May 9, 2012
STRIPERS & SHAD
The Delta was wide open last week!
Holy smokes…it’s been a busy month! The striper fishing has, overall, been very good so far this spring, and with water temps cooled off by the last storm, the fish are hanging around nicely.
Where have I been fishing? Well…more like where haven’t I been? Stripers are magically appearing and disappearing fish, so I have been on the Feather, the Sac between Freeport and Knights landing and down on the lower San Joaquin. Last week, we had some epic 100+ fish days and the shad bite lately has busted loose as well. I’ll be wherever the fish are…and it looks like we’ll have good action for some time to come yet! And then, don’t forget salmon opens mid-July!
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April 9, 2012
SAC & FEATHER STRIPERS: It’S ON!
Now that the weather has settled and the waters are coming down, striper fishing in the Sacramento and Feather rivers has been making a dramatic improvement. Starting on Thursday, the fishing really started coming to life and it has just gotten better on through Easter Sunday. I’ve been bouncing between the Sac & Feather and we’ve been fishing spoons and swim baits mainly, though bait as well. The fish were on the small side at the beginning of last week but the overall size improved over the weekend as well. This week looks like a winner!!
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March 30, 2012
METRO STRIPERS SHOWING
We caught some nice fish this week to 12 pounds
The weather has been a bit crazy and the water levels have been bouncing all around lately but we’re finally seeing the first waves of stripers move through the Sacramento Metro area. Last Sunday, the first good shot of fish moved through and then we hooked 10 fish on Monday. Lousy weather and rising water on Tuesday made things tougher but we still managed to get some nice keeper bass. It was better on Weds again but the water is up now and I’m going to wait until Monday to get back out there. Hopefully, flows will start to drop again next week!
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March 19, 2012
TIME FOR STRIPERS!
I’ve been doing my science fishing job and writing articles the past couple weeks but am very excited to get back out on the water, starting tomorrow. I’m especially fired up now that we’ve actually had a shot of rain. The Sac and Feather rivers came waaaay up over the weekend and that will most certainly bring a fresh wad of striped bass in. The flows are dropping now and the fishing could be excellent in a matter of a few days, so stay tuned!
I’ll be on all the Valley rivers chasing stripers from now through June, so hit me up if you’d like to hop aboard. What was looking like maybe a tougher season (due to low flows) has just turned around and it should be, as they say: “On like Donkey Kong” soon!
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Feb. 4, 2012
STEELIES, STEELIES!!
Eel River...yea baby!
We had a banner week on the Eel, hooking double digit numbers of chrome steelhead every day. The water and weather were perfect and the fish were so damned hot! I’ll be back up there again Feb 18-26, so get in touch ASAP if you want to get in on the fun. The river’s absolutely loaded with steelies and as we were up there, the lower end went crazy too, so there are lots of fish to come!!
Closer to home, the American has also been pretty dang steady the past few days and some really nice winter steelies have been showing. The fish are hitting roe and plugs mainly. I have room next week!
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Jan. 16, 2012
AMERICAN STEEL
A happy 40th B-Day for Christa!
Seems odd that it took me until the middle of January to get on the stream in my back yard, but the stripers in the Delta have been keeping me busy. But finally, I had Jeff & Christa Darlington out today in the chilly North wind. The wind didn;t really help our cause much be we managed to convert on 1 of 2 opportunities and Christa, who just had a birthday, landed the first steelhead of her 40s on a plug. Though it was a hatchery brat, she released it!
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JAN. 4, 2012
TIME FOR AMERICAN STEELIES!
THE “upper” American River opened to steelhead fishing on January 1 and the fishing sounded like it was pretty damned good! I say “sounded like” because I was down and out with the holiday crud and had to cancel all fishing missions the first week of the year. Bummer! Oh well, I heard that boats got as many as 5 fish a day and that sounds pretty darned encouraging! I will be back at it starting Monday, so I will have updated reports then!
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Dec. 16, 2011
BERRYESSA’S STILL HOT!
Nice king from Berryessa!
With the exception of one low pressure day when a front moved through, the fishing at Berryessa has been outstanding! We’re still spooning 1/2 to 1-ounce shad jigs for awesome mixed bag action on kings, rainbows, three varieties of bass and even some big catfish!
A nice mix of kings and trout for the grill!
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Dec. 13, 2011
BERRYESSA MADNESS!
Nice Eagle Lake Rainbow!
Our mixed bag Berryessa trips have been a blast lately! We’re seeing 30-50 fish a day while jigging with light spoons! The kings have made a stromg showing of late and the rainbows, spotts, largemouth, smallies and catfish are all hitting as well. We are getting 5-6 species a day!
Rob S. with a nice king salmon
Riles with a good smallie!
Rob S with a spotted bass
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Dec. 10, 2011
DELTA STRIPERS
Dave + Stacy with 2/3rds of a triple header on spoons!
The weather + water temps are on the cool side and that’s made striper fishing a little tougher than usual. Still, we seeing some nice fish on swimbaits and on iron. A little shot of rain will warm things up and make the bite crank wide open!
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Nov. 15, 2011
GRAND SLAM TIME!!
A nice box of landlocked kings from the reservoir!
Now that salmon fishing has pretty much sputtered out, we’ve moved onto our super-cool Grand Slam trips on the lake…Fishing has been really good of late and 50-60 fish a day is pretty common at the moment. We’re light tackle fishing for a mixture of king salmon to 4 pounds, rainbows to 20 inches, the occasional brown, spotted bass and smallies to 3-4 pounds and some double-digit catfish. It’s a blast and there are few places where you’re going to see more action than this!
