Striped Bass from the California Delta

Dan Blanton with a San Luis Striper

Striped Bass from Monterey Surf	American Shad	Bart Rulon with Delta Striper
Breon with a Delta Striper	Matt Havelock with a Delta Largemouth	Kevin Sloan with a Surf Perch
Stan Pleskunas with a fly rod Albacore		Steve Cali with a Surf Perch
	Stan Pleskunas with a world record fly rod White Sea Bass

Below is a fishing log beginning in March of 2007. I will update this log from time to time as I pursue new fishing adventures with the many friends I have made in fly fishing.

Enjoy!

March 12, 2007.   This is my first entry into my fishing log on my new website.    This trip was for the first white bass of the 2007 season at Lake Nacimiento. I fished with my friend Steve Cali, who loves white bass fishing as much as I do.    Lake Nacimiento is a picturesque lake near Paso Robles, California.   What makes the lake attractive is its myriad coves and both large and small canyon arms that give the lake both an interesting shape as well as intimacy, with oak dotted shore lines, rocky cliffs and deeply wooded coves.  It's real beauty, however is way back in the "The Narrows" which is the canyon formed by the Nacimeinto River which feeds the lake.  The narrows in March are a joy to fish for the scenery but made particularly enjoyable by the White Bass, which congregate in the Narrows during early spring to begin their spawn in the upper reaches of the narrows.

"Whites" are a cousin to the striped bass but unlike the striped bass they are not anadromous meaning they do not migrate from salt to fresh water.   They are strictly a fresh water fish and native to the Mississippi River drainage.   They were stocked in only one lake in California......Lake Nacimiento.   These fish are strikingly beautiful to me.  Like the striped bass, they are not obviously colorful but rather display subtle tints of pinks, yellows and greens.  The best fact about the white bass is that they are exceptionally game to the fly.   They are voracious eaters and particularly fond of threadfin shad, which are abundant in lake Nacimiento.    Any fish that eats other fish are almost always effectively caught by the fly.  This is because the fly fisher can imitate a bait fish well through good fly tying craft and can use different fly lines to put the imitation in the feeding zone and keep it there.   Add a skilled presentation with proper retrieve and fly fisher can very often out produce most other means of catching a fish such as the white bass.

On this day of fishing we caught our first white bass for the season fairly early in the morning. This was followed by a brief rally of about ten more whites.  Too soon the bite faded and we began to fear the worst...........we were too early.   Our fears were confirmed by low water temperatures of around 53 degrees in the water coming down from the Santa Lucia Mountains. White Bass become most active in the spring when the water temps get up into the mid to high 50's in the morning and reach the low to mid 60's by the afternoon.  Knowing we were not likely to enjoy hot fishing, we decided to pass some time with a brief walk up the "Naci" river to cast a bit for the occaisional spotted bass, eat breakfast and later to throw a stick for my dog Annie.   Here is a portrait of Annie , my constant fishing companion for 5 years now.  

After our mid morning break, we fished hard the rest of the day with less than stellar results until late afternoon when we enjoyed fast action for about an hour.   We caught quite a few white bass, several smallmouth bass, a crappie, and good numbers of spotted bass.  The hot fly was without question the SST fly,  A strange little fly that is weighted in an unusual way to cause it to dart back and forth.  Whites can not seem to resist it.  

Steve finished the day for us with this nice white bass caught on one of his new, and stunningly handsome "Lefty's Deceiver" style flies.   I'll be sure to publish a photo of one of Steve's new creations on my next Naci Report.

March 15, 2007  Went back to Lake Nacimiento for a second attempt at active white bass fishing.   The bite was much improved.   It was active fishing, especially in the morning.   Here is a photo of one of our white bass.

The whites were not yet spawning in the headwater riffles but rather staging in the deeper water of the narrows.   Here is my friend Steve Cali casting to some bass.   And then catching one.

We also caught plenty of spotted bass such as this one.  There was also quite a parade of wildlife from the ubiquitous bald eagles and wild turkeys to deer, red tailed hawks and a few golden eagles as well.  March 15th was a good day.   I'll show off Steve's flies on my next report from Naci.

