Northern CA Freshwater Fishing Report

Sacramento River in a sweet spot for shad and striped bass BY JIM JONES/WON Staff WriterPublished: May 14, 2012

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SACRAMENTO — Anglers are still scoring shad and striped bass on the Sacramento River from Freeport to Colusa, and around Sacramento and anglers with a 2-rod license are often catching both. Skyler Fulster of Broadway Bait Rod and Gun said that fishermen at Miller and Discovery parks are casting shad darts for shad and have a rod out for stripers.  Most of the stripers being caught are from 18 inches (the minimum legal size) to 24 inches, but  Jarred Olsen  weighed in a 26 pounder taken at Freeport, on a sardine.   Fishing around the mouth of the Feather at Verona seemed to be particularly hot last week.   John Enos of Big John’s Guide Service had an “awesome day” on Sunday at Verona, to go along with some other awesome days. He said one of his clients, Casey Reynolds of Auburn caught 8 and 13 pounders, while his fishing partner, Tim Young, took home 5 and 6 pounders.  He said the water is getting quite warm in the lower stretches and fish were moving downriver after spawning, so he was planning to head upstream to Colusa this week where the water is cooler. Scott Feist also fished the Verona area, putting his party of six onto limits of stripers to about 6 pounds on Friday. They were fishing with live minnows.   Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob’s Guide Service also fished the mouth of the Feather. “Finally I got the chance to hit Verona…and the fish are thick., Reimers said.  Johnny Angel, my Facebook manager, got his first tagged striper. We got fish on almost everything you could throw at a striper.” Kristian Duvall of Elkhorn Outdoor Sports said that Byron Miller gave his wife a nice Mother’s Day present by taking her fishing. They fished with frozen shad about 3 miles upstream from Verona, catching their limits of stripers in 20 minutes.   He also said that shad fishing was excellent at the mouth of the Feather. Both boaters and bankies were scoring up to a couple dozen shad per outing, and bankies, especially fly fishermen were doing well by wading the edges of the exposed sand bar. Duvall said the hot darts were tri-colored in red white and green or in red and chartreuse. Grubs in champagne pink and 1.5 inches long were a hot addition to the dart.   “We did quite well at Verona, but a lot of the fish were spawned out,” Jerry Lampkin of TNG Motorsports Guide Service said. “We trolled upstream with Yo-Zuri’s, and drifted back down with live minnows. When we started out in the morning, fishing was quite good. It slowed down, then turned back on in the afternoon.” “There are still plenty of stripers to go around, but the water is warming up,” Dave Jacobs of Professional Guide Service said. “Temperatures have skyrocketed, and several spawns took place this week. We launched at Ward’s Meridian Bridge and drifted to the Tisdale Boat Launch. It’s definitely worth going, and you can still get a lot of really nice limits, but I think fishing has hit its peak and will be starting to go downhill.”