The Striper Bite

[John H]

The striper bite is not very good right now. Either the water is too cold or my flies are terrible or I can't cast a lick or the fish all went back to the bay or I am in the wrong part of the Delta or there are no stripers left in California or they all got caught and eaten by someone else or I just plain don't know how to fish but whatever it is bites are a little hard to come by right now. We might get another wave of fish but the water is 50 degrees already so it might be the fun is over for the Fall. My plan is to keep fishing just in case the fun is not over and a bunch of bruisers come to town looking for a tasty Clouser.

We did not get many bites today but my buddy and I did get one really nice bite as the sun was coming up. Sixteen pounder. The biggest striper I have seen caught. Not the best pictures I have gotten but good enough. Fun stuff.

[MThompson]

Every year is worse than the previous. Just think how bad next year will be.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In 2022 that is big Striper.........................those photos made me shiver.

Thanks John.

[Mike Churchill]

A couple of my buddies were out Friday. They were looking like skunks until late afternoon, when they brought 4 Stripers and a Squawfish to the boat. One of them was 37 inches and 16 pounds, which provided some redemption for my friend who broke off a fish at least that size last year.

I was out twice in the last few weeks. One day we picked up 6 or 7 , topped by a 4 pounder, and the other saw us slinking home smelling like skunk. But at least we are having beautiful days on the water instead of hunkering down at home.

[John H]

Those trips sound a lot like my last three trips although I did mix in a trip last week with Bryce Tedford. He is a good guy to fish with. We caught a good number of stripers but we made a lot of casts to get them. When the guide runs the boat you can pretty much cast non stop for 8 hours. I could not do that two days in a row.

Back in 1980 when I was getting interested in stripers everyone said it was no good any more and it had really gone in the tank since the ‘60’s. I imagine in the ‘60’s they said it was terrible and had really gone downhill since the ‘40’s. 20 years from now these will be the good old days.

It was a cold boat ride in the morning but if we had showed up at 9:00 that fish would not have been caught. I am starting to think the windshield is the way to go in the Delta.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Captain Andy Guibord says he wants a windshield on his next Delta boat.



Working most of my life in the fishing tackle business in Sacramento I can say all fishing is on a steady decline.

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In 1960 I was 15 living in south Sacramento and my brothers, dad, uncle, cousins and school friends all hunted and fished.

There was no "catch-n-release" then either. We ate everything we caught and killed.

We hunted ducks and pheasants on our relatives farm north of the big airport.

Opening day of pheasant season out that way looked like World War II?

In those days we did a lot of "road hunting" where we drove around out in the country looking for pheasants.

I fished and hunted Snodgrass Slough from my Sears 12' aluminum Jon boat I bought new for $75 with money from my paper route.

Bought an old 6hp Elgin outboard motor and worked on it with my dad who was an aircraft mechanic in WWII.

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I would say that the Great Generation had some of the best hunting and fishing in America before World War II.


I guess the Native Americans saw it at it's best before the White man arrived?