Oneil Forebay 9/30

I was in the mood for a nice sunny day on a freshwater lake, so I hit Oneil Forebay about an hour and 15 minutes from my place in San Jose.  Launched a tad before the sun came up.  Halfway to the buoys and I see stripers boiling.  Turned the paddles on and got there in short order.  Today was a fly rod day for me to get some Bendo At Mendo practice in, first time for me doing this on stripers.  My first cast landed in the middle of a boil and I'm hooked up immediate on a small shad fly.  One dink striper down.  Over the course of the next hour I CNR'd 14 more dinks in the 12-16" range.  Where are the big girls?  Then the fish went down and it was all over.  Over the next 4 hours I managed 4 more on the troll, 2 on the trolled fly and 2 on the secret orange/black Smithwick stickbait.  Also got a small largemouth.

Here's a pic of my first ever fly caught striper.

-Allen

Wishin we had a striper or two here in Wa..  Nice work!

Z

Zee ... we have yellow perch and walleye.   

I'm trying to think of a freshwater fishery in the NW where we have schools of fish busting on bait.  Anyone?   

-Allen

Herring balls in the sound?

If you think the boils on Mendo or the Forebay are something, go check out Montauk Pt. on the east end of Long Island NY. I've seen blitzes that covered acres, with huge fish, and I sure as hell would NOT want to fall in the water. The bluefish that are mixed in have some serious choppers- like salt water piranhas that go 15-20lbs. The stripers are huge; 40lbs is not unusual.

Herring balls in the sound?

I did say freshwater fishery.

But even then, it rare to see a lot of salmon slashing the surface on a herring ball.  They're usually working the underside while the gulls do their thing on the surface.

-Allen