2007 FISHING DIARY

DELTA STRIPERS
What an incredible angling year 2007 was. My clients and I started of the year chasing stripers in the Delta. With little rain and very cold air temperatures the water dipped as low as 38 degrees. Although conditions were tough we still managed to land fish up to 21 lbs. February was much better, with angler Rich Cancilla, in only his second day ever striper fishing, landing a very stubborn 20 lb. line-sider. The month of March was the best month we have ever had on the Delta as my clients landed an incredible 518 keeper stripers with 56 fish over ten pounds and 18 of those going over fifteen pounds. We finished with three over twenty pounds as John Waldum landed a 24 lb. fish (see photo below) and Jim Becker landed a huge striper weighing 30 lbs. Jack Lewtwyler ended the month with another 24 lb. trophy. April, was a good month on the Delta as Matt Goff landed his first twenty pound striper and we finished the month with Xavier and Slim landing 62 stripers. We fished the Delta into the first part of June before taking a break for trout fishing.

August saw us back out chasing stripers in the Delta and our first day out we were very successful, as Brent landed a beautiful 22 lb. fish in the West Delta. The fishing was very good in August, September, and October, but the month of November saw us break another record. In 24 days on water we landed an amazing 674 keeper stripers breaking are all-time monthly total by almost 100 fish. Angler Rudd Corwin ended the month with his first twenty pounder, a very spunky 24 lb. fish that took a chartreuse clouser. Fishing continued to be very good in December with Nick Hatzopoulous landing a huge 25 lb. striper on the last guide day of the year. We finished 2007 with 183 guide days on the Delta and we landed an unbelievable 3062 keeper stripers including nine over twenty pounds!

STANISLAUS RIVER
We had another awesome year on the Stanislaus, floating the river 34 days in late May, June, July, and the first part of August. We had an incredible 42 trout a day average on the upper drift and a 27 trout a day on the lower drift. We also landed 51 stripers up to 10 lbs. We had some incredible streamer fishing with Matt Goff landing our biggest trout at 23 1/2 inches.

MOKELUMNE RIVER
The flows on the Mokelumne River were low throughout the summer but we still had nine good days of fishing with some great dry fly fishing and excellent streamer fishing. Jeff Tamayo landed our biggest trout on the river, a 6 1/2 lb. beauty that took a rubber-legged streamer pattern. My highlight on the Mokelumne was floating my 4 year-old son Connor down the river and watching him land his first trout ever on his 3 wt. Scott Fly Rod

LOWER SACRAMENTO RIVER
My clients and I spent 37 days on the river this past spring, summer, and fall and we had some memorable days and some wonderful campouts. We finished the season on the Lower Sac. with a 30 trout per-day landing ratio with Tom Brutsche landing our biggest fish at 6 1/2 lbs. We did catch many smaller steelhead this season but very few large adults. My son, Connor landed a 15 inch rainbow while drifting a stonefly below Jelly's Ferry while his mother Eme, landed some very nice trout on her second day ever fly fishing.

Overall it was an awesome year of angling with many wonderful memories, my thanks to all the clients who spent the day on the water with me in 2007.

Fish Hard, Mike Costello