Stripers? Yes please!

[mar]

Gave striper fishing a try this morning. No line-ups, no buckets....just me and couple of beavers.


First stop yielded this little chunker:
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSCN0482b.jpg

Next stop, another little dude. I got a quick reminder of how hard these little guys can pull:
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSCN0496.jpg

Same spot, next cast. 9 lb-er:
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSCN0490b.jpg


Thanks for the dance:
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSCN0495.jpg

[Joe Mateas]

Nice.... All the Striper pics are killing me! My sonar took a dump(waiting for the HDS7 to show up as we speak) and work has been too busy to hit the water in almost 3 weeks. I woke up in a cold sweat and had the shakes this morning, I think I'm going through withdrawls!

[Darian]

Good Job!! Been waiting for some good news. Gotta get out there now. :D

[winxp_man]

Thats some great pics and sounds like you had a really nice time out there mar! For me it's been a while since I fished for striper. Will have to get out there one of these days.

Thanks for sharing Mar.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

That is great.....

Lower American River 'Striper Commandos' like Andy Guibord and Jim Christensen feel that the Striper fishing in the river slows some when the American Shad run is in full swing (June). They feel the bigger Stripers are just filling up on Shad.

Andy says he will start looking for Striper in the 'Lower A' in Mid-July.

August should be very good for Stripers right here in Sacramento.


If you want to be exposed to the Stripers in the river you might want to do a float with Andy this summer.

http://andyguibord.wordpress.com/guiding-instruction/


PS: Andy will also be doing some wading with two-handed (Spey) rods for Stripers this summer in the American River.


.

[STEELIES/26c3]

What does the caption in your Beavis And Butthead sticker say?

[STEELIES/26c3]

eGADS!'

I had no idea there was an alter ego, CORNHOLIO...

ick

[Hatch]

Good job Mar,
But be careful, If I were you I would stick to shad fishing up river where it is safe. The lower river is cold, mountain lions everywhere, homeless people with guns, meat eating beavers, great blue herons that could attack at any time. Much to dangerous for a father with small children. I promise I will let you know when it is safe.
Seriously
HATCH

[aaron]

meat eating beavers
So that explains why we're headed out in the am....

[Joe Mateas]

Good job Mar,
But be careful, If I were you I would stick to shad fishing up river where it is safe. The lower river is cold, mountain lions everywhere, homeless people with guns, meat eating beavers, great blue herons that could attack at any time. Much to dangerous for a father with small children. I promise I will let you know when it is safe.
Seriously
HATCH

I like your style Hatch!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

To say nothing of the lightly clad young ladies on Paradise Beach.......

[mar]

Meat eating beaver.....
Sounds like a good name for a fly.

I'll go back to shad fishing :-)

[aaron]

Maury and I fished this AM. The schoolies cooperated early on with a few hooked and lots of grabs. No big fish. A few meat eating beavers rousing from their 4th of july hangovers on the beach, but otherwise pretty quiet out. I'll throw some video up later.

[Lightly Simmered]

Maury and I fished this AM. The schoolies cooperated early on with a few hooked and lots of grabs. No big fish.

Solid work mar (Maury?), and Aaron. I promise that you would have better luck if not for all of the poachers in the lower river. Thirty and forty pounders are hauled outta there after midnight, above 80, daily. I don't mean to detract from your catches, just thought it was a good time to point it out...

[Mike O]

Solid work mar (Maury?), and Aaron. I promise that you would have better luck if not for all of the poachers in the lower river. Thirty and forty pounders are hauled outta there after midnight, above 80, daily. I don't mean to detract from your catches, just thought it was a good time to point it out...

I understand that night fishing the AR is illegal above business 80. My question is why does night matter? Do the big stripers bite better at night?

[Fish Guru]

I understand that night fishing the AR is illegal above business 80. My question is why does night matter? Do the big stripers bite better at night?

Illegal night fishing is definitely the easiest time to catch big stripers. It is during the night that they let their guard down and feed aggressively and with reckless abandon, hence making them exponentially easy to catch. It is unfortunate that so many "anglers" choose to selfishly not conform to the rules that we legitimate anglers follow just to achieve personal gratification, all the while doing irrevocable damage to our fishery. Poaching at night on the American is a huge problem that unfortunately does not get the attention it deserves from fish and game, hopefully that begins to change though.

[mar]

Headed out despite Hatch's dire warnings. Kissed my kids goodbye knowing a treacherous journey ahead. Got my beaver spray, hooked up the boat and set off on a solo striper trip.

