bottom and bulldogged hard as it swam back and forth behind the boat .

At first Richard couldn ’ t gain line and then as the fish lost energy he started recovering braid . At first the fish would come in a few yards and then shoot back out , but within a few minutes Richard had the fish directly under the boat and Bill and I watched expectantly for a first glance at the battler as Manny stood ready with the net .

After playing a bit of hide ‘ n ’ seek just below the surface , a beautiful broad-bodied spring striper revealed itself , materializing out of the muddy water . Manny moved with the net and a moment later the bass was in the boat . It was a husky female around 30 inches long and weighing more than 10 pounds , so it was quickly revived and released after I snapped off a couple photos .

Richard landed the bass I just described on May 5 during a Cal Kellogg School of Fishing trip with Captain Manuel Saldana Jr . The crew for the day consisted of the afore mentioned Richard and Manny , Bill Groome and myself .

During high water springs , the striper action tends to be intense in the Sacramento , Feather and Yuba Rivers as the spawning bass are drawn out of the Delta and pulled far up river by big flows .

The action in the Feather River in particular has been outstanding for

more than a month and promises to hold up well into the month of June with continued high flows and a seemingly inexhaustible parade of bass surging into the system .

On May 5 , we started the day fishing and exploring above and below the Yuba City launch ramp and we had a fair amount of action , landing a mix of keeper and shaker bass .

Richard , Bill and Manny focused on back bouncing live minnows on three way rigs , while I stood on the bow shooting photos and tossing a variety of different lures including swimbaits and rip baits . I couldn ’ t keep pace with the minnows but I caught the occasional bass .

In the afternoon , we dropped down river and worked the area from the rapids I described earlier downstream . The section immediately below the rapids produced Richard ’ s 30 incher , a 7 pound male that we kept and some smaller keepers that we tossed back . Since we were enjoying steady action we knew we could fill out our limits whenever we wanted so we kept releasing fish . This allowed Manny to continue scouting down river .

The hottest fishing of the day took place on a broad sand flat where the river made a big looping bend . There were scores of stripers holding in an area 30 or 40 yards off the bank and we got after them pretty good . Richard and Bill smacked them with minnows ,

Richard Cummings tempted this husky Feather River female striper with a minnow , while fishing with Captain Manny of MSJ Guide Service and Cal Kellogg of The Fish Sniffer on May 5 . The fish was released after the photo .

Photo by CAL KELLOGG , Fish Sniffer Staff .

while I caught several vertically jigging a Gibbs Minnow .

With the bite slowing on the sandbar , we put the final few keepers into the box and called it a day . Bill and Richard went home with sacks of fillets and some awesome gear from my sponsors at Abu Garcia , Penn and Berkley .

For More Information , visit our website

I ’ ve fished with Manny a couple times this spring and will fish with him more in the future . He is a lot of fun to fish with and very knowledgeable . If you ’ d like to nail some Feather River stripers or join him for some river salmon action once the season kicks into gear , give him a call at ( 530 ) 301-7455

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