Stripers at night under dock lights.......

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

http://youtu.be/8RyKDTa7anc

I wonder if we could do it here?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We do this back in Florida....especially in the summer.....except it's Snook, Tarpon, Jacks, etc.

The lights draw in the bugs, the bugs draw in the small fish and the small fish draw in the big fish.

[STEELIES/26c3]

I worked for a number of years as a naturalist, ironically, for MWD at Lake Skinner down south and as it was a catch basin for water from the California Aqueduct, there was a very healthy population of landlocked striped bass.

At night, we would fish off the docks under the lights and man I can tell you some crazy stories...

YUP stripers are nocturnal and love to feed under lights.

Striped bass are super sensory oriented (vibration/sound, sight, smell/taste) and are equally resourceful and adaptable to so many varied habitats and lifestyles dictated by diverse environs.

That's what makes them so prolific and also so exciting to stalk and catch and release~;)

Canals, holding ponds, gravel quarries, brackish sloughs, estuaries, deltas, rivers, lakes, bays, oceans.

They're not super picky and hell! if someone shines a light on the water and invites their food to a candle-light, dinner party... you can bet your bass they're gunna' be 'dere~

Stripers ROCK hahahaha

[gene goss]

Bill i'm sure you heard stories about this night time stripers fishing that was gone on back then....... About 40 years ago i got invited to fish for stripers at night with some friends.....Potter, Larry, Cal, Al, and some other people, we would fish the bridges that had lights on them on the American River, Sacramento River from our 8 ft. prams that we would carry down the bank to the water, then we would row out into the river and anchor our pram so we could swing a fly through the lights. When i had to carry a gun at night i stopped doing this, and started fishing for stripers in the day light.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yes, those guys pioneered the fly fishing for Stripers back then about 40 or more years ago.

I think the common belief back then was that you could only catch Stripers from sunset, all night, until sunrise. No one fly fished for them much in the day time. Now more people fly fish them in the day time than at night.

Jimmy Potter, Larry Cullens, Al Perryman, Cal Guin, Forrest Olham and Al Fong were all way ahead of their time as far as fly fishing for Stripers goes.

Hal Janssen was another who lead the quest for big fish on flies back then.

Old retired fire fighter Joe Shirshac has been after those Stripers with a fly rod for many years too. He is in his early 90s and still chases them.

I was a young guy back then working in a sporting goods store and was very lucky to have been able to meet those guys and on occasion, go out with them.

They fished the mouth of the Feather River, mouth of the American River and some lights under bridges at night south of Sacramento on the Sacramento River.

Jimmy Potter talked about how cold that winter night fishing was down around Walnut Grove fishing under bridges with lights in small prams.

Fly fishing for Stripers on the West Coast has become super popular now from around Red Bluff on the Sacramento River down stream through the Delta, Bays and out on the Pacific beaches. We also have them land locked in some of our reservoirs.

.

[steveg137]

bill, I love reading your snippets from old days.
As transplant to Bay Area I'm learning where to go and some of the history and its great to hear how things have evolved.
Please keep those stories coming!
Steve