Feather River: Striped Bass Fishing The Best Ever?, by Dan Bacher

Feather River: Striped Bass Fishing The Best Ever?

By: Dan Bacher
May 31, 2006

More Articles by Dan

The lower Feather River annually plays host to an early spring striped bass run that usually precedes the run on the Sacramento River by a couple of weeks. The striper fishing is often excellent during high water years like this one, but the action on the Feather from Yuba City to Verona this spring has been hotter than veteran anglers can ever remember.

“I’ve fished the Feather River for 40 years and this is the best striped bass fishing I’ve ever seen,” said Bob Boucke, owner of Johnson’s Bait and Tackle in Yuba City for 9 years. “The water now is in perfect condition for every type of fishing – anchor fishing with bait, drifting minnows, trolling and casting lures.”

When the water was still very high in early April, shore anglers fishing pileworms and other baits started catching lots of stripers. As boaters were able to safely get on the river, bait fishing with pileworms and drifting live minnows came into full swing. Then, as the water became clearer, though still cloudy, guides and private boaters began nailing large numbers of stripers.

Feather catch I can attest to the fabulous fishing, having gone on two hot trolling adventures, along with one slower bait fishing trip, this spring. On the first trip on April 28, I trolled with Bob Sparre of Rocky River Guide Service. Jamin Hunter of Reno, Rich Lund and Felton Hickman of Reno, and I caught over 25 fish while trolling Rebels in a variety of colors.

I boated two stripers weighing 20 and 15 pounds, along with a mixture of smaller keepers and shakers. We launched at Star Bend below Yuba City and fished the river below Boyd’s Pump at 5:30 am and were off the water by 11 am.

I also experienced wide-open striper fishing on the next trolling adventure that I made on May 7 with Jason Thatcher of Executive Guide Service, pro staffer for Cope & McPhetres Marine. On this trip, we started fishing around 5:40 am. after launching at the Yuba City ramp.

Thatcher drove the boat several minutes downriver from the ramp and we began putting our Rebels, tipped with white plastic worms, into the water at different depths so we wouldn’t tangle. Fishing with me were five-year-old Hailey Merlino of Reno, her dad, Anthony, and Matt Tremayne of Reno.

We began hooking fish immediately while using Thatcher’s 8-1/2 foot Loomis and Lamiglas 8-1/2 foot rods, outfitted with Okuma Convector Line Counter reels filled with 12 lb. diameter Power Pro Braided Line.

“In this colored water, stripers hit best on lures that are big, noisy and fast,” said Thatcher. “These Rebels, tipped with white plastic worms, give off heavy vibrations and stripers sense them from a long distance away.”

Hailey hooked the first fish of the day, but it came off. Then Anthony Merlino hooked and landed the first keeper of the day, a 5 lb. fish. Tremayne nailed the day’s second fish, another keeper. As we trolled up and down in 9 to 12 feet of water, we hooked one striper after another.

We were trying to keep a count, but the action was so fast in the first hour, with several double hook-ups, that we lost count. If we had kept each keeper fish we landed, we would have been limited out before 7:30 a.m., but Thatcher was releasing the smaller keepers and the undersized fish.

In the midst of the sizzling bite, I caught a quality fish about 7 pounds, followed by two other keepers, as well as several shakers. The bite started to taper off a bit, so Thatcher decided to try the “lower hole” a few hundred yards downriver.

It was there that Hailey hooked up a big fish, an 11 lb. striper, assisted by Holly McCurdy of Dixon, Thatcher’s deckhand for the day

The bite continued, albeit at a slower pace as the morning went on. Just as we got a chance to relax, eat some sandwiches, and take photos of our fish, Anthony hooked the largest bass of the day, as evidenced by all of the line that it ripped from the reel as he grabbed the rod.

Finally he got the fish beside the Alumaweld and Thatcher netted it. It was a gorgeous 18 pounder, earning him the Fish Sniffer big fish of the day honors and a hat. During the next hour, we caught several more stripers.

Feather catch “We’re one fish short of limits – we’ve caught over 30 fish today. What do you guys want to do?” said Jason.

“We’ve caught plenty of fish, so lets go back to the boat dock,” responded Anthony.

“We’ll troll our way back to the ramp and hopefully hook up one more fish for full limits,” Jason said.

As we trolled back, I gave my rod a jerk and the rod suddenly jerked back with the hard surge of a striper. Unfortunately, I tangled everybody’s lines in the process of reeling it in. It was a fat, feisty male of about 25 inches long, the day’s last fish.

“If it wasn’t the last fish,” quipped Thatcher, “I’d put you on a time out!”

