Napa River

Put your striper rig away and start hunting sturgeon in the south river — if some rains ever come.

Napa Valley Fly Fishers Club turns 40

Happy Birthday to the Napa Valley Fly Fishers Club (NVFF), as 2009 marks its 40th year. Under the steady hand of president Michael McKeown, it has grown rapidly from 12 members to 52.

We meet every second Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Napa Senior Center at 1500 Jefferson St. in Napa. Come on out to join.

In addition to tight lines and fly feathers, the club’s activities on behalf of Relay for Life, Casting for a Cure, Friends of the Napa River, Napa Valley Community Outreach and Project Healing Waters gives everyone ample opportunity to reach out to those less fortunate in a meaningful way.

Clear Lake

Some rain and clouds have combined to warm up the temperature.

Monday they received a quarter-inch of rain, while we got just a trace.

As a result, the bass bite has improved to “steady” on jumbo minnows.

Start in four to eight feet of water early and progress down to 20 to 30 later in the day.

If you prefer artificials, try drop-shotting your favorite straight worm or Senko. Let a shaky jig wiggle away on the bottom without moving it.

Warm up by slow rolling a Rattletrap.

Use all of these systems in the same areas — rocks, docks and walls.

The crappie bite went south in the bitter cold periods. Punch up Lakeshore Bait & Tackle’s Web site, www.994fish.com, for news of improvement.

The usual hot spots won’t change much: Kono Tayee, Shag Rock, Glenhaven, Jones and Jago Bays and Konocti.

Except for Glenhaven and Konocti, you will probably need a boat.

It will be a while before we have much to report on the catfish arrival.

Smith River

There is lots of water here — and still fishable. As of 6 p.m. Monday night, the readings were as follows:

• River Stage at JED, 12 feet.

• DRF, 18 feet and rising a bit.

Flows turned up since early Sunday. They went from 8,000 cfs at 4 a.m. to 10,000 cfs at 6 p.m.

California Delta

It’s time for a quick primer on fishing for sturgeon.

The slot size is 46 to 66 inches. You may not keep any smaller or bigger.

Keep one per day, but no more than three per year.

Ask your bait and tackle shop for the report card that you need to record this information for the DFG at the end of the year.

Don’t go out without it.

Popular baits for sturgeon are ghost and grass shrimp, roe, lamprey eel and pile worms.

The old salts make up “cocktails” using various combinations.

In spite of that, concentrate on river sand bars.

That’s where the prevailing winter natural bait — baby clams — are most prevalent.

Bodega Bay

Here is Monday’s report from Wil’s Bait & Tackle (875-2323).

Most fishing is on hold due to bad weather, and crabbing is slow.

There was some talk about perch at Doran Beach, but no details yet.

Wil’s has the Samantha Irene docked in Berkeley for daily halibut trips.

Call them for details and bookings.

Salmon update

Grim predictions for salmon in 2009.

Dick Pool, reporting for the effective grass roots group www.water4fish.org, had a glum outlook for this new year.

Experts say we need at least 121,000 returning spawners in the Central Valley for long-term survival.

In 2007, only 90,000 came back — so in 2008, fishing was closed for the most part.

Well, that didn’t work.

Only 60,000 came back last year — a 23 percent drop.

One small hope for improvement is to truck outgoing hatchery fish around the Delta to the bay so they can avoid low water and massive pumping problems.

You can help by going to water4fish.org and telling your elected official what you think about our problems.

Over 60,000 Californians have so far.

It’s just a three-minute drill.