March 23, 2007  Another great day for Steve Cali and I at Lake Nacimiento.   Although the action wasn't as fast as it had been in years past, it was still good.   I thought on this report, rather than essentially say "same as on the 15th", I'd include some shots of Steve's flies and then a few "notebook" pieces I did based on this years Nacimiento Lake fishing.    First, here's Steve's new Deceiver style flies.    Now for a few paintings.   First here is one of a fisherman casting from shore.    And here is one of a steelhead sketched below an image of "the Narrows."   I chose to sketch a steelhead trout because the Nacimiento was once a known steelhead river.   Fish would swim up the Salinas to the Nacimiento River to spawn.   The Nacimiento Dam and irrigation practices put an end to that.  Here is Nacimiento in early spring just as it might have looked when steelhead trout swam through the deep holes in this beautiful river.

July, 2007  I have been out of the game on my website due to changes in my editing software and a long wait to get high speed internet access.   I'm finally back.

Since my last post, I have been fishing and working a lot.  Most of the exciting fishing I have done has been in the California surf.  This year was one of the best surf striper years in decades.  For example, in May of this year, my friend Steve Cali and I had one day in which we caught and released over 80 stripers in a morning.   Here is one big striper from that day.   This fish was 42 inches and I don't know how much it weighed but weight charts suggest between 25 and 35 pounds.  I suspect it was on the lighter side of the range due to it's slender profile.   I have yet to catch a truely fat fish in the surf although I'm sure they exist.  Generally I beleive that environment keeps their "shoulders" big but their guts trim.   However, this fish from the same day was pretty chunky for a surf striper.

Earlier, in April, I fished in Texas with my friend Bubba Wood of Collector's Covey gallery in Dallas, TX.   We fished at HollyGlen which is a beautiful ranch in east Texas owned by one of Bubba's closest friends.   On the ranch are two large bass ponds, really they are lakes.  Here is a photo taken at dawn of one of the lakes.   These lakes are expertly managed for trophy bass.   Large bass are their sole purpose and they are packed with them.  Angling pressure is very light so these fish are eager, trophy class Florida strain largemouth bass.   Here is one which is on the smaller side.   The larger fish we caught were from 5 to 7 pounds but the average size was what amazed me.   1 pound fish were rare and two and a half pounds was about the norm.  The larger fish in these lakes were well over 10 pounds but my biggest was only around 8 pounds.............only 8!

Here are some more photos from my Texas trip.  A larger Bass.   And here are some good sized bream.   Here are a few pictures from the Llano River which I also saw in my travels with Bubba Wood.  Our target fish here is the the state fish of Texas, the Guadalupe Bass.  Here is one.   And here is a photo of the Llano River.

Summer time is Albacore time.   I just finished my second run this season.   Here is an Albacore Tuna.     This one was caught on my second trip out and not on a fly rod, but on the troll.   Trolling is deadly but not very fun to me.    Albacore fight very hard on all gear, including the trolled gear.    Arranging a trolling set of multiple rods requires modest skill as does knowing what tuna plugs to troll in a given scenario.    Other than that, the angler's skill requirements are limited to fighting the fish which is fairly easy on the heavy gear typically used.    My preference is to use unweighted "meat lines" which are simple 200 pound cord atttached to a heavy monofiliment leader and finally a tuna plug.   This will get you hooked up, then you'll have a fish on a rope, right at the boat.   The school will often stay with this "Judas" fish and then you can engage in "real" fishing.   You can cast light tackle with plugs, swimbaits, live bait........or my favorite, flies.    Live anchovies can be used to hold fish close.   Dead anchovies work too, even cut up "chunk" anchovies or other bait fish can work well to keep the tuna close on a "bait stop".   The goal is to keep a hooked fish in the water at all times.   So the fish on a rope will stay in the water until another fish is hooked.   It is then pulled in quickly and you are off to the races on light tackle.

More than just the tuna. there are some pretty amazing sights out in the blue water.   On my first trip this year with "Juney", my boat, I was lucky enough to see some dolphins while motoring in with Stan Pleskunas, my partner for the day.    Here is a Right Whale Dolphin  pair running along side us.   Here is a Pacific White Sided Dolphin pair.   These two, along with others, ran our little bow wake.   Stan was able to touch them just below the bow and loved it when they turned sideways to look up at him as he lay on the front of the boat and reached out for them.   Here is a shot of both a white sided and right whale dolphin pair.   These are very distinct species but they swim together often.   Dolphins are remarkable predators but seem only to be interested in having fun porpoising near the bow or surfing in the boat's wake whenever I see them.  When I die, I want to come back as a dolphin. 

