Plug-caught delta striped bass.

Pretty fun two days out there this weekend. 18 or so fish total for the weekend, to #12 - including a new personal best for fellow 'Sniffer "Bee." Hard biting and fighting fish up in the shallow up-current island points on the main rivers, that bit best on the flood, and got a few more to go on the ebb up the sunken islands on Saturdays afternoon Ebb. All of our fish came on various pearl colored swimbaits.

The day started almost perfectly with a monster of a striper swirling behind my sporty spook at the last chance cut. Ironically, I called last cast when this tanker got behind the bait and show a huge amount of curiousity with no agression. As composure was kept, we just watched this fish creating deep swirls several feet behind my bait, huge dorsal spines erect and half of its massive tail sticking straight out of the water. Alas, it was all show and no go but what a show it was for us to witness this. As you might guess, it ended up not being the last cast, and we all tried hard to raise another, but as it often goes.....

Start working our way down the line with not much luck for 2 or so hours. Finally, we pick off a small keeper on a tule island. Now that we've got a slight clue, I took that lil indication of what I'd hope to make a pattern of (upcurrent island point/swimbait) and we moved over to the lower sac to check it out. Slide up on an island, roll up to the up-current point, fire off a cast, and just like that:



Gotta love first cast fish. And if that wasn't enough, Bee fires off a cast after we cleared that fish, and for what? A PB striper @12+lbs.:





Great job on that epic battle Bee. that fish, like the rest of them today, was a strong one! Stoked for you.

We kept pretty tight to that area for a good 2 hours, only to do one shaker and a squawly.

Tide had turned a bit so we head up into the uber-shallow zone for our last shots, kinda already stoked with the day we'd already had, all things considered. Hang a right, 50 or so collective casts, and its dead. I call "last spot," and make the short move a bit deeper. First cut, nothing, next one, I laid my swimbait up right where one should be and got rewarded:



Another hard fighter.

"Last spot" turned out to an hour on the trolling motor, making up current casts and occasionally connecting. Even got the bonus green fish, and a few more shakes to round it off for me; Had a few pop off as well. No worries, after a day like today. Shoot, fishin was so good, even Greg (Woodnfish) got his slay on! Way to stick it out Homie!

Special thanks to Belden Bill who called last night to tell me things sucked in the area I had in mind for today. Had he not called, we may have suffered!


Sunday 3/4


Back at it again this morning with Alex (Firehound).

The plan was to try to replicate what we did yesterday, and hope for similar results. An early Lauritzens launch @ sunrise had us back in the at the right place, at the right time. I was really hoping to get a shot at a tanker after getting getting my cage rattled the other morning. Made a bunch of great casts in great conditions with the sporty spook. No monsters but I did get my first TW fish of the year - an epic shaker.

No worries, the best of yesterday's spot still lay ahead of us.

As much as I wanted a repeat of yesterday, it became clear that through a combination of conditions, things just didn't appear/feel the same. Visibility had clouded up a bit...looks like the runoff from this week's strom has found its way to the lower D...lots of floating debris compared to virtually none on Saturday. 1-3' visibilty yesterday and a 1' in the better spots today. And current, or lack thereof, was really weak on this mornings flood. Going without a single bite between us for 4 + hours was the single most "condition" that bummed me the most.

Fished every spot we got fish the day prior, and some others that got looked over the other day...times a wasting, so I need to make a decision - Radical change or stick with the pattern? I opted for the latter.

Last hour of the flood is when things improved for us. Slid into an island point that kicked us our first fish yesterday, and a few casts later I stick a 20" keeper. Alex in turn, did much better. A few minutes after my fish, he answers back with this robust #7:



Just like Saturday's fish, this fish fought really hard - all the way to the boat. Now we're stoked and a bit renewed after a morning of nothing. We get that fish back in the water, and wouldn't you know it? Very next cast and Alex is on again, *******!:



Alright, now my feelings are officially hurt...

Best indication of the day for us, so we put some time in on this stop. With our day about over with, I was relieved and stoked to put Alex on a couple of good ones, for sure. I was already making myself better by thinking about yesterdays fish and just being satisfied with that. But, there's this lil section of bank I always like to hit on the way in...

Of course we stopped! The idea was to do a quick drift and get then get the boat on the trailer. Shoot, must of only been a minute or two before I got line-ticked pretty good with this 9+:



Great fighter, this one was. And as it turns out, my best and last fish of the weekend. Hellz yeah! Stoked!

Guess who's more stoked? Freakin Alex! Not to be outdone, he just had to bang one more for good measure:



We finished up with a few more "lasts casts" and called it a day.

Now that was a weekend of slaying that was much needed and I'm glad that I made the effort. Hangin with friends and slayin a few fish....I tell ya, not much is better than that.