Poor Conditions and a Great Day

[Tony Buzolich]

If you’ve looked or gone outside in the past couple of days you’ve noticed that the fog has come in to our great valley. A few days ago the forecast called for some mild wind to come in on Sunday and Monday and blow some of this gray stuff away, and so our fishing trip was planned.

We get our gear ready, pack our lunches, and fuel the boat and truck, and we’re heading for the delta on Monday.

This morning we all load up. The fog is very light .(at least in Yuba City) and we know it will burn off early so we can have a great day on the water.

As we head south toward Sacramento the “light” fog thickens and turns in to the proverbial pea soup. The farther south we head the worse things get. Soon it’s hard to see anything except a pair of blurry tail-lights a short distance ahead. If you back off a little you loose sight of the red blur and that is even worse so you follow a little closer than you’d like and hope that he can see someone else’s lights ahead of him.

Eventually we get to Flag City and decide to stop for breakfast at Rocky’s. Surely while we eat the fog will burn off as the sun comes up and we can get on with the business of fishing. Well,,,,,,,, not today. I don’t think the sun ever even came up and the fog just continues to get thicker.

We make our way (very cautiously) across the low lands looking for any familiar landmark as we head toward the ramp at our marina. Eventually we find the ramp and a completely empty parking lot. Why isn’t everyone out fishing?

It soon becomes apparent the fog isn’t lifting and we can barely see the end of the dock let alone the river.

Still anxious to get on the water we idle slowly along the bank following the levee and tulles and hopefully head in the direction we want to go.

Since we can’t see to travel, we might as well fish close to the marina until this fog burns off. We’d move a little ways, cast a bit, and then move a little more. The fog doesn’t seem to want to cooperate but the tide is still coming in and carries us upstream to one of my old spots, a shallow bar at the fork of two channels.

Brett hooks up first with a nice five pounder that really takes off hard around the boat. Wahoooo! Always nice to get that skunk off the boat and things immediately look brighter even with the gray sky around us.

I hook up next with another nice schoolie, and then Brett hooks up again. We repeat this scenario for the next two hours all the while Bill, on the bow, can’t seem to connect.

A sea lion moves in to our activity and immediately shuts things down. Time to move, fog or no fog. We still can’t see more than a slight blur of the tulles but we head downstream now with the tide to another flat surrounding a small island.

Bill now has the hot rod and is soon making up for the slow start to the morning by bringing in two fish back to back with two casts. We seem to be right on top of a nice school with sixteen fish to the boat and only a couple of dinks under legal size.

As the tide quits and a couple of boats troll through our area the school disappears. It’s now afternoon and the fog still hasn’t let up stopping us from traveling to some of our other favorite spots.

With the incoming tide the water is moving again and the fish are feeding again as well. We drift with the currant picking up fish after fish as we go. More dinks now but still enough bigger fish to keep things fun.

As darkness comes in the fog still has never gone away,,,, not even let up a little. We make it back to our marina with one of the most successful days in the delta we’ve ever had.

Conditions?,,,, the worst we’ve ever had.

This time of year the fog is always a threat and should never be taken casually. If you absolutely have to be on the water you should carry every possible safety and navigational device available, be intimately familiar with the waters you’re on, and even then think twice before venturing out.

TONY

[Don Powell]

When you live here for 20+ years and have fished "blue-bird" days, rainy days, days when the barometer drops out, NW wind days, and foggy days, you come to appreciate the latter. Yeah, it's a tough day to go very far, but you don't really need to...the fish are far more aggressive when they feel less vulnerable due to the fog.
Congrats on a great day!