Looking for Stripers?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I would be in a boat in the lower reaches of the American River from the mouth upstream to Paradise Beach now.

I would also be looking at the mouth of the Feather River.

April/May is pretty much the spawning run timing.

After that they will be in the entire Lower American River all summer.

[Tony Buzolich]

Hi Bill, and all.

Stripers have been showing well at Verona for several weeks now but then the school will move off and it seems dead till some new fish move in. The sea lions are already here as well so that may have something to do with the striper movement too.

We've been getting good reports on stripers as far up as Butte City already with plenty of action from Colusa on down on the Sac.

Because of the low water flows on the Feather we're not getting near the fish we got last year and most seem to be heading up the Sac. The Sac has been running very clear for the past couple of weeks as well and several of my fly customers have been nailing fish in the Colusa, Wards Landing, Lovey's Landing area.

I've been selling 3/0 Clousers in Chartruse-White topped with Blue Krystal Flash as fast as I can tie them( hint-hint Charlie).

As for the Feather, the low water is stopping any movement of stripers at Shang Hai Bend Falls. There is about a 5'-6' drop at the falls today and stripers don't jump, so, they pile up what few there are.

A lot of the guides from up here are still taking clients down to the delta and hitting Sherman Lake, Rio Vista flats, and the mouth of Montezuma Slough. These guys are trolling broken backRebels and such but are picking up 30-40 fish days regularly NO B/S

So, what I get out of all of this is with the lack of rain and good water flow the stripers are not moving up as fast into the upper rivers.

I'll be on the water again tomarrow and will keep updates current.

TONY

www.feather-river-fly.com

[Bill Martin]

Wondering if anyone has targeted these areas that Tony is talking about with a fly rod. Certainly would be tough the last couple days, with all the wind, but there've been some calm days lately.

Anyway I've read reports elsewhere, like the SF Chronicle, of folks trolling in the Sac between Rio Vista & Collinsville, and doing very well, targeting water 5-9' deep.

Seems that most fly flingers target other areas, including myself. Anyone doing any good in the Sac in these areas?
Thanks.
Bill

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Was at the Flyfishers of Davis meeting tonight and someone there reported catching Stripers near Knights Landing on the Sacramento River.

[Tony Buzolich]

Tristan,

I politely dissagree with your statement about the Sac having too much water to effectively cover an area with a fly.

I just got off the Sac about an hour ago and had one of the best mornings I've had in quite a while.

We launched right at 6:00am in the dark and started casting as soon as we could see. The water is in great color probably because of the lack of rain run off.

All of the fish we took were right up against the rocks, behind snags, and in little eddys just off the main current.

We drifted fairly fast as the river is running at 8000cfs+ at the Colusa bridge. Getting the line down was sometimes a bit of a problem because of the speed of the water and the wind. Whew! Speaking of WIND. Watch your back casts, side casts, every cast, and then follow the old saying of "Chuck and Duck". This was the only bad part of the morning and it seemed to get worse as the day went on.

But, for "Fish", On the fly?,,,, :P ,,,,,, Get Out There Now.

Interesting, that these early fish ARE all males so far, so were the ones I took on the Feather a couple of days ago. Several were soo ripe they spilled everywhere upon landing.

TONY

www.feather-river-fly.com

[Katz]

We got several in Miners Slough right near Rio Vista and the spilled all over the place in the boat....

I agree, seems early.

Katz