I just returned from a quick trip to the Sierras.  August 5 through August 8.   This trip was not my usual week long backpack but instead one night at Tyee Lakes in the Inyo National Forest then a quick day hike up Rock Creek to Little Lakes Valley, one of the most visited high country destinations in the Sierras.   The crowds were awful at Little Lakes Valley but the scenery was incredible.    As a day hike, if you hit the trailhead before dawn, you'll feel like you have the place to yourself but by noon, the hordes appear and both the light and the wilderness experience have gone flat.   Fall is the time to visit this sierra gem.   Here is a view up Little Lakes Valley as the light begins to hit the peaks near Mono Pass.  Here is another view of a Rock Creek lake in the Little Lakes Valley.    There are plenty of fish here in the valley.   Here is a pretty little rainbow trout from one of the lakes.   There are also many brookies and goldens in this area.   The goldens are in hanging lakes above the valley.   I caught a few of each and then moved on up the canyon.   On the way back down, the poor light made for less than great photography but you could compose a decent shot by mixing the elements of water, sky and mountains into a scene.   

August 24, 2007

I fished with my friend Jim Novak early Friday morning for Stripers in the surf.   The fishing was excellent for larger fish.   Striped bass fishing in the surf can be outstanding, and this year was the year for outstanding fishing.  However, even this year typical striped bass fishing in the "suds" is pretty hit and miss.   Typical striper surf fishing in the surf is zero to two fish but as many as 100 fish can be caught in a session by two skilled fly rodders.    This day was notable because the fish were larger.   We only caught 4 fish but they were all excellent fighters with the muscle weight and strength to set fly reels screaming and bending 9wt rods down to the cork grip.   Here was my first surf striper of the morning.   Here is Jim with his first striper of the morning.   My fish was around 12 to 14 pounds and Jim's was around the same.   I caught two others.    One smaller and the other aroud 13 to 16 pounds.    It was great surf fishing.  I'll post pics of flies later.........

August 26, 2007

I love Albacore fishing almost as much as striper fishing.   I fished on Saturday with Kevin Sloan who fishes out of a 20 foot Scout.   A great Albacore boat.   We motored out to an area called "the Guide" which is a sea mount apx. 60 miles off shore of Half Moon Bay.   We never made it that far thanks to bird called a Parasitic Jaeger which let us know where the fish were.   It was interesting because the bird was "pointing" albacore but the water temperature wasn't right for Albacore.   It was too cold.   However, within seconds of sighting the bird, we hit a temperature break from 57.5 to 59.5 degrees.    Perfect for Albacore.    We put the trolling lines in near the bird and within minutes were hooked up.   A triple..........meaning three reels/rods went screaming under the strain of hooked fish on the troll.    Mayhem.   We had live bait with us and tossed a bit over and saw flashes from Albacore chasing the Anchovies.   But we could not fish for those fish because we had three fish on rods and needed to get them in before we could do anything else.   No fish were on "meat lines" so all the fish had to be fought on rod and reel, and quickly in order to keep lines from tangling.    We could only hope to hold the school with live bait while we dealt with our hoooked fish.   To make a long story short, we couldn't keep them close while we attended our fish.   Got them close to the boat, gaffed them, threw them in the boat, spiked their brains, cut out their gills to bleed them (important for meat quality) and then cleaned the boat.    "Bloody decks" is a term I've never liked but is used to describe good tuna fishing.  My only superstition in fishing is to never make fun of the death of the fish you plan to eat.  It's actually more of an age old ethic of the hunter to respect your quarry.   Anyway, here it is, the one and only time, I'm hamming it up for those unfamilar with what the murder scene looks like after a multiple hook up.    Knowing where you food comes may not be the most appropriate knowledge for the appetite!

Here is Kevin Sloan with an tuna.   And here is shot over the stern showing the conditions on Saturday.    Glassy water, a rare sight in the Pacific particularly in the afternoon.

Here is pretty big perch I caught yesterday, October 3 with my friend Steve Cali.

December, 2007 - Most of October and November I spent either working or traveling leaving me no time for updates on my fishing log.  I fished for 5 days in early November in the California Delta, most of the time with Matt Havelock and then fished a few days in the San Francisco Bay with my friend Bob Valentine and finally fished a week in early December with my long time friend Bart Rulon.  Sometime in between I fished with my friends Dan Blanton, Wayman Lee and Steve Cali.   Here are some fishing shots.  Bart with a schoolie Striper and here is a Bart with a Largemouth Bass.   Here is a nice striper and another and another one and yet another and finally this one.     Here is a picture of my mentor in fly fishing, Dan Blanton with a largemouth bass.     Here is close up shot of a nice bass and here is the same fish showing more of it's length.  Here is a shot of Bob Valentine with two nice schoolies.  Here is Wayman Lee with a large schoolie and finally here is Annie and Bart.    This year was a good one for striped bass fishing in the delta in particular.   The fish arrived in the delta early this year, or perhaps many neither left.   The result is that fishing was excellent in September which is a poor time for me to fish but I still managed to get in some great fishing sessions with some excellent friends and fishing buddies.

