Striperzzzz.....

[Darian]

Found a post by jerryinlodi over on Blanton's BB titled, What Stripers Eat. The info in the post is from an article cited. There's a list of food items shown that doesn't include many Crayfish which, If I recall correctly, crayfish were touted as a major food item for stripers by DFG stomach samples. :? :? This was mentioned by Ken Hanley on this BB some time ago. I haven't yet read the complete article so I may be "jumping the gun" but I'm wondering if this list is for a single location (e.g. San Luis Reservoir, Forebay, etc.) :?:

Text Follows:

Posted by JerryInLodi on 2008-04-01 15:53:15

In a study conducted in 2001, 2003, the stomachs of 245 stripers were examined for evidence of what they eat. The study was conducted over the months of March through October.

Here are some interesting and sometimes VERY surprising results. I may have to rethink some of the flies I tie after considering the studies results.

The list is in order from greatest to least. Any results of less than three were dropped from the list with the exception of crayfish and Chinook salmon smolts.

Crustaceans - Amphipods Corophiidae (a scud) 80
Crustaceans - Mysids (a small shrimp) 59
Crustaceans - Gammaridae (another scud) 41
Crustaceans - Decapod shrimp (grass shrimp?) 28
Unspecifed fish (too deteriorated to ID) 32
Threadfin shad 21
Yellowfin goby 14
Annelids (marine segmented worms) 13
Unspecified shad 12
Insects - Diptera (flies) 8
Inland silversides 7
Crustaceans - Isopods (similar to a sand flea) 6
Striped bass 4
Tridentiger (sculpin like fish) 4
American Shad 2
starry flounder 1
crayfish 1
prickly sculpin 1
splittail 1
tule perch 1
largemouth bass 1
and finally
CHINOOK SALMON 1

Dan posts that sometimes you have to fish with smaller flies to get results. Could that be because stripers are such scud and shrimp hogs?

How about a size 2 shrimp/scud pattern? An easy tie. nothing more than some chenille palmered with some stiff hackle with a shell back.

Hey Dan, if you read this post, what do you think?

I can't help to call every one's attention to the fact that only ONE Chinook smolt was found in over 245 striper stomachs! Are the water vendors grasping at straws or what?

You can read the full study by going to www.calsport.org, clicking on the Red Hot News page and going to May, 2007. The title of the article is, Piscavore-Prey Dynamics

[David Lee]

(Posted by JerryInLodi on 2008-04-01 15:53:15)
I can't help to call every one's attention to the fact that only ONE Chinook smolt was found in over 245 striper stomachs! Are the water vendors grasping at straws or what?



That's a little like saying that Stripers don't eat Anchovies , isn't it ?

Stripers eat EVERYTHING they can - if it's around , it's fair game .

Would there be more Salmon/Steelhead if there were no Striped Bass in the system ?? Of course there would be . There would be more Salmon/Steelhead here if we blew-up Shasta Dam , also . Or if we cut the HUMAN population by 75% .

Will getting rid of all the Stripers in the system solve the decline of Salmon/Steelhead populations (as suggested by the water thieves) ?? NO !! Stripers have been here since the 1870's , and until the massive water exports of the past few years , Salmon/Steelhead/Striped Bass populations have been healthy , for the most part . That's right - CO-EXISTING for OVER 100 years .

It only adds up to a matter of common sense - if the threadfin Shad populations are low in , say ..... Discovery bay , Stripers will shift feeding focus to whatever else is available/more abundant ..... like Sunfish . I'd figure it must be hard to eat something that isn't there at any given time of year .....

David

[JerryInLodi]

Darian and David,

The survey took place in the delta 2001 and again in 2003. Stripers were not the only fish surveyed. LMB and the Sacramento Pike Minnow were also surveyed. At the time, Chinook salmon smolts were much more prevalent however, the survey fails to say the size of the average striper surveyed. If small, that could explain the large amount of "bugs" vs. prey fish.

However, it can't be denied that from the survey, that the stripers were the main predator of shrimp like prey! If that is truly so, some preconceived ideas of stripers main diet being prey fish, crayfish and then incidental marine foods such as grass shrimp is upside down!

Does that mean that I'm going to throw all of my striper patterns out the door? No way, however, I have tied some grass shrimp patterns and will try them when I know I'm over stubborn fish. I could be pleasantly surprised.

