Fishing Report: Week of Oct. 21

Published online on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009

Compiled by Dave Hurley and edited by Roger George, a central San Joaquin Valley native and local fishing expert.

BEST BETS

Delta striper action heats up, Mark Delnero said. Monterey rockfishing good as season winds down, Todd Arcaleo said. Bay area stripers taking bait, Keith Fraser said. McSwain rainbows on a tear, McSwain Marina said. Pine Flat trout working bait balls, Merritt Gilbert said. McClure bass on top, Manny Basi said.

ROGER'S REMARKS

I don't think there is any better way to spend time on the water than with a couple of good buddies who have the same mindset as you, are good team players and are humble enough to listen and try different ideas. I call it "competitive cooperation," and I think it's a healthy way to get the maximum effort, results and fun out of a fishing trip.

Let me give an example from a recent trip to San Luis Reservoir with two good buddies who are talented, experienced and hard-working anglers. Anticipating a great bite, we spent the better part of the morning marking fish, but the previously successful patterns were just not working for us or anyone else on the water. That's when one of my friends suggested we drastically change tactics as well as try another area he had confidence in. I had my doubts, but why not try? Within 15 minutes of making the change we got a nice 25-inch striper, and later we picked up several 24- to 26-inch fish. The reason for the success was that my buddy had been very observant and had correctly put together several different pieces of the puzzle that I had missed.

After a few hours, the bite we were on died -- so my other fishing buddy suggested we go to a totally different tactic that had worked for him before when he had dealt with a similar situation. Completely changing our tactics once again, we had a double hookup within minutes -- thanks to the heads-up thinking. In addition, our confidence in ourselves as a team was skyrocketing each time we had another success.

The point of the story is that we all learned a lot from each other, we caught a lot of fish when everyone else struggled, we made the right moves, we were open and flexible and worked together well. In addition, we had successfully pooled our many years of fishing experiences together to find the right patterns and keys each time we needed to change. It would have been very tough for each of us fishing alone. But the synergism of working together allowed us to overcome a bad start and end with a real team victory. That's what true fishing is all about.

- Roger George

FISHING PODCASTS & VIDEOS

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In case you missed any, visit the Podcast and Video Archive

PHOTO GALLERIES

Check out catches from local anglers that have submitted photos from their outings ...

Gallery #32 (new September 23)
Gallery #31
Archived Galleries

Take your digital camera with you so you can send us your pictures for our galleries. Please send your photos to fishpictures@fresnobee.com. Please include the following information: Your name, city, type of fish, length and weight of fish, when and where caught, and what type of bait used. Large photos work best — we can crop and reduce a picture, but we can't expand a small picture and make it look decent. You can also send photos to rogergeorge8000@sbcglobal.net.

FEATURED ANGLER PROJECT

Meet Fresno bass tournament angler John Flores.