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.
