Extravagant Ones:
Just because it is cold and wintry out doesn't mean that fishing needs to wait months.
Witness: This past Friday, long time Extravaganza veteran "Downriver Dave" Studeman and I spent a day on the Sacramento Delta waters with legendary guide Captain Mike Costello (who fishes only 240+ days/year) fly fishing for and to the illusive but nonetheless prolific anadromous striped bass (the stripers spend their winter months in the fresh Delta water and, annually, migrate out through the Golden Gate straights to spend their summer months in the Pacific Ocean--"anadromous", as with steelhead and salmon, meaning fish having the ability to survive in both salt and fresh water).
What a workout the day was: We fished for over nine hours heaving 9' nine weight rods (such as to make the strongest arms cringe at the end of the hundreds of casts), casting streamer flies (as shown in the attached photo) 60-75' with the assistance of shooting heads and lead forward weighted lines which are then "stripped" back into the boat using a two stroke, jerking retrieval method.
In the course of the day we hade eleven "grabs", successfully landing four fish, the largest of which was an 8 1/2 lb striper shown with the birthday boy above.
For those of you who are interested in learning more about this near-to-the-Bay Area odyssey, I highly recommend Mike Costello's newly released coffee table book Fly Fishing The California Delta, an autographed copy of which can be viewed any day at my office.
What fun!
Best to all,
Rock Creek Ron
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