Hello friends,
Last week we hosted our first hands-on Striper Fishing Workshop where we had boat owners looking to improve their striper fishing game and aspiring boat owners acting as deckhands.
The experience was designed for both existing and aspiring boat owners. Existing boat owners would advance their Napa River fishing skills while aspiring boat owners would act as deckhands and be matched with a boat owner on the fishing day.
The workshop had 2 parts.
Theory
We started with the captain’s meeting and dinner. One of our captains, Rob, owns, il-Fuoco Pizza in Sonoma, naturally, he was selected to cater our dinner. Delicious just doesn’t begin to describe Chef Rob’s creations. Exquisite seems like the right word to describe il-Fuoco thin crust, wood fire pizza with topics like prime rib, wild mushrooms, and fennel sausage.
After we cleaned our plates we got deep into the striper fishing strategy and spent 2 hours and multiple whiteboards full of dry-erase ink to outline our plan.
We talked about
Tides
Equipment
Speed
Trolling Depth
Fish Location
And a whole bunch of tactics on what sloughs to fish, where to start the troll, how often to change our lures, and where the fish likes to hold during incoming and outgoing tides.
We called the meeting at around 10 pm and went home to get ready for a day on the water tomorrow.
Practice
We met at the boat ramp at 7 am and launched. We had a specific fishing plan in mind for the first hour or so, improvising from there. Instead of taking my own boat, I decided to deckhand for Art, so we ended up with 3 boats.
The morning was beautiful, but the fish was hard to come by.
This was an outgoing tide and we had a hard time locating concentrations of fish. We did end up hooking a few shaker-sized stripers each.
In the process, however, one of our Italian Stallion Wild Thing lures accidentally hooked a giant sturgeon by the tail. It was quite a fight to bring the creature to the boat so we could release it. All went well and the giant dinosaur was safely released. We even kept the lure.
Overall, I’ve heard everyone’s feedback, and all of us had a great time learning new skills and putting them to the test. Fishing isn’t catching, they say. It’s true. We did our best and ended up with great stories, new relationships, and a few shakers. The new skills we learned, however, will come in handy the next time we are out there.
If you are interested in joining me for our next Napa River Striper Fishing Workshop, please fill out this form and let us know if you are applying as a Captain or a Deckhand.
Our next Napa River Striper Fishing Workshop is scheduled for Friday, September 20th, 2024
Agenda:
Captains and Deckhands Strategy Breakfast at Club Sweeney's 8am-10am
Meet at the Boat Ramp - 10:30am
Napa River Team Fishing Session - 10:30am-3pm (Outgoing tide)
Catch Happy!
P.S. We hosted the last workshop on the weekend and decided against it moving forward. Napa River gets somewhat busy on the weekends. We prefer the serenity of a weekday fishing experience.
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