The top striped bass fishing on the Feather is generally found below the mouth of the Yuba most years, though fish are caught all of the way to the outlet hole in Oroville.

“Usually the striped bass move up the Feather River then back down into the Sacramento to spawn,” observed Bob Boucke. “However, this year, they act like they’re going to stay here and spawn.”

Thatcher will be fishing stripers on the Feather and Sacramento rivers and shad on the American River until May 30, when he leaves to fish for salmon in Alaska. He won’t return to California until July 21, when he will begin fishing for spring chinooks on the Feather.

Anglers are expecting great spring chinook salmon fishing on the river this year as the water level drops more in the Oroville area. The Feather has both a spring run that arrives from April through June and a fall run that appears from August through November. Shore anglers will experience the top action while tossing spinners from the bank, while boaters can find solid action while back trolling plugs and back bouncing roe.

“Because of the restrictions on ocean commercial salmon fishing, I expect to see more salmon this year than we know what to do with,” forecasted Anna Kastner, manager of the DFG’s Feather River Fish hatchery in Oroville. “We only have two spring-run fish in the ladder now, but we expect many more to arrive in the coming weeks.”

The hatchery, to separate spring-run fish from the fall run chinooks, has been tagging the adult fish in May and June over the past three years, putting them back into the river to spend the summer. Hatchery workers receive them back into the hatchery when they are ready to spawn in the fall. “We tagged 6,000 spring fish last May and June and counted 1,743 tagged spring chinooks during spawning last fall,” Kastner noted.

The fall-run chinook return to the hatchery was very good last year, with 22,017 adults returning, although fishing was tough for many. That compares to the 15,7770 adult fish that returned in the fall of 2004.

The river also has excellent steelhead and shad runs, but high water has made fishing for both species tough this season. The hatchery received 920 adult steelhead this winter, compared with 2072 adults in 2004-2005.

Although anadromous species draw the majority of anglers to the lower Feather, the river also has robust smallmouth bass, channel catfish and largemouth bass populations. If there’s a species of fish that you like to catch, you can probably find it sometime during the year in the lower Feather from Yuba City to Verona.

Feather River Facts

Location: The lower Feather River runs from below Oroville Dam to its junction with the Feather River at Verona. The section of river covered in this map runs from above Marysville-Yuba City to Verona. This section of river is characterized by large sandbars, riffles and some deep holes. The only major rapid found on this section is the Shanghai Rapids below Marysville.

Fishing Season: Fishing for striped bass, sturgeon, black bass, sturgeon and catfish is open year round in this area. Salmon fishing is open year round from the Sunset Pumps (approximately 5 miles downstream of the town of Live Oak) to Highway 20. However, the bag limit in this section is one hatchery trout or 1 hatchery steelhead and 1 salmon from March 1 through July 15 and 1 hatchery trout or 1 hatchery steelhead and 3 salmon from July 16 though the last day in February. From the Highway 20 Bridge to the Feather River mouth at Verona, anglers may not keep any salmon from March 1 through July 15. From July 16 through the last day in February, they can keep 3 salmon.

Boat ramps: the Yuba City boat ramp off the Garden Highway and Star Bend launch ramp were open to launching at press time, but the Riverfront Park ramp in Yuba City remained closed.

Camping and lodging: available throughout the Marysville and Yuba City area.

Fishing Guides: Guides are available for striped bass, king salmon, steelhead and shad fishing during the different seasons. Guides include Jason Thatcher of Executive Guide Service (916) 997-2765, Bob Sparre of Rocky River Guide Service, (916) 863-5866, Bret Brady of Bare Bones Guide Service (530) 272-7137, Rene Villanueva of Steelie Dan's Guide Service (916) 684-7148, Ray McReynolds of Sierra West Outfitters (916) 530-870-6681, Mark Clarke’s Guide Service (530) 945-3267, Jerry Lampkin of T.N.G. Motor Sports Guide Service (530) 320-0994, Chuck Powell of River Run Guide Company (510) 381-3598 or (925) 778-7334, Craig Stillwell of River Bend Guide Service (530) 681-9932, Kirk Portocarrero of Outdoors Adventures Sport Fishing 1-800-670-4448; Kevin Brock (800) 995-5543; Frank Townley of Fishin' Magician Guide Service (530) 824-5758 and Steve Huber (530) 623-1918.

Bait and Tackle Stores: Star Bait and Tackle, Marysville, (530) 742-5431; Johnson’s Bait and Tackle, Yuba City, (530) 674-1912; Fish-On Bait and Tackle, Yuba City, (530) 671-9664.