Napa River Guided Fishing Charters
Friday 7/30/26 Jason and Chiara are visiting the Napa Valley from New York ~ they contacted me the previous day and booked a guided Striped Bass fishing trip..
First Spot
We met on the boat dock at Cuttings Wharf Public Boat Launch on the Napa River at 6:30am and it was a cold and blustery morning despite the fact that the Napa Valley forecast was for very hot weather for the next few days. That’s because we are south of downtown Napa and the world famous Napa Valley Wine Country (which is constrained by mountains and somewhat protected ) and we were headed down and out into the wide open waters of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes which while still within the bounds of Napa County is a totally different environment… this is a perfect example of typical Bay Area Microclimates!!! ie Unique climatic features with differentiation in wind and temperature patterns in the various geographic regions in the San Francisco Bay Area <– I just made this verbiage up myself but it’s true
Full moon, minus tides and a decent SSW blowing in our face made for tough conditions to say the least. It’s not always like this but these conditions are most certainly more prevalent on a regular basis in summer. To set the scene: Jason had some pretty good experience a while back fishing for Largemouth Bass and Chiara was a total newcomer to the sport. Now they live in New York City so this was definitely a different kind of experience. I thoroughly recommend it when you are considering non-touristy Things To Do In Napa – on the water.
I put Jason on the back of the boat, out of the way and got him to cast behind the boat with the assistance of the wind while I gave Chiara some casting lessons on the front deck, facing the wind and next to the trolling motor. Why? Because this was the closest to where the fish were at – and location wise this was the only place where we could position the boat and sit on ‘SpotLock’ and have a chance at the fish. You have to work with what you have (1) I could see some Stripers chasing bait across to the right from where we were at (2) there were a couple of birds hovering there watching the activity and (3) this trip was meant to introduce Chiara to sport fishing and it was her birthday so she got the prime location to fish even though it wasn’t ideal (wind wise). And what an introduction to fishing it was!
What I haven’t mentioned yet is that while the boat was sitting facing the wind, we were in a very narrow, 6′ deep channel and had to cast a very long way to the right in not much more than 2′ of water as that’s where the fish and the activity was. This spot is like a large funnel and you need to cast to where the neck narrows down from the body and enters the narrow channel we were sitting in. Upon reflection my description here appears both cryptic and somewhat informative at the same time – if that’s possible.
I had the two of them using a different size and different colored lure to start with and after no success I went to my personal favorite (as the water was starting to get muddy) This larger lure, is heavier, has more visibility and displaces more water but it comes at a cost. In shallow water you have to crank it really fast so it doesn’t drag the bottom and collect weed.
One or two casts later and bam! Chiara was hooked up and fighting the biggest fish of her life. We probably only spent another 15 mins fishing there after we got the Striper in the boat, took pictures and released it as a) the tide had gone out even further b) the wind was really blowing and c) the water was really muddy now. The water was actually like chocolate milk, time to move!
Chiara with her first Striper caught on a guided fishing charter while visiting the Napa Valley
Time to get out of here! This area of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes was blown out now and was realistically unfishable so I made the decision to head off on a long ride to a spot where you run the boat up on the shore, climb out and fish from the bank. Muddy shoes, muddy jeans and if you slip … well its a mess.
When the tide goes out there’s now more mud between you and the boat.
Next Spot
It’s a gamble as it’s a good thirty minutes getting there at cruising speed and if there are people already there you have to turn around and go all the way back. It’s extremely tight and there’s only room for a couple of people there.
Following are some of the photos of Chiara and her introduction to shallow water lure casting to Stripers on light tackle from the shore in the Napa-Sonoma Marshes. Note that Jason caught a few too but I wasn’t happy with the photos. You need to check the lenses for watermarks, mud or slime smudges on a regular basis when you are fishing… In addition Jason emphasized that he wanted Chiara to fish and he was happy to stand by and take hours of footage of her utilizing her new found skills which were phenomenal. When I look back at the video footage I realized that I was constantly barking instructions (and to be fair a lot of praise too) By the end of the day she was able to cast the swimbait with accuracy across the slough and with the rod tip lowered keep the lure in the water, retrieve it through the turbulence and hook multiple fish all on her own – while Jason and I just stood back and watched. There were more fish caught by Chiara than I’ve posted here including the largest one at this spot that was lost due to my poor handling trying to get it up on the bank.
