My dad was in town on business and had managed to schedule in an extra day to fish the delta with me for his first time. With the cold & dirty water typical of this time of year, our expectations weren’t high and I unnecessarily did what I could to emphasize that any fish caught would be an extreme bonus, striper or not, and regardless of size.

With that in mind we didn’t kill ourselves with the 3AM commando-style wakeup typical of most of our fly fishing trips. Nor did we skimp on coffee and breakfast stops on the way. In fact, I don’t think the boat even made it into the water until after 10AM.

The weather couldn’t have been nicer for a February day in Northern California, and I’m sure my dad was appreciating the break from a cold winter in Colorado.

With pictures being worth a thousand words, I’ll shut up and leave it at this, “We had a totally unexpected, phenomenal day”!