Hi Darian,
I have to talk out of both sides of my mouth about this one. First off let me say I eat an occassional striper and I've had the pleasure of investigating stomach contents more than once. One thing I've found in the stomach of the fish taken on the American is crawfish shells, and lots of them. So obviously that's a popular food for them.
But realize the American is also home to lots of spawning lampreys, and I'm sure they digest much easier and faster than crawfish.
As a kid I grew up on the American and fished and hunted almost daily from the black railroad trussle to almost Watt Ave. Regularly I'd swim the river and drag my fingers through the sand and collect baby lampreys between 3"-6" long. This was an "A" number one bait in those days of baitfishing. And, besides lots of stripers, I'd also pick up and occassional steelhead when fishing near some of the riffles.
With the clarity of the water on the American I think any fly should have some "naturalness" or realism tied into it. If you're going to be using crawfish or lamprey patterns, try to fish them slow and on the bottom as much as possible. With the more common baitfish or smolt patterns, a traditional strip-strip-pause retrieve works best to imitate a fish's actions.
Geez, I love the American,
TONY
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