Colusa sturgeon

Spent the last 2.5 days at Colusa. Fished with buddy wdwrkr (Craig), the 1st day and a half. The river dropped evey day, enough so that the Colusa access will be mud soon.
We saw fish roll, saw a striper caught, and heard other stories. The river was in better shape than I thought it would be. Wind was an issue for 2 days, but you could still fish.
Snagging the bottom with #50 rigs was fun, not!
All in all, I found that we could get far upstream by paddling slow water and walking the river bars. We found holes clear of snags, and other holes to curse.
I think that when the Cottonwood duff is found floating on the water it will be striper time!

Looks like Good Times, but what about the sturgeon in the headline?!   

Nice go of it Mako and Co.

 Still many boats at the Garden Highway Launch...  Verona is getting good reports of stripers
                                                              ( wish I was there today but family First....... )

 Snags.....    That seems like the biggest issue to battle a Dino out there,  Verona would be a

 Disaster there are so many sangs, and anchored boats...

 I tried the Feather/Yuba once, what a battle on the Hobie, strong flow and many Jeers from the locals,

finally anchored up with some cut Sardine and hooked up with a 20lb. Striper  (C&R  )

 Funny thing was the same locals that were laughing at me were now " Coming to my rescue.. "

 when I hooked up..  " Hang in there man, were coming... "   

I get the hawg up to me as they approach, show them and then released her.....

 They really thought I was out of my mind now....

 I think I'll be back up that way soon........

 Thanks for the report..... 

good on you two for trying.....have there been any other yak'rs up there attempting that?.....big fish in little rivers sound fun& DANGEROUS!
LetsROLL!
Sweet pics of the river Juan....i wondered what that area looked like.

Juan thanks for the report and awesome photos.  Man it's beautiful up there. Wish I was there with you guys.

Good report.  Way to stick it out even with all of the snags.

Avoid the snags! Launch at Ward's Landing, go across the bridge in Colusa, take first right, ( Butte Slough Road) and go a few miles downstream. Look for "ICE COLD BEER MEXICAN FOOD" sign or right. ( food ain't bad!) They have an all season ramp, and the sturgeon and striper fishing is better down there. My friend catches sturgeon at night tied to the dock every year. We fish downstream from there, mostly between there and Lovey's Landing. Lovey's has a swing hoist launch for boats, and a dock, so if you are comfortable doing a dock launch, it would be good too. They have all you can eat spaghetti on Mondays for cheap, and happy hour in the bar is $1 draft Bud.

The best way to fish that area in kayaks bring 2 vehicles and drift from Colusa to Grimes. It is about a 12 mile drift, and depending on current, paddling and fishing time, takes 4 to 12 hours.

Upstream of Colusa State Park is snag and sandbar city, and most sturgeon are caught downstream anyway.

I have a bunch of the deep holes downstream GPS'ed, but an easy way to find them is to drift downstream doing big "S" turns until you find a good one, then anchor up. Many spots you will cruise along with 12FOW and then drop into a 30-40 FOW hole 200 yards long, but a 5-6 foot drop holds fish too. I found the sturgeon in the tailout of the hole, just as it breaks from steady deep water to shallowing up. Rarely do those holes have snags. As the water drops, the Sturgeon hang there until they spawn. I also fish around EVERY pump on the river. The other thing we do is look like complete idiots when boats come by, and we always say we haven't caught any "catfish" yet. You want the other boats to "go away". Hopefully, one of those big boys won't roll on the surface and give up the game, if they see it, just say "friggin carp, that's all we keep catchin".

Stripers- we like to drift with the current and cast swimbaits to the rocklined levys, around every pump, branch in the water... anything that breaks the current.

Troutnut, thank you very much for that reply. I have been thinking of a Colusa to Grimes drift.
What I do for the stripers is to toss big, black, plastic worms on a leadhead jig against the bank. That's pretty fun too. We did it this last time but only caught pike minnows.
From Colusa we found a couple good holes upstream. One only has to try them to figure out the snags and go from there. We saw the fish rolling up there.
Thanks again.

Cat's outta da bag. 

I used to live in Colusa, and fished a lot for Stripers and Sturgeon.  I always did well on both up by the Chico Straights later in the season.  This early I would go south of Colusa.  Tisdale ramp is rumored to be open again, that is a great spot for Sturgeon!  I used to do well at the Red Sea, Tuttles pump (north from Colusa), the Tractor Hole (my honey "hole"), The river bridge south of Colusa has a nice hole along the west bank, just north of the bridge.  Hair Raiser jigs in the flood lights, nuff said!  There is a great swirl south of Loveys.

The hole you are talking about north of Colusa is (or was) great for salmon. 

For Stripers I prefer cut bait, but have done well with the worms.  Once the water hits 60-65, they will really chase the baits.  They will also begin to spawn on the top in the evening, really cool to see.  I have had them run into the side of the boat.  I have also caught females, and netted 2-3 males chasing her up to the boat trying to breed.  Watch those males though, they milk!  It doesn't wash off easy either!

Later on, a drift from Princeton to Colusa would be fantastic!

Matt

Ahhhhhh... variety, the true spice in life. Way to get out and do some pioneerin' Juan. There are sooo, many options in the yak world, and so many yet to be tried... "when the Cottonwood duff is found floating on the water it will be striper time!" As I understand it, that's also when the morels start popping. MMmmmm!

Ward's Landing

Nice report on interesting territory.  Good luck next time.

Lovely river trip.  Thanks for the report and pictures.

Great area for sturgeon. Spent the night last night on shore across from Grimes(or so). A guy down river caught an oversize greenie at 3:30 pm. My buddy landed a 63 incher, 80lbs or so at midnight. I know it wasn't from a kayak, just reporting on the area. Also saw some striper starting to show on the surface, but no luck.