday and give it try. We get to Boyd's a little before 6:00AM but we see boats already leaving ??? As we launch we can see well enough that the river has turned dirty brown AGAIN! Damn! It was clear a couple of days ago, but we're already here and we decide to give it a try anyway.

We motor up river to where the Shanghai Bend falls usually are, but with the high water it's like a lake but still moving fast. We set up our drift and begin working the bank like we usually do. Stripers like to rest a little by getting out of the main currant and hug the bank or look for eddy's where they can rest and feed.

With the water soo high much of the willow shoreline is flooded. As we drift past one particular bunch of willow we hear a loud splash. Wow!" Must have spooked a beaver" like we often do but continued our drift downstream without a bite. "Let's do that drift again" Jim says as it often is good water. We continue upstream and start our drift again making the same run, We get to where we heard the splash and Jim casts tight to the same spot. This time we get a BIG splash and a nice striper hits Jim's fly as it lands on the surface. YAHOO ! Finally our first grab.

At first the fish sort of swam toward the boat and didn't seem to panic. We moved the boat away from the bank and the fish started to wake up and pull harder. Very hard in fact, especially on Jim's 8 wt.. We fight the fish hard but without a lot of force and finally about a half mile downstream I get the girl into the net. Wow! again. Jim is shaking with the adrenaline charge. Get the Boga and the camera and a quick release to save this trophy fish. 32 Pounds ! What a way to start the day with this being our first fish

After a few quick pictures we continue our day with only two other small schoolie stripers.
Tony

###%% I still can't get the picture to come up! Damn! I had it in "Manage Attachments" too.