BIG STRIPERS -- Jim Matthews column 20oct04
Fly angler catches 36-pound striper from Silverwood
Outdoor News Service
Historically, fly-fishing was about catching trout with small bits of fur and feathers artistically tied onto a hook so the concoction looked like a small insect floating on the water's surface. It was a delicate sport. Poetic even. That was then.
Now, there is still that side of fly-fishing, but adventurous fly anglers have decided that fly gear, in a beefed up configuration, could be used to tackle fish that could make a meal of most trout. And some that do. On Tuesday this week, Gary Wiederspan of Riverside had a brawl with a 36-pound striped bass on fly tackle at Lake Silverwood. Wiederspan won.
"It was the most miserable day of fishing I've ever had," said Wiederspan, talking about the weather. "Most normal people wouldn't have gone out."
The wind was blowing in 30 to 50 mile per hour gusts, and spray from the waves had the bilge pump working full time, but Wiederspan and his fishing partner Jack Barton of Crestline found the stripers and largemouth bass very cooperative on a day between storm fronts. Using a fly-rod trolling technique with a sinking fly line and a special streamer fly called Bob's Little White Fly, the pair ended up catching full limits of 10 stripers each along with a half-dozen largemouth bass between two and four pounds.
The big striper was fish No. 17. It grabbed the fly about 9:45 in the morning and ran off 100 yards of backing off the fly reel. It took 15 minutes to get the fish tired out and up next to the boat for netting.
"It's the biggest fish I've ever caught on a fly, and maybe the biggest freshwater fish I've ever landed," said Wiederspan, who is a lifelong angler. "I told my partner I didn't care if I ever caught another fish. This one topped off my whole fishing career.
For the record, the 36-pound fish was 43 inches long and had a 29-inch girth and it was landed on a 15-pound test tippet.
"Ever since I started using Bob's fly I don't think I've ever been skunked," said Wiederspan. "It doesn't matter if I'm fishing Silverwood, Skinner, Diamond Valley or the [Colorado] River, I catch fish with that fly."
Bob Slamal, owner of Riverside Ski and Sport, a fly-fishing guide who designed Bob's Little White Fly (which he sells about 400 dozen of a year out of his shop), and a fellow bird hunter who owns yellow Labradors, called to tip me off about Wiederspan's fish.
The fishing technique used to land the big striper is one that Slamal has perfected when fly-trolling in local lakes. The whole sinking fly line (which is 90 to 120 feet long) and 15 to 20 feet of backing is let out behind the boat, and the trolling motor is used to move along the edge of structure and across points. Wiederspan said he though the fly was running about 16 to 17 feet deep when the big fish hit. The fly-trolling technique is now used by dozens of anglers locally, most taught the tactic by Slamal.
It's not how Isaac Walton would have done it, but then again, he didn't catch 36-pound striped bass either.
