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On Monday 4-28 Elkhorn Outdoors in Rio Linda reported a new wave of sturgeon made it up the Sacramento River from Verona to Knight's Landing. Ghost shrimp, eel and pile worms have been the hot baits. They have been selling 40 bags of anchovies per day as stripers are moving through in numbers. They are also selling shad gear, such as the 1/8th oz. champagne curlytailed grubs in response to shad moving into the Sacramento and Feather Rivers.

Bob Boucke of Johnson's in Yuba City said the recent releases from Lake Oroville have pushed up the river flows to 3000 cfs, bringing the stripers up the river to Shanghai Falls. He landed three stripers to 10-pounds in a brief period tossing Clowers on the Feather, and he had even better numbers on the flies earlier in the week on the Sacramento River. Sardines, anchovies, pileworms, jumbo minnows are all taking stripers. Shad have moved into the Feather, but they aren't thick yet.

Garret at Kittle's Outdoors in Colusa reported a slower striper bite over the weekend due to the heavy boat pressure, but there has been an outstanding bite during the week in all manners: trolling, rubber worms or bait. The Sacramento River is below 42 feet at the State Park, closing the ramp at this facility. Shad have not shown up as of yet.

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On Thursday 4-24 Steve Huber of Steve Huber's Drift Boat Guide Service reported having a good week in the Colusa area, scratching out limits to 20-pounds as the fish are still holding down river in the Tisdale/Knight's Landing area with the water temperatures cold from the recent fronts. He expected things to really heat up with warmer weather in the next week. Temps are forecasted to hit the 90s this weekend and any spike in water temps above 58 degrees will put the stripers in full spawn mode. Boat traffic is light on weekdays but the weekends are crowded especially from Grimes to Colusa.
Kittles Outdoors in Colusa reported outstanding striper fishing with the best bite on drifted live minnows near Tisdale, Grimes or Colusa. The water is still a bit too cold for the top water bite to take off, but trollers are scoring with broken-backed Rebels. A few sturgeon have been landed below Colusa and near Tisdale. The river is sitting at 42.5 feet at the Colusa Bridge, but most boats can carefully launch at the State Park. The Kittle's annual striper derby produced a winning limit of 46-pounds for 8 fish. There are a few large females moving into the system.
Pete Sparacio is back to drifting on the upper Sac. Pete says the rainbow action is fair but should heat up very soon. He says on most days they are seeing 10 to 20 fish hooked most running 2 to 4 pounds. Roe with a puffball and the occasional plug are accounting for the majority of their fish. Pete will be offering trout trips here through the summer and may be running some Klamath salmon trips this September. He will be back on the Trinity starting in October.

Sacramento river April 20th
Steve Huber is splitting his time between running trout trips on Whiskey Town Lake and the lower Sac for stripers. He has been fishing the Wards Landing to Grimes area of the Sac the past few days and while he is getting limits says it is a grind. They had limits of stripers to 8 pounds on Friday 4-18 and the catch is mostly smaller males in the 5 to 8 pound range. Steve says he is getting all his action on minnows but with the high boat pressure, finding a spot where you are work them without the fish being spooked is tough. Water temps is 56 degrees and the fish will go into spawn mode when temps hit 58 to 61. He launched at Wards Landing today and said there was 40 other boats backed up and working the same area. His advise is to fish weekdays and that is when he will be offering most of his Sac trips.
Raith Heryford of RH Guide Service reported that they are "slaughtering the stripers" in the Sacramento River from Knight's Landing to Colusa. The fly bite has been phenomenal and the rubber worm bite is also on in a big way. The fish range to 8-pounds, but there are some larger females to 15-pounds moving into the system now. He filmed a TV show with Justin Wolff of AnglerWest on Thursday night for terrific "lights out" action. He said the bite will definitely slow down on the weekend, as the fish scatter in response to all of the boat pressure. He said anglers will either have to switch to bait when the fish are scarce.
Sturgeon fishing continues to be great in the same stretch of the river with fish rolling all over the place. In addition, guides are hooking salmon on a regular basis while fishing for stripers. He thought this bite would last for another three weeks or so.

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Small jet boat for sale
My kids and I have outgrown this early 90s, 14 foot Klamath with a 2002, 20 horse two stroke factory Mercury jet (30 power head)  with low hours. The boat is in great shape and set up for fishing the Klamath and Sac. Trailer, floor boards, river anchor, spare tire, cover and ores for side drifting included.  Can plane with up to 500 + pounds and run in as little as 4 inches of water. Very economical to run, you can fish from Klamath to Blue Creek and back on a single 6 gallon tank of gas. $3000.00
Mike 707 479-0992
 

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