High tides and happy fish this weekend. Shrimp are still way up in the marsh. The first couple cold fronts this year should make for awesome fishing.

Napa River, California-

Here is the rest of the story... A week ago, we left Houston for a wine tasting and cycling adventure from Calistoga to San Francisco (250 miles and 17,000' of hill climbing but not what you want to read about here). I had a lead for a great guide/ boat on the Sac. River Delta but I think this is the wrong time of year to try and book a great guide last minute. Found a booking agent that pulled together a boat super late (i.e. I emailed the guy on the way to the airport).

We had a great day tasting wine in Napa on Saturday then met out guide Patrick Sunday morning at Cuttings Wharf.

The Napa River runs through the heart of the valley and eventually drains into San Francisco Bay. The view from the dock:



Beautiful setting/ Morning sun


Looks like the LA marsh with gorgeous No. California hills in the background.



"Rule 1" compliant. It was chilly in the morning (40's), we hoped to get a boat but didn't pack like we would. My wife is wearing one of her cycling jerseys, we had long fingered biking gloves for the boat ride... Our poor guide was really scratching his head when he first saw us! By this point, he understood we were serious.


The morning was slow and we caught some 1-3 lb fish but I finally hooked a nice one in the afternoon. This was a 7-8 lb striper.


We were fishing a section of rip rap for our last 100 yds before ending the day and I told my wife, "It's your turn to catch a good fish" and not 2 seconds later, she hooked up!


Long story short- If you end up making a trip to Napa, California don't forget about the Striper run starting early October and runs through March. The Napa River can hold fish in the 10-15 lb range max but the Sac. River Delta is famous for 30-40 lb.fish but book way in advance. There are also options for Bass and Trout but I will be planning to come back again to fish for stripers again in the fall!

Wife and I did our honeymoon in T&C in 2010. Did a half day with Silver Deep and would highly recommend them. Granted, that's been almost a decade ago.

I can't even begin to describe how beautiful T&C is, but here's some photo evidence:

[img][url=https://ibb.co/RzD3Q2x][/url][/img]

Fished Galveston Sunday. We found a lot of fish in skinny clear water, but they were spooky AF. I guess because of the weekend crowd and low still water. My first thought was drop to a smaller crack fly in natural colors and give shots more lead. Still didn't help. Later in the day we ended up picking up a few on a larger lead eye kwan pattern with some purple in it. Go figure. Also rescued an injured sea turtle in the ICW. Beautiful day to be on the water.

Had a great weekend on the water. On Saturday I set my buddy up on a couple stout fish while I caught 1 18 and blew about 20 other shots.




Then on Sunday I went out by myself and caught my first redfish on the fly solo. My excitement level was through the roof after getting it in the skiff. She was a a fat 25 incher. Lots of action out there. (Also iPhone fish pics by yourself are tough)

Dusted off the old GoPro4 yesterday. Not bad considering low light, long distance, and fast moving subjects:

https://instagr.am/p/B4urDnbh6og

Hammered em today.





Unfortunately found this guy still kicking in the water. Put him out of his misery. Another sad victim of tower boats...