What year did you catch your first Striper on a fly?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Terry Thomas found an old 1980 issue of "Flyfishing the West" by Frank Amato.

There is an article in it by our friend Jack Parker from Roseville, CA about fly fishing for Stripers around Sacramento. Joe Shirshac and I are featured in the article.

We actually caught our first Stripers on a fly out of an anchored boat at the mouth of the American River around 1970 with coaching from local Striper 'commando' Al Perryman. That was 37 years ago.

See, nothing is new.

[lee s.]

Oh man! Don't ask.
.....lee s.

[JerryInLodi]

Hey Bill, how long have people been fishing for shad with flies. I'd guess that the first stripers caught on flies were incidental catches while people were fishing for shad.

[Darian]

Caught my first Striper around 1966 in Big Sur while surf fishing (with bait) for barred perch. It was about 12" in length and was immediately released....

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Right Jerry

Lots of folks have caught Stripers while fly fishing for American Shad.

I heard a report once that a group of veteran Lodi fly fishers where all wading the sand bar at the mouth of the Feather River for Shad and a big school of Stripers must have come in and they hooked a bunch on Shad flies. This was a long time ago and during a drought cycle.

Our friend Ron Hayashi, retired merchant marine, hooked a 40 pound plus Striper out of his pram at the mouth of the Feather River on a Shad fly a long time ago. It was the IGFA fly record on 8 pound test and maybe still is?

I use to have a VHS of a friend, Tom Hayder, who had a Striper eat his Shad and spool him by Goethe Park some years back. During the Shad run we usually try to find it and play it a bit.

[J.R. Hubbard]

Stripers are my enemy!

I have been fly fishing for about 3-4 years now, but I have fished a ton and spent a LOT of time fishing with guide Bill Lowe (20 times last year alone). I have been Striper fishing about 15 times, and I have NEVER caught and landed a Striper! They are my unicorn. I've caught Steelhead, trout, fished in Baja and done well with all of them....but I can't get Stripers to play the game with me!!

Thanks for bringing up a painful memory!

This year it will happen for me.

[Jgoding]

I caught my first striper on a fly last year (a rough and tough 6" dink) and even my PB of a beautiful 28"er. My last fish of the year was a 16" I took while throwing a deep sheep for half pounders...
I hope to catch many more this year...

Jeff

[David Lee]

Our friend Ron Hayashi, retired merchant marine, hooked a 40 pound plus Striper out of his pram at the mouth of the Feather River on a Shad fly a long time ago. It was the IGFA fly record on 8 pound test and maybe still is?

Yup - Ron still holds the 8 lb. record . My October , 2004 fish was right around the same size , perhaps slightly larger . I hope to God that Ron has this record 500 years from now - fish this size are not too common there days .....

Here's the big one - I couldn't bring myself to kill this fish .











My first Stripe on fly came in 1997 ?? Just above the Black Bridge ..... a herd of Diaper-Stripes came thru , and my biggest was about 14 inches .

I still could not be more happy about that day .

David

[JerryInLodi]

By the way for those reading, the fish are waking up. I caught two on Monday in an hour after work and another two on Tuesday in an hour after work. I've heard of a few double digit catches in the first two days of this week, unfortunately no fish over 4 pounds included but many 20-22 inchers.

Time to go striper fishing. See you on the water this weekend. Bring your rain gear.

[k.hanley]

Mine was in San Francisco Bay (along the "Showboat" stretch). Back in the late 70's. On foot. At night. On an all black deceiver.
Cheers, Ken