Now for some really fun photos from my friend Bart Rulon      Click on his name and you'll be routed to his website.   Anyway, Bart spent a lot of time photographing during his fishing visit in the delta and here are a bunch of photos he took.   I'll just call them off by number.   Most are of Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and smaller species of herons and egrets but all are fantastic photos taken by a committed professional.  The pictures were shot with a Canon 30D EOS SLR with a 400mm 2.8 with Image Stabilization.   On many shots, Bart used an extender for this lens which turned the 400 mm into a 560mm lens so the use of a monopod was essential.  Most of the shots were taken on my boat.   I used my electric trolling motor to very slowly approach Bart's subjects and he did the rest.   Enjoy!   Photo 1  Photo 2  Photo 3  Photo 4  Photo 5  Photo 6  Photo 7   Photo 8   Photo 9   Photo 10   Photo 11  Photo 12  Photo 13   Photo 14  Photo 15  Photo 16  Photo 17

Late December, 2007    Here are two fly patterns based on a fly I designed about 7 years ago called the SST.   The SST is REAR WEIGHTED, meaning that weight is placed below and/or behind the hook bend causing the fly to ride hook up but also creating in the fly a unique action that can range from extreme darting from side to side to lazy listing from side to side.  This action can be irristible to predatory fish as it imitates the behavior of an injured bait fish.

Here are the instructions for tying "soft" SST flies.    The first one is tied with Craft Fur and the seond is tied with Bunny Strip.    Here they are:

First tie on to a 3/0 Eagle Claw 413 jig hook either one or two Clouser eyes.  These are tied on the "wrong" way.  Here I have used two old fashioned lead eyes in size small (1/30 oz.).   You can also use "modern" zinc eyes which are measured in SIZE not weight.  In this case,   just use one eye in size 3/16" or 1/4".    3/16" is big enough and easier to cast but you need to tie in most of the material on the top of the fly to make sure the fly rides hook up.   1/4" is heavy and will force the fly to ride hook up.   I prefer 3/16" eyes.    Sounds complicated but it's not.       I'll call this STEP 1 .      Next tie on deceiver hackles for the tail.   I'll call this STEP 2 .   You can see I added a little flash in addition to the deceiver hackles.  This is optional.    Next, palmer Craft Fur on to the hook shank.   Cut the craft fur in strips about 1/4 inch and wrap around the hook shank covering the Clouser eyes.  This will be STEP 3 .    In STEP 4 , you can see the palmered chartruese Craft Fur wrapped over the Clouser eyes and a strip of white Craft Fur anchored in place with thread and ready to be palmered in as well.    In STEP 5 , I have palmered the white Craft Fur as well and am beginning to form the head of the fly.   Now, in STEP 6 I've topped the fly with olive bucktail and a little olive crystal flash and also tied in a grizzly hackle flank.   I've also formed the head with tying thread.   Now I'm ready to cover the head with mylar tubing and affix molded eyes to the tubing.  After that, I epoxy the head with DEVCON 5 minute clear epoxy.    I'll call this STEP 7 .    And that is a soft SST fly or it can more accurately be called a rear weighted Lefty's Deceiver although its a far cry from the original Lefty's Deceiver, that's for sure!   Here is a front 3/4 view of the fly.

Now for the same fly in cross cut bunny strip.   This fly is size 1/0 and has one 1 lead clouser eye size 1/30 of an ounce.   However, if you prefer, use a zinc eye in size 5/32" or 7/32".    I'll just list the steps here, my instructions on the above fly are applicable, the pictures are self explainatory.   I prefer this fly for smaller fish or for large fish focused on small bait.   The action on this fly is fantastic and it is very easy to cast.   It is also a very fun fly to tie...........the cross cut bunny really adds life and is easy to work with.   Here it goes...........Step 1 , Step 2 , Step 3  , Step 4 , Step 5 , Step 6  and here are a few different shots of the finished fly.  Top view  and here is a front view.    You can tie various versions of this fly with all different colors of buny or marabou.   It can be made to look like anything from a slender baitfish to a crayfish or leach.   Rubber legs can be added for a "buggy" look.   The possibilities are nearly endless.