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It wasn’t a bad day considering we almost cancelled the fishing at 6 AM because the wind lady said it was howling 18 mph. We decided that a day off deserved a chance and ended up heading over to the lake anyways. When we got there, we walked out on the dock and decided it was too risky to launch. We went over to the forebay and it was relatively calm. We launched and caught a half dozen Stripers at the Mederios Wall and waited for the wind to die down on the big lake since I was hoping to get another shot at those schools of shad. The fish at the Forebay were dinks and we only caught one keeper. The water level was all the way up in the forebay however. At 11:00 AM we relaunched at Basalt and went directly to the trash racks to get Jim Crammer into some fish. They weren’t cooperative and we only landed 3 but they were all around 22 inches. We searched for the schools of SHAD that were cruising the edges just two days ago and couldn’t find them Even the pelicans were following us hoping for a score. I hadn’t fished with Jim on the lake for over a year but he did manage to catch a good Striper off the Trash racks and was happy about that. Bummer there were no shad to be found. The SAC according to Wayne Syn, is prime for shad right now. He and a friend caught 80 in 5 hours this past weekend. The wind finally died way down around 2PM and we looked for fish in Portuguese cove with no luck.

Redding Fly Shops Brad Jackson caught a 29 pounder at the trash racks at 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday May 7th on a Chartreuse and White Flashtail Clouser. Fishing with Dan Blanton (Source- Dan Blanton’s BBS), they reported another slower day from the low pressure. Another Pig comes from the Dam in the first week of May!  Looks like the Striper fishing in the lower Sac is also picking up according to The Fish Sniffer. Wednesday and Thursday’s conditions are blown out with winds in the high teens as the low pressure exits and the warm high pressure coming this weekend. Hope the winds settle by Saturday so I can give it another go and get the 20+ pig. Still seems those big ones are cruising the dam close to the rocks early in the morning. I think I want to be on the water at 7:00 AM.

With the Striper fishing going strong off the Trash Racks,  the last 4 trips have been pretty crowded with at least 4 or 5 other boats jockying around the racks with the Damn Dam Police megaphoning us to get back from the wall at least 500 feet.   I take my Calaway Range Finder out with me on the boat so I can play the line at 166.6 yards.    Again, another bureaucratic liberal rule to try to ruin our fun in the name of home security.  How absurd.  I got run off today but I was slammin them in the palm of the trash racks before the lady yelled me off.   They were in there thick and I had one on every cast for awhile. The surface water was up to 67 and the alge bloom was very thick in some places . I changed flies a lot.  Looking for that big one,  I started out with a 3 inch moss and black, rattled clouser.  I saw lots of smaller fish follow that fly to the boat without snapping at it.   When I switched to smaller flies,  I caught more fish with less follows to the boat.   Im getting fond of sparse Clousers  on size 2 and 1 hooks that have at least 2 inches of supple flash extending beyond the wing. I think the action is better than the just bucktail clousers that I used in the old days.   In fact Im going to tie some small clousers out of marabou.   It could be why the small while marabou flies were so effective last year–it could be about the micro action of the fly during those fast and erratic strips.  The small flies for quantity and the long 1/0s for size. I didn’t hook the big one yesterday but Dan Blanton got rocked in the backing on Friday, and Mr Santucci got two 17 pounders on the same flies on Wed–a size one Brown and Blue flashtail Clouser.  

Vaughn Willet was out yesterday racking numbers again.  He confirmed that his buddy caught more on a yellow size 2 Clouser while Vaughn was using a size 1 and 1/0 flies.   His buddy caught and released a 12 lb striper vertical jigging with a gold spoon!  I bugged out at around 2:00 when the racks got really crowded again after the Police Lady drove away,  I headed over to the Bay of Pigs flats.  Some of the boats near the racks were actually heckling the ranger lady !  I picked up two in 10 feet of water.  The visibility is getting greener by the day.  I also ran the bays from Basalt to the Point to look for schools of fish.  I didn’t meter any schools like those at the Racks.  Also, I did not see a school of shad all day.  The wind started picking up big with white caps starting around 2:30 and I left for home.   Its going to storm the next few days,  Hope Monday is flat.

