Fishing the CA Delta with Steve Adachi and Bryce Tedford

 

Sometime last week, I received a phone call from Steve Adachi. He wanted to know whether I could join him and his guide buddy Bryce Tedford for a day of fall striper fishing on the California Delta. I was scheduled to work in the shop on the day he mentioned, but I knew the invitation was one I could not pass up. Thanks to an understanding shop owner and coworkers I am now indebted to, I had the opportunity to get out and chase stripers with a legendary California angler.

 

Conditions were incredibly unfavorable. Just a few days before our trip, Northern California had been slammed by a "bomb cyclone" that blew out most rivers and caused serious flooding. Despite the adversity, Steve still wanted to get out.

We launched at a quiet boat ramp just as more rain began falling. The river looked like chocolate milk, so we knew the day was going to be tough. Luckily, Bryce pulled some rabbits out of hats to find relatively clean water. Bryce and Steve's program was stripping Adachi Rattle Clousers in Joker and Black on aggressive sinking lines. I fished Bryce's 8wt Sage Igniter with a I/5/7 Rio Outbound Short that got the fly down fast.

 

 

Fishing clousers always seemed straightforward to me. Growing up in Marin, I fished the bay a lot and seemed to have success on various retrieval speeds. So long as I moved the fly relatively fast, I ended up running into schoolie-sized fish. 

 

Watching the legend Steve target large fish on the delta completely changed my perspective. His stripping was intentional — with each strip, he violently popped the fly and engaged the rattle. He took long pauses and changed his retrieve to try new movements that could force a fish to bite. An hour or so in to the trip, Steve hooked up shortly after I felt a grab. He landed a fish just shy of 10 lbs that was already a daymaker.

 

Shortly thereafter, we ran into a small school of fish we could see on Bryce's graph. We fished to them for about an hour and a half, which consisted of a few five minute windows in which the fish would bite. Steve produced eats. These fish were not aggressively blitzing bait or hammering any fly in sight like they sometimes do in the bay. Instead, they were grabbing the fly when it moved just well enough to produce a reaction bite. Steve's magic claimed another great fish that came in around 10.5 lbs. I studied his tactics and produced a decent fish for myself too. 

 

 

 

Seeing Steve overcome tough conditions to produce two large fish proved to be the highlight of the day. I've been friends with Steve for a while, but picking his brain on the water, where I could see him apply his knowledge, helped me grow as an angler. Listening to him and Bryce discuss striper at large also provided insight as to how West Coast striper fishing has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. My main takeaways from fishing with Bryce and Steve are as follows: 

  

• Don't be a fair weather angler — tough conditions like rain and brown water still produced some great fish for us. Steve's grit reminded me that you can't catch them from the couch.
• Depth matters more than distance in the delta. Casting far is great, but Bryce emphasized the importance of depth. Cast only the amount of line you need to, and then "flake" excess line out of your guides to sink the fly down to the fish quickly. 
• Change your retrieve if you aren't getting bit. We slowed the fly down with long pauses for much of the day. We followed the pauses with violent and abrupt strips that seemed to force fish to react on the fly.
• Big fish act like a wolf pack together. Bryce explained that they maraud around looking for a meal. Big stripers in rivers are not wasting their energy chasing fast and limited baitfish around. Instead, they are looking to capitalize on a crawfish or sunfish. 
• Fish different depths, pieces of structure, and areas during different times of the year. Stripers in the spring tend to stage in shallower water, whereas the fall fish we found were sitting on depth changes and humps in 10-16ft of water.
• Try new things that others haven't considered. Steve explained that his legendary Surf Brown Adachi Clouser was more or less an experiment initially, and that he didn't realize its efficacy until one specific trip. He casted it at group of large fish trailing a tired striper that his friend was bringing in and watched the fly get engulfed immediately. He continued to fish it with results.