Nice rainbow on a jigging spoon
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Oct. 16, 2011
Nov. 7, 2011
GETTING TOWARDS THE END…
A nice box of chrome from the Sac on Nov. 6
Trolled the Sac on Sunday and maximized our opportunities…3 bites and got ‘em all! Fished tonight on the American after dark for nada — except for some cold fingers and toes! The night bite seems to be done for the year…
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Oct. 16, 2011
Nov. 5, 2011
SALMON TAPERING OFF!
Though we put in a long day, Chris P. got his limit of nice bucks!
Well, what has been the greatest salmon season in the Valley in over 10 years seems to be coming very quickly to a close. With the closure of the upper American on Nov. 1, we lost one of our most consistent options — there are fish below the closure but they are fairly few & far between. The Sac Metro area has been hit and miss…but we’re still seeing some pockets of chrome move through.
I’m still picking away at the kings, but those big numbers days are in the rear-view mirror now. But, late fall is the time to hook a hawg, so that’s kinda the focus now…take a shot at a chrome beast. Strpers will start taking off in the Delta soon now that we have some cooler weather and I’ll switch to that soon. Steelies in the American are also an option.
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Oct. 29, 2011
SALMON STILL ON THE MENU!
Sac Chrome from Friday!
Well, been so busy lately…kinda got side-tracked and the reports fell on the back burner. Anyway, fishing remains good on the American where the fish are numerous but getting pretty dark. I started going back down to the Sac again and the kings have been there the past few days. This time of year, you’re looking at quality rather than quantity as the fish are typically very bright with sea lice — and you have a good shot at a big one now. Today, we trolled for 4 nice kings, only one of which was a jack.
Friday's Box
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Oct. 17, 2011
AMERICAN STILL STRONG!
It’s funny how fishing goes…we started off strong today with several kings and could have been limited out by about 7:30 had we not culled through some darker ones. After I’d released a couple limits worth of salmon, we hit a cold streak for a couple hours and then finished strong and were back in early. Phew! The fish bit Kwikfish & eggs.
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Oct. 16, 2011
ALL-AMERICAN FUN!
The American was crowded today but she was also very generous and we had nice and easy limits on plugs! The fish continue to be smaller adult males mostly…cookie-cutter 7-10 pounders. In the afternoon, we hooked around 10 fish if memory serves…
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Oct. 15, 2011
THE CRAZY LIFE & TIMES OF A GUIDE!
We fished the Metro area again this morning and got spanked. There were tons of boats and a small handful of fish caught. Unfortunately, we never had a bite. So, I decided to move my afternoon trip to the American. While I was there, the Sac blew up as a big school of fish showed in the stretch I had been fishing. Luckily, the American was kind and we got our fish. Sometimes, you just never know…
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Oct. 14, 2011
SAC SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE
Dick M. with one that didn't get away!!
We fished the Sac in the Metro area this morning and, while not red hot, we poked away and ended up with 8 grabs. That’s the good news…the bad news is we lost three fish at the boat and went home with 2 in the box. It was pretty much a jack show for us and I think that is why the fish were not sticking so well. Some days the bear eats you I guess…
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Oct. 13, 2011
SAC STILL SLOW BUT AMERICAN HOT
The Sac Metro area was again slow today as we appear to be between schools. Again, the report from Isleton was good a couple days back, so this could pop again Friday or Saturday. In the afternoon, I shot up the American and we landed 8 kings to 13 pounds and lost several others on eggs.
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Oct. 12, 2011
SAC SLOWER THIS AM, BUT AMERICAN SOLID!
We started the day trolling the Sac Metro area and the bite seems to have tapered off as we appear to be in-between pods of fish. We saw one other fish caught this morning and we ended up with 2 hooked and one landed.
Keith W. with a dandy chromer from the Sac on 10/12
Then, we bumped up the American for some evening action that produced limits without too much effort though we had a strange lull in between a hot start and a strong finish. Most of the fish were 6-9 pounds but we did get a 23-pound kicker that cut blood red!
Matt and his second-ever salmon. Nice work!
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Oct. 11, 2011
SAC STILL GOING!
Rob B. with a bright hen from 10/11
Well, the rain yesterday mucked up the water on the Sac today but we still managed to get 8 bites and land 4 chrome beauties to 22 pounds, two of which still had sea lice! Trolling was the ticket again. I’m headed down there again tomorrow in the AM but the water may be too off color. We’ll see! Then, it’s an afternoon run on the Americano.
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Oct. 10, 2011
AMERICAN CARNAGE!
Fished an afternoon mission on the American today & caught a bunch of nice kings. Sorry…no pix. It was raining like crazy!
Oct. 9, 2011
SAC CHROME!
Some of the nice kings we had on Sunday, 10/9!
We trolled the Sacramento River near the Metro Area again today for a total of 15 grabs and 11 salmon. We had three over 20 pounds and most were chrome bright. Dang, this is just like the good ol’ days!!
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Oct. 8, 2011
BRIGHT KINGS ON THE SAC!
Yeeaaahhh!
After a looong break, I returned to one of my favorite old stomping grounds on the lower Sacramento River today and we had a really nice outing, boating 5 bright kings to 22 pounds and losing two others. Man, is it good to be home!
I fished at night also, and the bite on the LAR was brutal. Many boats and maybe 3 fish caught.
Oct. 6, 2011
INCREDIBLE SALMON BITE!!
Holy crap, there are a lot of salmon around! The American’s loaded, the Feather and Sac, too. Guys have been posting some staggeringly high numbers of fish, too. I’m on the Sac & American doing morning, afternoon and night trips until this all ends (probably sometime in early December). Just got back from the Trinity, where the fishing was good. Now I am ready for the local scene. Stay tuned! Reservations: (916) 388-1956 or fishwithjd@gmail.com
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Thanks for a great day fishing today JD! Five salmon yesterday and six today…yours is the boat to be on.
Steve & Deb