Striper time

[mar]

Been spending a few days on the water chasing the elusive stripers. Some days are really good, other days so-so. They are not really holding in one area for too long. Just got to cover some water and eventually your luck changes and run into a decent school. The grabs are hard and the fish are fighting exceptionally hard in the warmer water.

Some schoolies on flies and lures:


I-line and clouser set-up was very effective on stripers cruising the shallows:










These guys were waiting for the impending baitfish carnage:



Some trips were not all about fishing. Also got to test out the latest boat accessory:







But the main draw for me these days is the topwater hunt. Lots of fruitless casting with the jumbo poledancer which resulted in really sore joints and muscles. But the fish eventually took pity on me a few times and showed themselves. Some amazing blow-ups on top and lots of teaser swirls. Most of them resulted in brief hook-ups and misses. Only a very small percentage landed.
But man, those blow-ups just stoke the fire for me; fish landed or not:





Oh, and yeah....bananas on the boat being bad luck? sure....


Here's to a kick-ass fall striper season!

[Spicytuna1]

Nice work man.

Good work getting the kids out. Did they find any bodies or anythign with their goggles on looking around?

Looking forward to next time we fish. I might actually have the ranger on the trailer for next Sat will keep you posted.

[briansII]

Good stuff Mar! Nice fish and great video.

I had good topwater action last weekend, but no big fish for me. Like Spicy said, we should hook up in the coming weeks.

briansII

[BenFishin]

nice one brother!! looks like the fly gets the bigger fish

going to be an epic fall...

[mar]

Nice work man.

Good work getting the kids out. Did they find any bodies or anythign with their goggles on looking around?

Heck no. They didn't even spot the two submerged boulders right behind the boat. Dinged the prop as I was backing out.

Good stuff Mar! Nice fish and great video.

I had good topwater action last weekend, but no big fish for me. Like Spicy said, we should hook up in the coming weeks.

briansII

Thanks Brian. We'll do that for sure. Hope they continue trickling in and start holding at some spots more consistently.

nice one brother!! looks like the fly gets the bigger fish

Bigger and MORE fish.

[mar]

And the hunt continues. Went out with a buddy over the weekend. We fished on top for a few hours in the morning while there was good cloud cover. Had a few swirls and missed takes. Nothing hooked but very exciting nonetheless. So we switched to subsurface using full sink and intermediate lines. The fish are still around, but it’s the usual deal; cover lots of water to find the fish. And once you do, they don’t usually stick around very long. Seems like they’re always on the move. We had a tough time keeping up with the schools we encountered. First drift, lots of eats. Next identical drift, almost none. So you move on.
Most of the fish are on the small side, but we also caught a handful of legal-sized fish. All of them hit the clouser hard.

Some pics:






And in the middle of a pod of small fish busting bait on the surface was a nice surprise. This guy ate the clouser very close to the surface, making a huge swirl as it slashed at the fly. Pretty cool eat:


Just goes to show, you'll never know what lurks in the Delta waters. You'd catch a few 13-inchers on almost every cast then a 13-lber decides to join in on the fun.
Happy hunting!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks Mar

Your posts are always top notch......lots of fun.

Better head for the Delta........

.

[winxp_man]

Mar I haven't seen you on shad these past years well since the super good '12 run. But your getting strippers for sure! Keep it up and thanks for the report.

[Larry S]

Mar,
Luv the shot of the birds.

Aron,
Good to see that you're still around.

Best to you both,
Larry S

[Andy Guibord]

Thanks for the post, Mar!!! Dogs and stripers- what could be more than perfect than that combination?