Gifts for your favorite angler

Heavy rains and winds have kept all but the craziest anglers at home oiling their reels and cleaning their lines. But this weekend could clear, and it would be a good time to stock up your seafood larder.

Weather permitting, Capt. Rick Powers, of Bodega Bay Sportfishing, will continue to host combo party boat trips with an almost guaranteed opportunity to bring home limits of dungeness crab and rockfish, plus lingcod. Rick’s combo trips cost $110 an angler a day.

Please note that you can also get a gift certificate for a fishing trip on his boats for your angling partner. Call Rick at 875-3344.

The rains, while keeping most fisher-folk inside, also stimulate the sturgeon bite, which should be coming on strong this weekend. With freshwater runoff into the Bay, the sturgeon start actively feeding at places like the Pump House, Buoy 5, China Camp and in the Napa River. 

The bait of choice is live shrimp (mud, grass and ghost).

You will still find plenty of striped bass action in the Bay, as well.  Keith Fraser, at Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael, is your best source for the latest fishing prospects, as well as to book at bay party boat. Call Keith at 415-456-0321. Keith also can provide you with gift certificates for a Bay fishing trip.

Locally, you can find lots of great gifts for your fly-fishing friends at Leland Fly Fishing Ranch in Schellville. The ranch is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A fly-casting lesson, or guided trip is an excellent gift if you don’t know what kind of equipment your loved one wants.

If your favorite angler is not a fly fisher, then Sweeney’s for Sports in Napa is the closest tackle shop for just about anything you need to catch a fish. Sweeney’s has a great selection of rods and reels, lures and more for all types of fishing. 

The store, which also sells hunting gear, is located at 1537 W. Imola Ave., in Napa, that is only about a 15- to 20-minute drive from Sonoma.

A 2015 California fishing license makes an excellent gift. The license is $47.01 and you can buy them in Sonoma at Brocco’s Old Barn Feed Store, 19660 Arnold Drive.

At the higher end, a guided steelhead fly-fishing trip on the Rogue River with Jim Andras is one of the best gifts you can give your fly fisher. A full day of angling, all tackle, flies included, is $424 (for one to two anglers). 

You can also buy fly-fishing lessons from either Jim, or his wife, Rachel, for around $315 a session (one to two anglers). Call Rachel at 530-722-7992 or go to andrasoutfitters.com for more information.

If you want a gift for both of you, throw in a couple of nights (and a play or two) in Ashland. The Ashland Shakespeare festival opens in February. Rachel can help you with reservations.

Hunting

and

Fishing

Bill

Lynch