What a difference a couple of days make. Here at the harbor it was stormy and rainy this past weekend. It really dumped buckets of water at Bodega Bay.

Not as much wind or rain as we need but at least it’s a start. The good news, according to the weather gods and goddesses, is it is supposed to be 67 degrees or higher later this week. That could mean that by Friday we are all going to be in shorts for the Diamond Classic this coming weekend.

Average rain fall for us here at the harbor is 1.90 inches of rain for the month of January. So far this month we have recorded 1.30 inches of rain. For the months of November, December and January combined we have recorded 2.44 inches of rain.

Its one thing not to have a lot of rainfall at sea level, but when there are no inflows to the dams and not enough snow pack to stick until June or July of each year, we really are back in a draught again or could be.

This time of year, in a normal wet weather pattern, the Sacramento River water level at the I Street Bridge in Sacramento should be in the 24 foot range and we should be flowing 60,000 to 70,000 cfs (cubic feet per second). Instead the water level at the I Street Bridge in Sacramento is only 8.76 feet. On the Feather River at Verona (the junction of the Sacramento River and the Feather River) the water is flowing at the rate of 29,300cfs. The water is flowing at that rate due to all of the rain runoff from last weeks storms. Based on the water models I have been following, the crest of water coming down the Sacramento River is at the Sacramento River and the Fremont Weir. The crest should be near the Rio Vista Bridge in the next 24to 36 hours.

With that in mind if you are fishing the Diamond Classic this coming Saturday expect faster moving water then you have seen the last month or more. Which means you will want to have a short leader instead of a long one. Expect to have problems keeping your leader on the bottom due to increased water flows.

The San Joaquin River at the Antioch Bridge is not all that muddy. I would speculate that most of the muddy water was caused by wind and wave action versus heavy rain run off. I’m not seeing as many water hyacinths drifting with the current as I have seen the past month or so out in front of the harbor. I believe a lot of them were blown out of the nursery areas with the wind storms the past two weeks.

The weather folks this morning (Tuesday) suggested that many areas would have fog due to the amount of water on the ground and the warmer days. At this point that is not the case, at least at the Antioch Bridge. We had clear skies today and would expect that to be the case the next couple of days.

Water temperatures are pretty warm for this time of year, currently at the Antioch Boat Ramp on the San Joaquin River the range is 47.26 to 47.79 degrees. At the Rio Vista Bridge on the Sacramento River the range is 46.2 to 46.9 degrees and at the Martinez Bridge the range is 48.07 to 49.48 degrees.

If you are planning on fishing for sturgeon this weekend, whether you are fishing a derby or not, make sure that your bait shop has plenty of bait this weekend as it will be a madhouse looking for bait grass and ghost shrimp. I’ve not heard if the rains this past weekend have impacted the shrimp boats or not.

The only fishing report I have came from Marv Bartlett late on Tuesday. He and his brother Scott were fishing in their usual spot near the Antioch Lumber Company building in Antioch in that fifty foot of water area where it is nice and flat. Marv said they had some pretty fast moving water caused by run off. He had one take down and one small striper that he caught for about six hours of fishing.

Enjoy this great winter weather see you at the seminar in Martinez this coming Friday Delta Chris.