American River stripers

[Keepemwet]

2-3 weeks ago the bite was on fire. I was able to stick a 15lb, 2 8's and lots of 5's and 6's. This week I've covered some water and the bite has really slowed down. Anyone else experiencing this...any thoughts?

[Bryan Morgan]

I had the same experience, the bigger females are probably full of Shad. Give it two or three more weeks after the Shad have headed down and it will be game on again.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Andy always says, after the Shad are almost over, the Stripers get good again in August/September.

After the big spawn up near Colusa on the Sacramento River many of them go back down into the bays and out on the Pacific beaches to feed in July/August.

Some live all summer in the Valley rivers.

[Jeff C.]

Saw Gary (Sheepdog) in his Jon boat try for stripers this evening and I thought it was futile because the stripers in the lagoon are stuffed full of shad!

[Sheepdog8404]

JasonB and I were out on the water all day today. We caught PLENTY of Stripers today and saw many many more that were very large but couldn't get em to bite. They're still out there.

Jeff, shortly after you headed down stream from the spot you were fishing, Jason hooked a nice Striper but it came loose. Then a few casts later, I tied into a spunky little schoolie. We had a couple more grabs in there but nothing stuck.

[JasonB]

JasonB and I were out on the water all day today. We caught PLENTY of Stripers today and saw many many more that were very large but couldn't get em to bite. They're still out there.

Jeff, shortly after you headed down stream from the spot you were fishing, Jason hooked a nice Striper but it came loose. Then a few casts later, I tied into a spunky little schoolie. We had a couple more grabs in there but nothing stuck.

Of course Gary's accounting might be a bit hazy, given that he also caught his first steelhead! That, and the fact that both of us tend to loose count after two or three fish. We did in fact find pretty good action on both shad and stripers; though we did work a bit to find them. I will say that it did seem a bit tougher to get into real numbers of stripers on two trips this week, compared to a float that my wife and I did three weeks ago. Honestly, I don't really need to catch more than a handful to be pretty happy; overall I think we had one of the better days fishing I have had in ages! Gary's perspective will likely be skewed for some time, and his wife deserves our collective sympathies...
Good times!
JB

[Jeff C.]

I'm glad you guys had a fun day! That's what it's all about why we do it!