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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.
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.
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
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single 6 gallon tank of gas. $3000.00
Mike 707 479-0992
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