All this info is from selling tackle, bait and flies for Stripers for most my adult life.

Much of this info is from thousands of hours of talking with top conventional and fly anglers and top guides for Stripers.

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Starting in January and February I think many Stripers are in the Delta but it is just too cold for artifices and flies.

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Stripers are usually good in the Delta in March as the water warms some.

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Then they head North from the Delta up the Sacramento river in the thousands to spawn near Colusa in April / May / June.

You pretty much need a jet boat to fly fish for them.

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After the big Spring Spawning run I believe many hungry Stripers go out to the bays and beaches for the summer to feed up.

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Once the Shad run starts in the lower American river in May / June / July the Stripers slow.

Most believe that the Stripers are feeding on the smaller male Shad at this time.

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Again in Aug / Sept the lower American river can be good again for Stripers.

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Then in Oct / Nov / Dec they are good in the Delta again.

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All this can vary from year to year and month to month but it is pretty solid facts.

This info is not for the "expert Striper fly fishers" out there but for those new folks who are chasing Stripers.

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At 16 years old I started my first Striper fishing off a short wooden dock on the Valene farm in the Pocket area of south Sacramento.

Roger Valene took me there and we use cut fresh sardines with a sliding sinker rig.

They had a bench seat out of a car mounted to the dock with old car antennas to set your spinning rod in for "balance fishing".

We caught "enough" Stripers that day to 16 ponds and I believe that Roger new I was impressed and happy.

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Back then (1960) there were "tons" of Stripers and thousands of Striper anglers too.

We fish for them off the bank and out of small boats with much success.

We cast lures like Rebels and bucktail jigs for them and trolled for them too.

There was no "catch-n-release" back them so I kept my family and friends supplied with fresh Striper filets.

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I worked as a guide for a fishing and hunting club/organization, National Sportsman, who had boats at marinas below Sacramento on

the Sacramento river. I would meet people there and take them out for a day of "anchored bait fishing" for Stripers.

During the Spring spawning run we never came back without limits due to the huge Striper population.

In that time in the fishing history of Northern California you actually went out "catching" not just "fishing".

In South Sacramento most everyone I went to school with fished, hunted and had hot rods and motorcycles.

It was just an amazing quality of life us "Baby Boomers" had growing up in America right after World War II.

Back then most everyone hunted and fished for some of their groceries.

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In those days legal sport fishing and hunting had little impact of the in tact ecosystem.

It was development, dams, logging, and agriculture that destroyed the hunting and fishing in Northern California.

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When the newer generations see old photos of dead fish and game they think the old sportsmen were to blame.

Not so, we destroyed their habitat...............

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