For the past couple of weeks Bob Simms on his Saturday morning outdoor show (5:00 - 8:00 AM KFBK 1530), has been talking about the influx of striped bass coming into the bay and delta. As evidenced by Lucas Dement and friend they were able to find a few in the delta waters close to home. Trolling around Rio Vista and the lower San Joaquin seems to be the most productive. Obviously flies work too.

Now here’s some more to the striper story. As most of you know the shad have been in the upper rivers for several months now. Great fun fish, but it’s starting to wind down some. After they spawn they drop down river and head out to sea like other anadromous fish do.

When they’re in the rivers striped bass gorge on them and it’s sometimes hard to take a striper on a fly when their bellies are full of shad.

So now the shad are ending their time here and the stripers are getting hungry again and the bite has turned on. This morning Jim May, myself, and Dennis (friend) decided to give it a try and headed upriver.

Still somewhat dark (perfect timing) I make my first cast backhanded into some fast water and get an immediate hook-up. Wow! In this fast water I can’t tell how big he is but slowly he comes to the boat for a quick picture and release.



A few minutes later Jim and Dennis both have hook-ups and more nice stripers come to the boat. Trying to control the boat, make good casts, and keep from snagging everything around you is tough. Jim is really good at this but we still managed to lose a good number of our best flies to the rocks and snags.



On our way home we hit several other favorite spots and picked up a few more fish along the way. Here Dennis picks up the best fish of the day in a weedy mudline. It’s almost 10:30AM, the wind is still blowing hard, and it’s starting to get hot. A good time to quit.



Reports have been coming in good on both of the main rivers up here as well as the lower American too.
Tony