If anyone wants to read the survey, go to www.calsport.org. Click on the Red Hot News button on the left. Once at that page scroll down to May 2007 and then click on Piscavore-Prey Dynamics (pdf.format)

[k.hanley]

Darian you posted "...This was mentioned by Ken Hanley on this BB some time ago. ..."

My reference was only in the context of the stripers in the American River. I spoke with a DFG researcher who was on the water doing stomach content sampling at the time of the conversation. In addition to viewing stomach samples from stripers caught by other anglers on the same day, crawdads were indeed the number one item present.

Does that study on the American River translate to the Delta environs? Perhaps. Perhaps not. One thing I do know... some stripers eat crawdads. I always carry "dad" patterns with me on striper outings. They have for sure put stripers on the end of my line.

It's a complex foodchain out there and stripers certainly know how to maximize their harvest on any given day, on any given body of water. Big, small, they seem to eat it all. :) A good example of this is in the surf zone. When baitfish aren't present in large numbers, stripers frequently feed on Pacific Mole Crab (the size of a small or medium green olive). In fact, when they are feeding on the crab you can actually feel the "marbels" in the fish when you massage the striper's belly area.
Cheers, Ken

[Darian]

OK,.... What can we take from the results of this info/survey :?: :?: That "unspecified fish too deteriorated to identify" are the largest number of prey fish for stripers :?: :lol: :lol:

Actually, I am wondering what this does for us. :? :? Given what's been said here, it seems to me that there's little of value for fishing in this survey since most of the crustaceans mentioned (at the top of the list) could've been taken incidentally to opening the mouth to suck in or strike at prey fish.... Guess I'll stick to the tried and true until someone (Jerry maybe :?: ) confirms the results of the survey :?

[mike N]

I have hooked fish in the AMerican with these

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p77/mikenovotny/DSCN2679.jpg

and these

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p77/mikenovotny/DSCN2647.jpg

But they were half pounders.

MN

[Scott V]

Crawdads, crawdads, and more crawdads. Those look really nice.

[JerryInLodi]

Darian, the decopod shrimp mentioned in the survey are not that small, and can get to the size of a small crayfish. While I don't think fishing with small scuds would be worthwhile or effective, a pattern based on a large grass shrimp may produce some results.

One of the things that has come out of the discussion on the two boards, Blanton's and Kiene's, is that stripers, like other fishes, at times become selective and do key into certain food sources. One of the posters talked of stripers at San Luis or O'Neil keying into damsel fly larva. Another talked of stripers obviously feeding on scuds.

I don't know how far grass shrimp can be found in the east delta but the survey points covered were all in what is considered the fresh water zone.

Since it seems that stripers can be selective and grass shrimp as well as other crustceans are a part of their diet, I figure I'll make some attempt to give them what they may want, an imitation grass shrimp, if they don't seem to be that hungry for the standard fare of clousers, whistlers, deceivers, etc. After all, if they're not eating already, I don't have much to loose.

Here's a picture of a grass shrimp. In years past I've used these for sturgeon bait and have actually run across some even bigger than the one in the photo.

I've tied two patterns that I think represent the creature but I'd have to tie an extended body or use a long shank hook to tie a really good and large imitation.

http://www.deltastripers.com/images/grass_shrimp.jpg

[Darian]

Jerry,.... Have you looked at the Shrimp pattern produced by Bob Popovicks (hope I spelled the name correctly) or the Enrico Puglisi Shrimp pattern :?: :?: :?: Either of those patterns would appear to be suitable. 8) 8)

I think I'm going to stick with the Crayfish patterns until you post some results. 8)

Good luck :D :D :D

[Kevin Goding]

Yeah it's hard to say about the study results of the top prey items. The majority of those crustaceans are relatively small, with the Gammarus being the largest, and they can get about 3/4 of an inch long. Although, I'm not sure about the delta, but some of the mysid shrimp can get pretty big, although the most common ones we catch in the delta are about the same size as the amphipods. I would assume most of the fish surveyed were schoolie sized stripers, although you never know. You can catch some monster fish with pretty tiny flies. Also, the top prey item, the corophid, is a mud dweller, so the fish would have to be scooping them out of the mud, or catching them out during low tide on mud flats. Maybe someone should tie some "magnum" sized scuds and see what happens lol?