Sept 9th post...good stuff. Fresh off the keyboard.

So here we are in the early parts of September…Fall is definitely here. The sun is setting earlier and coming up later as well the hottest part of the day while still warm only lasts about 2-3 hours. Some people really like fall…I am not a big fall person to be honest. Personally I am more of a spring summer person but fall and winter have their positives…

I have had a pretty light guide schedule as Cast Hope and life in general have been taking up a lot of time. I have made it a point the last month to get my two boys out on the river as much as possible and in many cases taking them out in lieu of guiding or fishing myself. They are both really at a point where they are starting to functionally fish, both with the spinning rod and the fly rod. They can throw a popper/dropper rig for small bass, pike minnows, and blue gill and chuck a swim bait on a spinning rod so fishing with them is really starting to be fun. I have really committed myself to sacrificing personal fishing time in the hopes of creating future fishing buddies and more fishing time down the road…I shouldn’t even say “sacrificing” as I don’t feel I am sacrificing much as taking them fishing is pretty darn fun and I get throw the fly around a bit as well. In the end they don’t have to like fishing they just have to like the outdoors more then they do TV, Video Games, IPads, and things with screens…If they get into kayaking, mountain biking, camping, hiking, gardening, golf…I don’t really care just that they appreciate the outdoors and are in touch with it.

Reports

Lower Sacramento River Striper – I have been guiding and fishing the sac outside of chico for stripers and bass exclusively. I will focus on stripers and bass through October for the most part. Fishing has been good. There are plenty of small stripers and fish in the 4-8lb range to be caught. Traditionally this time of year is when we start to see a decline in numbers of smaller fish and increase in numbers of bigger fish but that hasn’t happened this year. My theory is usually that the large pods of chinook salmon and the anglers chasing them push many of the larger fish to the banks pushing out the smaller fish and increasing the chances that we have to catch thes fish. The bigger fish traditionally come to the banks and shallows to feed but with the deeper water occupied by salmon and trafficked by large boats usually in the fall these bigger stripers move to the banks to live AND feed. More and more salmon are showing up each day and I imagine the bigger fish will move out of the deeper holding water as they do so it is only a matter of time.

 Lower Yuba River – Flows have dropped to 756 which is pretty standard this time of year as that is the “low flow” of the fall that the river gets dropped to. I have heard over the last few days that fishing has been pretty darn good. I imagine as the salmon move up river and into the riffles to cut reds the fishing will continue to improve. The fishing over the summer has been pretty up and down and I think with the lower flows and huge food source of the egg hatch here coming up we will really get a good idea of how many fish are in the lower Yuba. I am thinking the next few weeks into October could be some pretty epic fishing on the Lower Yuba.

***Upcoming Guiding…I have a few late fall and winter dates open for the Lower Yuba, Lower Sacramento, and Feather for Trout and Steelhead. If anyone is interested shoot me and email or phone call to get on the calendar.

Open Dates: 

Nov 23, 25, 26, 27

Dec 3, 17, 19, 21-23, 27-31

Music Report: 

Been listening to some really great new music. The new BJ Barham solo record I got on vinyl and is really good. Just a simple album about his home and growing up, nothing fancy but this guy cranks out some pretty relatable good tunes……Also got some more commercial music in the Newest Lumineers album and the Chris Stapleton Album. The Lumineers album has some good tunes on it but hasn’t really grabbed me like the last album. That said I haven’t given it a huge chance so I am going to keep listening…Chris Stapleton while a pretty commercial success is a great song writer and a really interesting story. Basicly a guy who wrote songs in Nashville for all sorts of acts and stars fairly namelessly decided to record is own album of his own personal songs and ended up winning album of the year at the CMT Awards I think. The songs are solid and really heartfelt good country/Americana….

Sports Report: The Giants are brutal to watch…Casilla kills me and our playoff hopes. Amazing downward spiral post all star break but I rest on the fact that we have won the world series as a wild card so never loose hope. Just has the feeling this year that we are barely hanging on to relevance in September. The Irish…tough loss this last week to Texas. That said Texas is a much better team then anyone gave them credit. I had not designs on a blow out win and knew the game would be close. Charlie Strong is a great coach and quality human being so I knew he was going to turn the Long horns around. That said I think we played well enough to win just didn’t come up with it. I think we are a lot younger then I thought…especially on defense. Hard to overlook that that was 17 players first major college start. From Defensive line back we are all new and all of our receivers except Tory Hunter Jr. are starting for the first time. The QB debate seems to have been ended with Coach Kelly announcing Kaiser as the starter this week and giving him most of the snaps last week…feel bad for Malik but that is the breaks I guess. I didn’t feel he got a chance to do much last week but he had all spring and early fall to shine and end the debate as the upper classmen and he didn’t so may the best man win I guess. Hopefully he can graduate this year and transfer to play another year somewhere.