Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3806 Mar 1-15 2019 | Page 7

March 1 - 15, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 6 5 Catch & Release Fishing! Hook More & Bigger Fish With Flies... Strip, Strip….BOOM! by Cal Kellogg I was in Steamboat Slough standing in the bow of my first sponsored boat, an 18 foot Jetcraft, with my toe on the foot peddle of the Minn Kota electric trolling motor. I was cruising slowly upriver against the current. A few yards to the port side there was a long expanse of rip rap and here and there a limb of a willow or fig tree drooped down almost to the surface of the water. It was late spring. Swallows dipped and darted overhead and with the temperature rising the katydids were starting to sing. Back came the rod and out went the fly. I’d tied the No. 4 muddler minnow myself. It was mostly white, constructed of caribou hair, a little bucktail, marabou and a flash of tinsel. Small- Toby Uppinghouse nailed this big bad Delta striper using fly gear. Stripers will grab flies with a lot of enthusiasm when they are in a feeding mood. mouth bass or perhaps a feisty spotted bass were the target. Photo courtesy of EDGEWATER OUTFITTERS, Sacramento. I’d been hooking bass using a spinning rod teamed with 3 inch white soft plastic flukes and I figured that this was a great oppor- into my first ever fly rod striper! tunity to catch a few black bass on flies. The bass slugged it out with me in true striper fashion, staying deep, The muddler landed with a soggy slap at the edge of the rip rap just bulldogging and running occasionally. The striper overpowered my to the side of a hanging tree limb. I immediately started stripping it trout gear, but I kept the line tight and eventually the spring of the long back. The fly was only 3 or 4 inches beneath the surface and fully rod sapped the bass of strength. visible. When the bass finally gave up and boiled to the top, I was ready The take was fast, violent with the net clenched between my knees. I scooped the beautiful fish and unanticipated. I reacted aboard. Hooking a striper was the last thing on my mind that spring out of pure reflex. One day, but the handsome 8 pounder lying in the net illustrated that second the fly was just anything can happen out on the water…Such was my introduction to starting to slow down after hooking stripers on flies! a strip. There was a push of Myself and a team of other water, a flash of silver and anglers will be covering a range of a swirl. The rod tip shot up different species in our new Catch and I was fast to a fish. & Release Fishing column this year My brain tried to compre- including stripers, trout, black bass, hend what had just happened shad and more. as the fish powered down Speaking for myself, it looks the rip rap face into 15 feet like we are in for an epic spring of water, smoking yellow striper season buoyed by all the floating line off my old trout rain we’ve had this winter, so I’m size Pflueger Medalist. I was looking forward to hitting the Delta and valley rivers for some long rod Light colored streamer flies like these Dennis tempted this dandy striper action along with my usual are deadly effective when targeting Delta largemouth with a well gamefish that feed on threadfin shad minnow drifting and plug tossing presented streamer fly. and smelt. spring striper adventures. Photo courtesy of EDGEWATER Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. OUTFITTERS, Sacramento. Check Out Huge Selection of Discount Flies Online WE COULDN’T STOP AT JUST FLIES. NOW CARRYING EVERYTHING BUT THE FISH Guided Fly Fishing Trips www.theflystop.com [phone] RETAIL STORE 9275 Trade Place Suite E San Diego, CA 92126 [email protected]