VOL . 40 • ISS . 8 April 23 , 2021

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With the warm weather starting to pick up speed , and a hot week coming ahead , fly fishing in the Lower American River is starting to diversify as April is coming to a close . There are multiple reports of Striper being caught in various pockets along the river as well as late spring Steelhead , along with evidence of Shad around discovery park . I have personally been having a hard time picking between focusing on a single specific species and have been fishing areas that will allow me to throw presentations that will be appealing for all . This is one of the most exciting times to fish on the river as the warmer months start to creep in and provides fly fishing opportunities for strong and powerful fish that are moving in and becoming more active in the waterways . As I am preparing myself for the shad to fully move into the river come late May , I have been trying to focus a majority of my energy targeting big strippers . After having multiple experiences of not having the right weight rod , leader , or tippet , I have come back fully prepared . After making a couple of necessary upgrades in order to fish successfully this way , I have quickly fallen in love with throwing a fly from an 8wt rod , and fallen even further with catching a river stripper while ripping a fly through current . I recently had the opportunity to run up to Lake Berryessa to chase the bass bite which is in full swing , and decided to see if I would have similar luck fishing for Largemouths , spots , and smallies , rather than Stripper . Myself

Ed Andersen holds up a beautiful smallmouth bass caught at Lake Berryessa while fishing in The Narrows on a drop shot rig .

Photo Courtesy of Tyler Andersen

and my father Ed Andersen , made the trip up together and decided to make a personal competition out of the trip and see who would be able to land the most fish , myself fishing a fly rod , and himself fishing with a conventional rod . I knew I was in for a steep climb when the wind started to ramp up , and after 5 straight hookups on his conventional rod , I realized

By Tyler Andersen

this one that was might be out of reach . After speaking with a couple of fellow anglers and doing my own personal research , I had devised a plan similar to the way I fish for Stripers . Throw big flies , create lots of movement , and strip strip strip . This plan quickly proved faulty as I watched him land more and more fish all at a depth of around 15-20 feet . Without a spare spool of sinking line to throw on , I made multiple attempts to attach set-ups that would allow either my split shot for fly itself to get low enough to partake in the action , with little to no success . With very little topwater activity taking place , I withheld from breaking out poppers and decided to throw both large trout imitation Gamechanger flies , along with various worm imitations flies in an attempt to match his success with a drop shot . This also proved unsuccessful and sent me back to the drawing board to improve my skillset in order to fly fish successfully for Bass here . Sadly , at the end of this article , there is no breaking news of the fly fishing vastly outfishing a conventional rod , and left me with a score in our personal competition that will stay unspoken . Will all kinds of fishing , practice and honing in on your specific craft is key to eventually reach success , and where I can say the conventional rod outfished me personally today , I don ’ t know if I will be able to say the same as I pile on practice and do just that !