I bought a new three bank battery charger and batteries for the boat .  Also, my IPILOT remote wouldn’t turn on after I switched out the batteries.  I spent the day with the foot peddle trying to deal with the wind.  I must have looked drunk out there since I couldn’t keep the boat going in a straight line with my toes steering the boat while casting–I looked like a pole dancer.  The last couple trips, I had some battery issues.  All the electronics on the boat suck power all day and I dont really run that much to charge my starter. The major suckers are the  24 volt Terrova with Ipilot and the ten inch Lowrance  and stereo.   After researching batteries and chargers,  I went with the new MinKota MK 345PC, two Wallmart type 29 MAXX Marine Batteries and a dual purpose EverStart for the starter.   I barely drew down the batteries today.   I almost purchased a replacement controller for the ipilot out on the lake.   The 4G reception at the trash racks is great.  Luckily I didn’t.  When I got home I started beating on the remote and I tried a couple new batteries–those funky CR-2450 lithium coin-types from Radio Shack.  After the tenth time switching batteries,  it finally powered up from a blank screen.  Possibly heat or pairing issues?  Who knows, but I have come to depend on that thing to keep me on the fish and it is pretty critical    MinKota has made an upgraded remote that is suppose to be better .  I’ll probably order a second one to be safe or upgrade to an Ipilot LINK!

On another note, I bought some Airflow Sniper T14s because someone at the California Fly shop told me all the delta guides have switched to them from the Rio’s.  I like the idea of a no stretch running line.   After using them for the last couple days,  Im going to stick with the RI0 Custom Outbound shorts.  I prefer the thicker running line on the RIO,  In the 70s and 80s using lead core heads,  I was the guy with the heavier MONO shooting line despite most of my buddies using smaller diameters.  Oh well, old habits.  I personally think the Rio tangle less and cast better.

Fishingdate – Saturday April 27, 2013

It may not have been number one on Rick’s bucket list but i had a feeling it was near the top. Ive been fishing with Rick for about two years. He is 75 years old and a retired IBM engineer who knew my dad. One of many things I admire about him is that he shows up on time at 4am if I offer him a spot on my boat. Saturday, the weather was great on the main lake. With the summer wind pattern kicking in, the lake was blowing hard at night and staying calm for the afternoons and building. The fog had been burning off on the coast early and we got to the boat ramp around 7am and noticed about 10 boats out already. Early out, we hit the Bay of Pigs trolling around like we use to do in high water and we picked up a couple. We cast flies in the bay to metered fish with not much luck.

Rick had been practicing with a t14 Sniper line on an 8wgt Predetor but has yet to hook a striper casting. He’s trolled many stripers but I have to say, he has made over 100 casts and he’s due. I felt like today would be the day and I concentrated on putting him over fish. We decided to zoom over to Romero and try the rocks. There were about 4 bait fishing boats gathered in front of the trash racks real close and Dan Blanton was fishing around the pilings inside and close with his grandson. I started metering large schools of fish in 130 feet of water outside as I pulled into the east side of the dam. We stopped, IPILOT Anchored over a school of fish 25 feet down. On my first cast, I could feel the fish hitting the fly on the drop. Caught two right away and Rick missed two fish on the set. The area was full of schools of American Shad also. We could see them shimmering by occasionally. I felt like maybe they were hitting our little size one yellow clousers but I wasn’t able to hook any. On monday , I will bring a shad fly rig just in case. Another flyfisherman, Vaughn Willet, was doing well drifting further out from us in deeper water along the full length of the dam. He was hooked up constantly and it looked like he had a few doubles as well. The fish were averaging 22 -24 inches and strong in the 64 degree water. Rick finally managed his first fish on a cast fly at around 2:00 PM when the solonar tables suggested a peak time. He ended the day 4 for 8. Not bad for a 75 year old guy. We ended the day with 2o fish and the jinx has finally ended and I dont think Rick will ever want to troll again.