20 March 28, 2025 VOL. 44 • ISS. 3
FRESHWATER REPORTS:
CONTINUED FROM PG 19
RIO VISTA / DELTA
Trollers Bag Stripers On San Joaquin River
RIO VISTA- The striper bite for trollers is encouraging if you’ re planning to fish the lower Delta. Legendary troller Mark Wilson tells me that last month’ s bite at the Port of Sacramento has slowed quite a bit, but Mark and his friends located a couple of schools on the San Joaquin River. Mark continued to tell me that on his latest trip on the Delta, he and his buddies caught 14 keepers to 8 pounds, keeping their limits and release., at the mouth of False River at the barges and at Prisoners Point. Mark went on to say that the False River bite was mainly on the outgoing tide and the Prisoners Point bite was on the incoming tide. Mark tells me he and his friends were trolling 2 different deep diving Yozuri lures, one called the“ clown” and the other a“ rainbow trout.” Now onto a sturgeon bite. Captain Rickey Acosta of Feeding Frenzy Sportfishing tells me that the sturgeon bite has been steady. Capt. Rickey told me that the high-water conditions as well as the weeds and grass has made it challenging. Capt. Rickey has been putting his customers on the sturgeon from the PG & E power plant on down to the Horseshoe. Salmon roe has been the bait of choice. Capt. Rickey will continue fishing for sturgeon, but will switch over to striper trolling when he feels the timing is right. Brett Brady of Bare Bones Guides Service has also been chasing stripers on the Delta.“ We had a bunch of great guys today,” he reported after his latest trip. We didn’ t do too bad. We caught about a dozen fish up to 8 lbs. while casting lures like glide baits, swim baits and Rat-L-Traps on the weed lines.. It’ s just the beginning,- there are lots more fish to come.” If you would like more information about the
Lou Torres shows off a nice bass he caught throwing plastics on Shasta Lake in March.
Photo courtesy of Sandra Torres
California Striped Bass Association( CSBA), go to our website( www. striper-csba. org). You will be able to access all the information related to the 4 CSBA Chapters. New members only pay $ 25, that includes a one-time $ 5 initiation fee. After the first year of membership the annual dues are only $ 20. Your membership helps to strengthen our mission to protect striped bass and our fisheries. Some Chapters will give you a free gift just for joining. The Isleton-Delta Chapter gives all new members two free Isleton Chapter decals and a Chapter hat as a thank you for joining our Chapter. Membership forms are available for each Chapter on the website. Just click on your Chapter of choice and go to the membership page, fill out the application, print it and send your application and payment to the address listed on the application. The Isleton Chapter accepts credit cards online on the website for new memberships, membership renewals as well as our chapter’ s events. The website also has Chapters’ newsletters, photos, interesting articles, and useful links that will help you plan your next fishing trip.
-Ken Baccetti, President of Isleton Delta Chapter of the California
Striped Bass Association( CSBA)
RUSSIAN RIVER
Anglers Target Steelhead As Fish Counts Go Up
GUERNEVILLE- The Russian River was just recovering from latest round of storms when another atmospheric river was forecasted to hit the watershed.“ The river is still on the high side at 1600 cfs but fishable,” reported King’ s Sport & Tackle.“ It looks to be 5 more days of good weather before the next big system comes in mid next week.” They recommended using salmon roe, beads, Little Cleos, Blue Fox spinners and other offerings for the steelhead. The latest counts of steelhead were 899 at the Warm Springs Fish Hatchery and 506 at the Coyote facility. Meanwhile, the Russian River Recreation and Park District( RRRPD) reported a potential delay in installing the Vacation Beach Dam, initially scheduled for mid-June 2025. Updates regarding the design, planning, construction, and inspection progress will be provided regularly. The District stated:“ On August 29, 2024, an uncontrolled release of the Vacation Beach Dam occurred, necessitating the early removal of the dam. Following this event, RRRPD notified the Department of Water Resources( DWR), and a Division of Safety of Dams( DSOD) Field Engineer inspected the dam on September 25, 2024. Subsequently, the DSOD sent a letter in January 2025, stating:“ DSOD is restricting the( Vacation Beach Dam) to zero storage, and the dam may not be reinstalled until the repair work is satisfactorily
CONTINUED ON PG 22
GONE FISHING continued from page 2
behind cannonball flashers on his bottom rod and then toplined a blue / silver Mag Lip hoping for a trout. We started trolling west along the north wall and into the bay at the Dam launch ramp at 2.2 to 2.4 mph. We turned out of the bay and then trolled right across the face of the dam in about 50 feet of water. About midway across the dam, John’ s rod popped off the downrigger and he was into our first fish of the day. I slowed the boat and in a few minutes netted a bright silver 15 inch king. We trolled back across the face of the dam and John got another bright king on the same wiggle hootchie behind cannonball flashers. We made one more pass in front of the dam and then turned east and trolled right along the orange buoy line in front of the water outlets. About halfway down my downrigger rod popped and John netted a fat 15 inch king on the white Tasmanian Devil. There were a couple other boats working the dam area, and we never saw a net fly. Later in the morning, the wind died down and we got sprinkled on for a short while. About noon we decided to troll over to the green bridge and see if we could find some willing fish.
The iconic Bidwell Bar bridge over the middle and south forks of the Feather River at Lake Oroville.
The water on this side of the lake was much clearer than at the dam. Visibility was a good 10 feet and the water looked nicely green instead of soupy brown. We started trolling again outside the bridge and on the steep east bank. I kept the white Tasmanian Devil on and changed my upper line to a bright orange / black spot Yakima Bait Mag Lip 2.5. My bottom line with the Taz was set at 60 feet and the upper line was at 40 feet deep. As soon as we passed under the bridge heading east, my bottom rod popped. I jumped up, grabbed the rod and reeled hard but couldn’ t catch up to the fish. I had to reset the lines on the downrigger, so I popped the upper rod and just let it stay out. As I was reeling in the bottom line, I saw the Taz 30 feet or so out on the surface, and was watching to make sure the action was good when a nice king zoomed in and took a slash at it – and missed! I gave the Tasmanian Devil about 20 feet of slack and then engaged the reel, hoping the fish was still following it. Not this time. I reeled the lure in and was just starting to let it back out when my other rod went off bigtime!! The 7 ½ foot Rogue Rod bent dangerously back toward the stern of the boat and the Daiwa Lexa drag was screaming violently! The hungry salmon hit the Mag Lip as it was running just below the surface. This was a good fish, and after about 10 minutes and several feisty runs, John netted a very fat, 23 inch, 4 1 \ 2 pound king! I am pretty sure it is the same fish that rushed by the Tasmanian Devil that I saw on the surface. He probably hit it at 50 feet and popped the rod but missed the hook, then chased it to the surface, missed again, and hit the Mag Lip as it came by on his way down!!! He must have been really hungry! John and I ended up with 6 kings landed, 2 about 12 inches, 3 about 15-16 inches and the big one at 23 inches. It was a great day on the water.