Got to the usual fishy spots without a single hit. Casting practice in the next hour. This sucks. At least the beavers aren't around.

On the way back, I was just aimlessly drifting, making a cast here and there. Turned around and there's a sweet looking seam. Three casts into it, got a hit.

7-lber:
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSCN0502.jpg


The boat has drifted 40 feet downstream. Make another cast and got another hit.

5-lber:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSCN0507.jpg



Those were the only two hits the whole time. No dinks, no follows. I'll take it.


On the way to the ramp, saw this floating by.

20lbs on the boga. What a beast:
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSCN0508.jpg


Another nice striper trip, despite the treacherous conditions. Lots of flesh-eating carp trying to jump in the boat.

I'll lay low for awhile and do some 2-hander casting practice. Much safer.

[Hatch]

Mar,
Safety Never takes a Holiday,
I'll take quality over quantity any day.
Good work
HATCH

[Lightly Simmered]

Good job mar, pretty fish. I hear ya on those beavers. They are everywhere, but some are easier on the eyes than others. ;)

Mike O, you are correct, above Business 80 is illegal. Fish Guru nailed it, that's when they eat and get "stupid"... like a buck during rut. In large water bodies (like the Sac, Delta, Pacific, and Atlantic) going after them at night, where it's legal, is fair chase since they have so many places to roam. On the itty bitty American River notsomuch. It's poaching fish out of a barrel... not fair chase imo. Btw, I'd bet a nice reel that the dead 20 pounder mar saw was caught by someone at night that didn't know how to handle fish, but set it "free" thinking they were doing right.

For what it's worth, the rules on the AR are probably meant to protect the salmonids, and rightfully so. Easier to enforce "no fishing hours" than have a warden determine if one's target species is stripers, shad, salmon, or steelhead, etc.

[Andy Guibord]

I concur with Hatch... it is much too dangerous. It has been reported in the right wing news paper, The Sacramento Bee, that there has been a flock of ruby throated hummingbirds raised by Mitt Romney, that have been taking out the left eye of any fly fisherman on the American not waring the current Action Optics sunglasses from a domestic fly shop. They will land and perch right on the tip of any imported rod less than an 8 weight. It is unsettling. They are ruthless!!!!!!!!!

[Darian]

Damn!!!! Ultra left wingers to one side of me and ultra right wingers to the right. Hummers everywhere. :eek: What's a guy gonna do?? It's enough to make ya want to go hunt up a centered, meat eating beaver.... :unibrow:

[mar]

Just can't get enough. Went out for a 1.5-hour session this am. The dinks were out in full force. Caught a couple of chunky 4-lbers:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSCN0510.jpg


Fun times.

[mar]

Went back last Friday for a 1-hour session. A 6-inch striper took pity on me and I avoided a skunk.
Fly tying session over the weekend, gave my arms some rest.
Another solo trip this morning for 1 ½ hours. One fish @ 6lbs.
All the legal-sized fish I’ve caught the past few trips were in different spots. No single spot produced more than one legal fish except for dinks. Just need to cover a lot of water.

[Barnett]

Thanks for the report Mar. Saturday evening I tried "wading" at Riverfront Park around the railroad bridge...not much room to cast or shallows to wade in. One 6" dink and nothing else, but I don't really know what type of water to look for yet.

Are there any spots to wade for stripers in the lower river with a single-hander, aside from Watt?

[Scott V]

Mar, any chance you could get a closer pic of that striper, I am not sure exactly how many scales are on it.:D

[mar]

Scott, there are exactly 792 scales on one side, including the one I plucked off for DNA testing.

Barnett, the only striper I caught while wading was a 16-incher that took a pink/white shad fly while shad fishing at Watt two years ago.
I primarily fish for them from a boat.

[Barnett]

Okay, guess I'll have to pull out my canoe and do a drift then.

[Darian]

Lots of wading spots below the H Street Bridge down to the end of Paradise Beach. Watch for the scantily clad, meat eating beavers tho. :unibrow:

[Barnett]

Thanks Darian, I'll check that area out. I'll try to cover some water with only my two legs and a 13ft rod.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

If you call the shop on Frid/Sat/Sun you can talk to Andy who can give you some ideas where to wade for Stripers on the Lower American River.

Off the back of the island below Watt is a good place at a lower flow.


Paradise Beach is a good spot.....

Early morning you won't have those naked people bothering you.

[Barnett]

Thanks Bill, I'll check with Andy since he obviously has it dialed. I'll bring a few warm keystone lights to appease the drunken masses at Paradise...seems like a fun place for people watching even if the catching isn't going well.