Coming up to last weekend there was a nice long warming trend of the kind that can bring the delta back to life in February. Add a steady barometer and stripers are happy little fellas. And those little ones are the only ones I was able to contact on Saturday (up to 'keeper' length at the most) but I did contact enough of them to be a happy little fella myself on my 18-mile, counter-clockwise circuit of a large island out there. The tide was with me most of the way, but I ended nice and tired with about ten striper notches and two largemouth ones. Largemouth bass in February; this is where a boy from Maine feels very thankful to be living in California.
After resting a day I headed out on President's Day to some fairly ideal tides for Angel Island exploration: five foot flood and 6 foot ebb slacking out around midafternoon. I want to get used to riding tidal currents, as it is reportedly the only way to get around the complicated maze of passages in Prince Wiliam Sound where I'll be paddling and fishing in August. For this day trip I only took the fishing rod in case of extreme temptation, like busting stripers under a cloud of diving birds -- no such luck. Should have left the fishing stuff at home, because that salt water is murder on reels. Look what it did to the nice Shimano that I got for Nicaragua:
In further bad news, the warm trend is over and weather conditions right now are such that I will delay a Pit River trip -- no historical March 1 opener for Pit Boss. I shall have to give up the name to whoever has the moxie to go up there and fish in the snow and hail. Though I don't think it will be too long yet to wait . . .
