New Fishing Report Section!

You asked for it and now you’ve got it! Our new fishing report section that so many of you have been clamoring for is up and running!

We’re starting with Northern California and will steadily add new waters in this state and others in the upcoming weeks. These babies are like Fishing Reports on steroids — in addition to a run-down of what’s happening from a fishing standpoint, each report will feature photos of the area, a map, current weather, water conditions, photographic list of species available, plus trusted guides, lodging and tackle shops in the area.

You can find the new report section in the menu bar:

Or, click HERE

CA to declare war on striped bass?

Have you heard about the kookey new Bill that would basically declares war on California striped bass?

Introduced by Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield last Friday, AB 1553 would lift fishing restrictions on striped bass, which are non-native to California. The rationale is stripers are invasive, apex predators that devour endangered fish such as Delta smelt, winter-run Chinook salmon and the soon to be listed longfin smelt.

By allowing for anarchy-style fishing (no size or bag limits), striper populations could be severely effected by over-harvest, resulting in yet another opportunity lost for the state’s anglers. In addition, the bill would cancel any revenue raised by the Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp that was slated for striped bass recovery.

“This bill is just trying to strike a balance,” Fuller said. “The state’s water system is failing and we are taking all these steps to alleviate the impact on endangered fish, which has a major effect on people up and down the state that don’t have enough water.”

California native fish expert, noted biologist Dr. Peter Moyle from U.C. Davis says this about it:

“There is no hard evidence that striped bass specifically have caused any fish declines or even suppressed fish populations in the Delta, although it is certainly possible under the right circumstances.” Read his entire response at Alex Breitler’s blog in the Stockton Record.

And there’s the rub. It’s all about the water. She’s throwing stripers under the bus when the real problem with the Delta system is a lack of water. If you need any more proof of that, just look at who’s backing the bill — the Modesto Irrigation District and the Kern County Water Agency. Kinda says it all doesn’t it?

There’s no denying that striped bass eat untold thousands of salmon and smelt. But so too do largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, black and white crappie, channel catfish and a whole host of other non-native species. Are we going to try to get rid of them all, too?

Plus, before we started exporting record amounts of water out of the Delta in recent years, you never heard much talk about the so-called “striper problem.” Stripers (and all those other invasive species I just mentioned) have co-existed with salmon and smelt for 150 years. The massive, record-high water diversions have come about only over the past few years. Is it a coincidence that so many fisheries are suddenly in dire straits? I think not…

We aren’t addressing the issues here, people, and by doing that we will see the decline of all our fisheries.

Hope those suckerfish can hang on…they soon may be all we have left!

The not-so-secret sturgeon bait

Okay, so it’s not exactly a secret, but roe is one hell of a productive sturgeon bait. Ever since we started catching diamondbacks on eggs years ago while fishing for salmon on the Sacramento River, I always wondered why the sturgeon guys didn’t use the stuff. After all, we caught pretty good numbers of fish boondoggin’.

Well, as it turns out, sturgeon guys are a crafty lot and small groups of anglers had been using salmon roe and keeping it quiet. Since then, the lid has been blown off the story and everybody’s using it.

Before we get too far along here, a few quick pointers. First off, don’t cure your eggs with a sulfite-based salmon cure…sturgeon don’t like eggs cooked that way as much — unless you’re in freshwater. In salt, plain is better. Keep in mind, that the cure isn’t quite as important in briny water since the eggs won’t milk all that much. If you want to add something, soak the eggs in scent first.

Okay, so now Jay Lopes of Right Hook Sportfishing in West Sacramento shows how it’s done…

Bury

Wrap

Huck

Balance

Catch!

Repeat

Foggy Morning Popper Bass

A little early morning dance with a popper-eating striper on the California Delta…

Another Swimbait Salmon!

Reformed salmon angler Tony Koregelos of Sacramento, CA shows off a chrome 20-pound Chinook salmon that ate a swimbait intended for striped bass in the California Delta.
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More nice Delta stripers…

Striper fishing on the Delta is still going very nicely and the average size of the fish we’ve been getting for the past two weeks has been solid, including some bass over 20 pounds in the last several days. We have been getting most of the bites on topwater poppers, though the swimbait bite showed some signs of life yesterday, too.

The wind looks like it will hold off most of the week and then we have some cloudy days coming in over the weekend, which should really help the fishing!

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Great Topwater Bite in the AM!

We found some hot topwater fishing on the Delta this morning while throwing poppers and all the fish were got on top were 10+ pounds, including a 41-inch, 26 pounder! Here’s a video….

26-pound Delta Striper from Fish with JD on Vimeo.

And, a nice double header for Bobby and Bob Allsup…

Striper Morning

A crisp, greasy-smooth morning. A topwater plug chug-chug-chugin’ across the surface. Geese cackling overhead and a big striper somewhere down below hears the breakfast bell ringing. Soon, the calm will be shattered and the popper will disappear in a violent explosion of spray.

Ah, yes, I love those fall mornings on the Delta. I can’t wait!

Prospect Island Fish Rescue!

Wow…it’s already been a year since the Prospect Island Fish Rescue. Though we rescued 1,800 striped bass that day, many thousands (the number may have been as high as 10,000+) of adult and juvenile stripers perished in the mud when the island was pumped dry — the effects of which we’ve been feeling in the rivers, Bay and Delta this summer and fall.

Here’s a look back at what happened that icy December day…

It was a cold, wet, muddy job, but 50 of us headed out to Prospect Island on Saturday morning to see if we could save any of the fish stranded there by the Bureau of Reclamation. Team Salvage was made up entirely of volunteers (lead by Bob McDaris and Jeff Nash, who coordinated everything) who gave their Saturday to saving fish. When the smoke cleared and the dust (mud) settled, we captured 1,466 live fish (1,462 striped bass, 2 big largemouth and 2 jumbo cats) and released them into Minor Slough. Though most of the fish were in sad shape from living in 6 inches of skanky, silt-choked water for two weeks, only a couple went belly up after being released back into the Delta.

Here’s my photo log from the day….

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