Well I haven’t taken to many days off this duck season; I have only missed 8 days all year.  In one word it’s been slow. Over the past 2 weeks the hunting has greatly improved: at the big duck club that I manage, the past 6 shoot days have finally produced some OK numbers, averaging 4 birds per gun. I hunted some of my friends’ blinds in the Robbins area last week and had some really good shoots, only shooting mallards and sprig for two days. We didn’t get full limits but could have if we shot small ducks. After talking with 12 different blinds and 2 refuges I found out that on Saturday the 12th, the Sacramento Valley, from Road 32 (just below Chico) to Highway 113, shot like wildfire; almost everybody I talked with shot limits with a good number being mallards. My guide blind was not hunted on that Saturday, but shot 17 on Sunday with 5 mallards.  What happened this past week was, we have had a lot of birds in the valley for the past 2 or 3 weeks.  But with clear and cold weather, the ducks have been on a routine and staying out of harm’s way. Well, Saturday the weather pattern changed, and the fog rolled in and messed up all the birds in the valley. Mix that with a little wind on Sunday and you have perfect hunt conditions.

Truly an unbelievable opening day of the late fall salmon season. We set out with pretty low expectations with all the low salmon numbers at the hatcheries this year.  But by 9:45am we had full boat limits of nice big king salmon.  There were 6 of us in the boat today, and with a one fish limit it was like the good old days, ( a hand full of years ago ) drop in and get one.  Fish ranged from 12-34 lbs and all but one was dime bright.  We were on the phone all moring with other boat’s getting report’s up and down the river that had all got fish. I look for this kind of fishing to last for some time considering the span of river that seem to loaded with fish.

It’s been a very busy 25 days.  Duck season has been truly unbelievable so far in Dingville, where I have been working as their hunting guide.  Dingville had their best opening weekend in 15 years; we killed over 160 ducks, of which 30 were mallards. There are a whole bunch of birds in the North Valley.  This is in part because we had a better wet spring and all the new wetland projects throughout the Valley raised a lot of local mallards and teal.

Water goes on at my blind next to Dingville this week and it should be shooting good by Thanksgiving week. I have lots of dates still open in December.

On the fishing front, I ran a few steel head trips up the Yuba River with good results; landing between 2 and 4 real steel head and about 12-15 trout per trip. On October 29, I fished the upper Sacramento from Los Molinos to Salt Creek; there are very few salmon beds to target for steel head, but there are a few and we found them.  We landed 7 real nice steel head between 1and 3 pounds, with one being a triple hook-up. About 10-15 trout mixed in made for a great day of fishing.

Not a bad start to the fall steelhead season.  We went out on October 10th and saw way more salmon beds than last year at this time. The fishing was to be expected in early October we landed only one legit steelhead and 13 trout.  Last Wednesday I took some clients up the river and saw about 10 to 15 salmon sitting in each of the deep holes though out the river.  The fishing was a little better, we landed 2 real steelhead and lost 2 more for sure, along with 12 or 13 trout.  The outlook to me feels very good, with as many salmon as I have seen waiting to spawn, which as we know will keep the steelhead around a viable food source.

For the second straight year now we can’t go salmon fishing in the summer it’s not been easy staying home this time of year, Knowing there’s fish out there.  On a better note dove season is coming up and we have lots of opening for you and all of your guests.  After dove season ends on the 15 of September we will have about too weeks before steelhead start showing up.  There are a lot more salmon in the system this year witch should make for a good year on the yuba river as well as the feather.

well April was a great month we landed striper limits, plus every day till the heat wave happened on the 22 of April.  What happened was a big jump in water temp so we had a big spawn.  The slower bite only lasted a couple of days then some new fish showed up.  The last week of April and the first week of may was real good fishing getting more nice fish between 5 and 14 lbs.  We landed two big stripers last week a 34 lbs and a 29 lbs which we of course let go. Due to the big rains we just got last week end the rivers are blown out as of today may 6, I have had to cancel the next two days of fishing due to a 10 foot rise in the sac river. By Friday we should have every striper in the hole system rite in your back yard.  All this rain really helps make what was going to be a short striper season last till the middle of June.

Well since I last checked in we’ve been fishing every day for limits to near limits. The major school as of today hasn’t showed themselves yet but reports from down at Teasdale are getting better so it shouldn’t be long.  Yesterday we landed 12 nice stripers ranging anywhere from 3 to 10 pounds. I’ve  been going up one day and down the next from wards landing.  The water is very clear so the fish are very spooky, our best bite has been first thing  in morning before the sun gets high in sky. We only got one hen in the past week which for this time of year is not uncommon.

After just a couple of days of fishing, it’s clear there are a lot of fish in the system.  I went out on 31st of march by myself and landed 7 nice fish.  All the spots that should have stripers were loaded.  yesterday I took my first guided party out; we landed 10 good fish all on minnows.  Several spots we stopped at produced double hook ups.  My bookings are still a little spotty I have a lot of Mondays and Tuesdays still open in April.

I fished the past couple of days on the sac river, going up stream from my home port at wards landing.  From what I’ve seen, there are just a few fish in the spots they should be, which is normal for this time of year.  on Tuesday we got 5 fish for four rods.  Today, me and a friend got 2 fish all about the same size, about 4 lbs. The striped bass season looks to be on pace for a pretty good year.

Well we just finished up getting bait for the up coming striper season, looks like we should have enough to last the whole season. I just started to make my bookings for the 09 striper season, which thanks to that great wet February should now be a good year.  Things were really looking bleak but all that rain saved our reservoirs and means the department of water resources will sell some water to the farmers and bring our river up this spring.  Am going start fishing this week,  reports for striped bass have been very few and far between cause everybody is catching too many sturgeon.  talking to all the guys over the past week end nearly every body had at least one or more hook ups. Most of them are fishing around the Chico straights. The water should just be getting right this week to start looking for those stripers,  last week of march is always the time when the fish that arrived in February start showing themselves. I’ll check in in a few days.    -aaron zanocco