Fishing Report, Feb. 16, 2007
February 16, 2007
Well, we finally got some rain here in the Sacramento Valley last weekend and that put some color into some of our local waters…which was a good news/bad news type of situation as it brought some fresh steelhead into the American and Feather rivers but it also muddied up a white-hot striper bite.
Read on for more details…
American River
As per usual on this creek, the steelhead fishing hasn’t exactly been red hot. However, the rain (via the storm drains) put a little murk into the water which seemed to draw a few more steelhead into the system. We saw some nice winter-run fish (including a few really fresh ones still sporting sea lice) and the beginnings of the spring run. In addition, we still have fair numbers of wild 12-inch halfpounders around.
I’ve been getting my fish on eggs and plugs and it’s been about a 50-50 mix of the two.
Look for the numbers of winter fish to taper off now but, as I said before, those chrome spring footballs should start showing up in bigger schools as the month progresses.
Delta Stripers
Well, well, well…it’s been several weeks since I’ve had anything good to say about the striped bass scene down in the Delta. That prolonged cold snap we had in January really put the fish off the bite. However, the rain last weekend really warmed things up and the fishing responded.
Down near Collinsville, the bite went totally nutty for trollers and 30 to 40 fish a day were common. However, the mud has found its way down the Sacramento and the water down there is clouding up. It’s also a mess in the Mokelumne and lower San Joaquin, so it’s been a bit of a struggle to find clean water and good schools of fish over the past couple days.
However, we’re still managing to post some decent scores on small schoolies while throwing swimbaits and trolling Bombers. As the water clears, the fishing should get fire hot again because the water’s now up in the mid 50’s.
Upcoming Schedule
I’m bouncing back and forth from stripers to steelhead almost on a daily basis, depending on what my clients want to do and it will probably stay that way until the end of March, when I’ll start concentrating on stripers as they run up the Sacramento.
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