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Thread: They're Not All Gone Yet

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Yuba City, Ca.
    Posts
    2,229

    Thumbs up They're Not All Gone Yet

    This morning I got a late start but had to go see if I could find another striper or two like we got last week with Jim. I decided to go by myself and see if I could get stuck on a sandbar or something, but I just had to give it a try. This was not a serious fishing day but the river is close by and I'm tired of sitting on my butt watching TV.

    At the ramp the water the water is 4'-6' deep but as you get toward the center of the river it shallows out fast. As I move across to a favorite point I'm now only in a foot and half of water and thinking I should turn around. But I gradually get a little deeper and can cast to the other channel. I drop anchor so as to not drift any shallower and cast my first chartruese fly like usual. Expecting only a tap from all the dinks in the river, I get nothing. Again and again I cast but still nothing. It had to be my late start today. I give it almost an hour with not even the slightest tap and decide to call it quits for stripers today.

    On the way back in I decided to stop and try a hole where we'd been seeing shad lately. I'd seen them here before as late as September in this same spot. Hard as it is to believe.

    I moved above the hole and dropped anchor again in deeper water all of 3' or 4" deep. (better than where I was). I tied on a double fly of pink and flash #6 along with one of Jeff's Bloody Maria's #8 or #10. Now it's just cast and swing and let it sink. And again, and again, and again. Nothing. This has been one of the slowest days I've had in a long time and decide to call it quits.

    As I'm pulling the boat out of the water I can look down from the bank and I see the shad I had been hoping for. But I've already got the boat out of the water. And I'm tired, and it's already bright sun bearing down, but I need to catch SOMETHING.

    So I get the rod out of the boat and WALK back down the bank and try to cast. Surprise, I get a short cast out and get a hook-up right away. A nice hen shad. Then another cast, and another hook-up. And so it went for the next hour. Almost every cast was a hook-up. Even a couple of double hook-ups (remember I had two flies on).

    Then all of a sudden it stopped. I got spoiled real quick with non-stop grabs but it just plain stopped. Maybe the school moved away?
    Maybe a big striper came in on the splashing? Who knows? But I had a great last hour of a short fishing day and it's time for lunch.

    Amazing what you run into when you least expect it.
    Tony
    TONY BUZOLICH
    Feather River Fly
    Yuba City, CA.
    (530) 790-7180

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Citrus Heights
    Posts
    2,142

    Default

    Tony, It sounds like you found a ball of shad that are staged to move out. The ball does move around when disturbed by things like a striper, cormorant or passing boat. They could be around for a few days or disappear overnight. I was having fun finding them in the upper American in my drift boat but they left this past weekend.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sebastian, FL, USA, Earth
    Posts
    23,836

    Default

    Years ago we were talking with an old guy who fished King salmon below the Red Bluff diversion dam in the Fall.

    He said he waited until after September 1st to start because there were still too many American Shad in the runs.

    He lived in a trailer park on the East side of the river down stream from the dam. He was a locally famous fly fisher.
    Bill Kiene (Boca Grande)

    567 Barber Street
    Sebastian, Florida 32958

    Fly Fishing Travel Consultant
    Certified FFF Casting Instructor

    Email: billkiene63@gmail.com
    Cell: 530/753-5267
    Web: www.billkiene.com

    Contact me for any reason........
    ______________________________________

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