I hadn’t pestered the local surf perch for a couple years and after a long Delta season spent dealing with all the hassles involved in being “the guy with the boat” the simplicity of a short, trailer-less drive, a single rod, a handful of flies, a pair of waders, and the scenery & solitude of a Monterey Bay beach at sunrise was sounding pretty danged appealing.
…continue reading Surf Perch, it’s been a few years

When the phone rang at o’dark thirty in the morning I sprang out of bed as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on me, “Crap! Sorry! I didn’t even hear the alarm clocks! Give me 30 minutes; I’ll call you on the way”!

The first mistake was not getting my stuff together the night before. The second mistake was convincing myself that if by some act of God I ever did actually fall asleep, there would be any chance at all that I’d wake up in less than 2 hours. …continue reading Delta, Spring is in the air

“There we go!”, and Jeff was hooked up. We’d barely got the boat into position for the first spot of the day and his fly rod was already buckled over into a big fish! I couldn’t believe it, a week later, and on the opposite tide, the same big fish my dad & I had stumbled upon were still here! …continue reading Delta, Cold Water Stripers IV

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. …continue reading California Delta with Dad

The weather keeps getting nastier and the water colder. A break between winter storms finally opened a window for Jeff & I to make the first trip of the new year to check in on The Delta. The recent storms had successfully left the dreaded, gin-clear water of the fall behind us, but not without a price: cold water and the lethargic fish that come with it. …continue reading Delta, Cold Water Stripers II

The fact that Jose was still waiting for us at the dock, more than an hour after sunset, was surprising. When I saw the digital camera in his hand I knew why. “How big”? I asked. He ignored me and asked how we’d done. “Terrible”, I responded, “Now let’s see it Jose”. With a sly smirk he coyly responded, “See what? Why are you getting in so late? We were …continue reading Delta, Jose & Gabriel

My brother made it down from Seattle to spend a few days on the Delta with me. On the way back in from a windy first day I justified the days slow fishing to him on the water’s drastic drop in temperature last week and the windy conditions. Brandon & I have fished together long enough not to let a slow day get to us. When we pulled up to the dock and Jose & his buddy were anxiously waiting for us (digital camera in hand) …continue reading Delta with Brandon

I’d returned from up north in full blown steelhead mode. When I’d heard how well Jeff & Jose had done on the Delta earlier in the week I thought “good for them”. When asked if I was going out the coming weekend I responded, “probably not, too many things to do”. A few days later, Dave called. He was out with Jose and they’d been “into them”. OK, “good for them”, I’ve got things to do and steelhead flies to tie. That evening Dave called again …continue reading Delta with Jose Silva

October, November, and December have got to be my favorite and busiest months here in the Bay Area, at least from a fishing perspective. My favorite fishing happens this time of year on my favorite waters and when the local conditions continue to be as good as they’ve been this year, I once again find the Delta taking front stage. This past Saturday was Dan Blanton’s annual fund raiser on the delta, Striperfest 2007. …continue reading Delta, Striperfest Weekend

Saturday morning was slow to say the least. The only fish I was able to find were most likely the same school of dinks that Al & I had found 2 weeks prior in the West Delta but unlike that day these guys were all sitting on the bottom and it took a lot of coaxing (fly changes & variations in retrieve) to even get a few of them to grab. They weren’t hungry, and they weren’t big, so I moved on. …continue reading Delta, Solo

After last weekend’s incredible fishing I invited my friend Erica out for the weekend. With her busy schedule lately I was pleasantly surprised when she accepted. We’d tentatively planned to fish both days but the place I typically stay was booked and unlike last weekend, there was wind forecast, so a day trip it was. …continue reading Delta with Erica

My Oregon buddy Al was scheduled to be in the Bay Area for a few days on business and after hearing last weekend’s fishing report he decided to pack a few fly rods and extend his trip through the weekend to join me on the Delta. The early morning’s drive over is still a bit of a haze as is the actual launching of the boat in the dark. I think the moment I actually awoke for the day came as I returned from parking the truck & trailer to hear one of my favorite sounds coming from out in the slough, SMACK! As I approached the launch, …continue reading Delta with Al

Once again some last minute changes in plans paid off with another memorable day on the water. The weather was forecast for a cold morning followed by afternoon temperatures in the high 70’s. Most importantly was the wind prediction, at a steady < 5 mph all day. When I told Dave the conditions were ideal for our “first day of the season” on the Delta he jumped on it and the following morning, early morning, we headed East. …continue reading Delta with Dave

The alarm clock read 1:25 AM. It wasn’t set to go off for another 3 hours but I was wide awake and there was no chance of falling back asleep. I’d spent the previous week literally on the other side of the world and apparently hadn’t fully recovered from the +15 hour time change. As I sprung out of bed I thought to myself “I told them I’d be on time”. …continue reading San Luis Reservoir, Sep 2nd 2007

Saturday afternoon I was at the airport in Phoenix surfing fishporn on the laptop while waiting for a flight home when I got a text message canceling the plans I had for Sunday. Hmmm… I thought… then quickly pulled up the weather forecast, checked the hourly wind prediction, and fired off a text message to Jeff which was responded to within a matter of seconds, “I’m in!” …continue reading San Luis Reservoir, Aug 12th, 2007

I hadn’t yet tested out the latest fishing accessory’s towing capabilities (2007 Toyota Tacoma 4×4) and Angel was in town so we decided to drag the boat up to San Luis for the day and see if we couldn’t find a few stripers. The last time we’d fished the lakes together was a few years ago and the fishing was incredible. …continue reading San Luis Reservoir May 28th, 2007 *SKUNKED*

I made another run to San Luis Reservoir this weekend, this time with Jeff. After a bit of a late start and an enjoyable hour and a half drive of fish-yak, we were relieved as we crested the 152 summit to find a windless, glassy surface across the Big Lake just as the weather man had forecast and the 1-800 wind lady had confirmed, two people BTW, that I always take with a grain of salt. …continue reading San Luis Reservoir, April 29th, 2007

Spring is definitely here which means beautiful 70 degree weather for a few days during the week (witnessed from my desk at work), immediately followed by cold, windy, and rainy conditions over the weekends (witnessed from my desk at home). That’s been the recent trend anyway. This weekend’s forecast called for the same but Accuweather indicated a half-day’s break between fronts scheduled to occur Saturday morning. …continue reading San Luis Reservoir, April 22nd, 2007

Earlier in the week Jose and I’d decided to fish the surf together this weekend. Making an early morning run to the beach Saturday morning would leave plenty of time to hit a beach or two, hopefully get into a few fish, and get home at a decent hour, leaving all day Sunday to take care of the pile of “responsibilities” that had stacked up over the past few weeks. When Jose called me Friday evening …continue reading Delta with Jose March 2007

With flat-calm, windless 70 degree weather, a new 12 wt floating head, a hand full of new top-water flies, and a new million-candle-power spotlight I’d been anxious to put to the test I made a last minute run out to The Delta late in the afternoon. My hopes were that the last week’s storms were far enough behind us to have a few fish beginning to look up again at last-light. …continue reading Delta, Top-Water Report