* Napa River

Forget about it -- Monday's storm has blown it out again. Anglers will have to wait until it clears for stripers. Bankies can test the striper bite with some cut bait this weekend.

However, sturgeon love this brown stuff. Better try for them in the south river.

* Lake Berryessa

The early spring bass bite continues to be hot. Chad Hole at Sweeney's Sports in Napa (255-5544) caught and released another boatload last weekend. He said the numbers stayed high and the fish were bigger.

Here's one for the books. One of the anglers on Chad's boat was tossing a DT 22 (down to 22 feet) bass plug designed for deep water work.

He cast it out and it stayed on the surface while he said something to his friend.

There was a major boil of water and the lure disappeared -- with a three-pound small mouth bass hooked on tight. Chad said it was the first time he ever saw a deep diving plug catch a top water bass.

The trout bite is a little tougher right now. Anglers can try trolling a Needlefish at 10-15 feet in their favorite spots but it has been hard to limit with some muddy conditions present.

* San Pablo Dam Reservoir

The water is still clearing so bait plunking is the best way to go until it is clearer.

Bank fishing around the Main Rec Area seems to be the thing to try.

Make it simple -- use Powerbait with lots of attractants so the fish can pick up on the scent. The one constant here is that they receive regular drops of trout right through the summer until closing.

Here's a recap of their first 2006 Whopper Board: Miles Ogata fooled a 5-pound, 4-ounce trout in Scow Canyon, and Joseph Chu used Powerbait to land an 11-pound largemouth bass in the Main Rec Area.

* California Delta

The latest word from the Delta is that it is cold out there , with the needle at 30 degrees at night. Combined with some debris still running and flows up and down, it has made fishing tough recently. The go-to catch is the sturgeon.

Rig up a bait "cocktail" of eel and ghost shrimp for best results. The runoff from this latest storm should keep Mr. Sturgie on the prod.

* Sacramento River

Water flows are back up to 15,000 cfs -- that's about double a week ago but less than half as much as two weeks ago.

Don't blame the dam operators too much. It is critical that they try to adjust the free capacity of the lake to match the expected snow pack runoff.

This last heavy rain will only add another variable. Kirk Portocarrero (800 670-4448) said that Prince Nymphs No. 14 and 16 along with Micro Mayflies and Fox Poopahs were fooling nice wild rainbows drifting in the Redding-Anderson stretch.

* Smith River

After almost three weeks of dry weather and low flows, they had a gully-washer up there early this week. The stage at JED went from 10.9 feet Monday night to a top of 14.3 at 10 a.m. Tuesday before settling back to 13.7 at about 2 p.m.

The DRF numbers were 16.3 feet Monday night to 20.1 at 2 p.m Tuesday.

This is great news for the fishery -- field scouts report that it can be fishable as early as this weekend. Optimum levels are 9 to 10 feet at JED and 15 to 17 at DRF.

Call Dave Jacobs at (800) 355-3113 for the latest weather information before heading out.