Today, Victor from the  California Fly shop hosted a San Luis Fly Fishing Clinic at Oneal Forebay.  According to Victor,  20 people showed up and the fishing was good when you could find the schools of fish.  They caught over 100 strippers that day.   I spent the morning on the main lake concentrating on the coves between Basalt and Portuguese Bay.    I have caught some big fish and I have had double digit dink days,  but today I caught more fish over 4 lbs than I have ever caught in half a day.    It was a windless beautiful day on the lake again and the lake was crowded with more than 20 boats alone at Basalt.   Even so,  I did not see anyone else all day up close.  I didn’t see a single fly fishermen either.   I am pretty sure that flies are the right thing to use if you want to catch San Luis Stripers.  This morning a Pro Bass Angler in a 50K bass boat came out of a bay I wanted to fish.    I had been watching him fish the shoreline with plugs and zoom flukes for about 2 hours.   As soon as he came out, I pulled in and fished it for the first time today–the cove was  super productive with Jim Cramer last week.  As we passed each other ,  he asked me how I was doing and I told him a few.  He complained to me that the lake seemed dead to him and that he had no luck and blamed the lack of wind.   The cove was very productive on flies.  In the corner of the cove stands a big willow tree in the water.  How these trees get green and don’t fall over with the wildly fluctuating water level is a mystery to me but the baitfish hang out under their protection and I thought only Largemouth bass actual prowl this kind of water.    Well apparently not since I managed to catch a couple large stripers casting into its branches like fishing for LMB (Large Mouth Bass), and I could see stripers cruising around the tree.  I thought they were LMB at first and I was very surprised to see Stripers hanging out in the shade.  Also while casting arount the bay early in the morning ,  a group of stripers started slashing bait on the surface at 10:30am.    I only managed one fish out of that school though–these fish move a lot.

Today I also lost a very big fish casting right to the shoreline.   You cant win them all but I didn’t think I would ever lose a big stripers since the ones I have caught on flies just inhale that tiny white marabou fly  and I have never hooked a landed big striper light.