Thanksgiving Day Striper Frenzy

[RichThiel]

Lunker Punker is the KING. Took my son out this morning before driv''in North to HBS. The results:




Rich 8.8 Son Tim 8.12

Too All Happy Holidays
Rich & Tim Thiel

[JustinD]

I agree whole heartedly...Lunker Punker is the king.

[Cooch]

I don't know justin, we've gone through periods of greatness with that Punker, the MagSpook, the Pencil Popper, then the Mag spook again and ALL this week, them giants want a regular ole shad looking Super Spook fished and twiched REAL slow! 15-22 pounder when they come up and git it!

Anotehr thing I've noticed the past 7 days is some of them bigger fish have gone deeper, especially in the afternoon on blue bird days. Keep an eye on yer graphs fellas, trollin motor around the points and inside of the Bays, once ya see one or two down there, drop a big fat Duh on em and HOLD on! Awesome spoon bite right now in the afternoons down in the deep Marina side of Disco!

And if'n ya take Rich's advice and come down into the back of Sandmound lookin for em, and don't catch em, remember who told ya! He's always 3 weeks behind me! HAR! HAR! HAR!

[sTony]

Looks like you and Tim had some fun out there Rich. Cool deal!!!

sTony

[JustinD]

I agree Cooch we all cycle through our baits: pencil poppers, fish traps, spooks, Shellcracker, ect...but to me topwater on the Punker is king. I know I can get them on spoons, shad, ect...but early morning topwater for big fish is too much. Ocean fishing in the river. All these baits stir up the pot and get bite but its the techniques that the angler imparts in the lures that are magic. Tell me you've never fished next to someone throwing the same lure and you have a great bite going and your buddy can hook up for he life of him. Its about patience, perserverance, and confidence. Thas what continually gets the same anglers bite...By the way I'll be out hunting them tomorrow. Thinking of running up north towards you and the silver triangle just south of Franks there.

[RichThiel]

Thank you Justin, I couldn't of said it better. And Cooch I haven't seen one of those said fish on film YET... Beside's Charle, Pat or Clay tell me when it on or off. More off than on. With the overcast and fog this morn'in it could have been on.

Clients today 15 fish over 5-6lbs top's 9lb'er Miss's or short strikes about 25. Guide 0/fish misses 2 All topwater fish. Thats all they wanted to do is throw topwater. Lunker Punker, zara spook and a Pencil Popper. Cooch guess which bait entice the larger fish?

LUNKER PUNKER IN WHITE, Delta Shiner
and Costom Black

Your Favorite **** Disturber

Rich[/b]

[Cooch]

And Cooch I haven't seen one of those said fish on film YET... Beside's Charle, Pat or Clay tell me when it on or off. More off than on. With the overcast and fog this morn'in it could have been on. Your Favorite **** Disturber

Rich[/b]

Yeah, I know Rich, you couldn't believe all them big largemouth we was catching this last year either. You only get to see the pictures of fish I chose to allow you to see! HAR! HAR! HAR!

I see Charlie & Clay too, at least once a week, they are always coming in as I'm leaving, I'll be sure ta let em know ya said Hi. It's good ta know they are giving you the right answer to your questions, because I know, niether of them would tell ya on their own!

With all the drama on this River between fisherman, it's prolly prudent ya stick to reporting your own experiences, and don't bother with the dock talk or worry about what I'm doing all the time.

By the way, bite was really bad down there yesterday. I love the fog, nobody else can show up until after 9:00am when it's over! It was so bad, I'm heading back down there right now! HAR! HAR! HAR!

Have a great day buddy!

[pablohoni]

Lauched out of Sugar, Day after Thanksgiving and caught one that went 19.3 and two minutes later one that went 21 even. I am going to have to agree with Cooch, Super spook in four feet of water works great and it doesn't cost half a bill. Instead of buying punkers buy some spooks and then lower your guilding rates so I can afford to go with you

[Cooch]

I am going to have to agree with Cooch, Super spook in four feet of water works great and it doesn't cost half a bill. Instead of buying punkers buy some spooks and then lower your guilding rates so I can afford to go with you

Hey Pablo, in defense of Rich, like myself, we both are on the Guide Pro Staff of Black Dog Baits. Jeremy and Grant have been very generous with thier distribution of baits to us, so it's only natural that we'll fish and promote those baits, they plain flat out work. Where Rich and a lot of other anglers and I differ here is, I prefer NOT to use my Punkers for stripers. Two reasons, the stripers are brutal on equiptment, especially the baits they are crushig. Secondly, I git real fatigued tossing that big Punker after a while. And as much as we would like to see a Punker in the hand of every fisherman out there, I know, more guys are indeed in the same boat as you, from a cost stand point. I also personally feel there are a lot of viable options for the majority, when chasing topwater stripers.

We've been fishing for stripers on this river for a long time, and a wide variety of big topwater baits do work. Those various Spooks and Pencil Poppers, have been baits that I picked up reading and watching all of Bobby Barrack's discussions and seminars on fishing for line sides here over the years.

I also, just this past two weeks, got a great lesson from a few of my local neighbors who have joined me this week for a couple hours of evening or first light topwater fishing. They use, and have always used, the big MegaBait Bubble Pop Chuggers. I sat in amazement watching them catch fish on that Chugger, when they would not touch any of the baits I was tossing. I have about 30 of those from when I went to the Amazon to fish fer Peacocks. I've learned a bite here in the post spawn when that thing works for giant blacks. I never thought ta use em fer Stripers. Yet I have discovered over the years, these stripers can have finicky attitudes just like the blacks, and ya need to be versatile and willing to toss a wide variety of baits at them. That Chugger, is just another tool I now have added to my arsenal. Just what i needed, ANOTHER rod on the deck. HAR!

As far as our rates, yer not gonna find a more cost effective guide than Rich. Most of us, did increase our rates back in the spring of 2007, some more so than others. Just because the gas prices have dipped just below $2.00 recently, it's not enough of a trend for me, to where I think it's prudent to lower prices. I think if you look at guides all accross this country, we're all right in the same ball Park.

Congrats on thse two nice fish Friday, that musta been a ball!

Ps. Don't hesitate as the morning rolls on, to venture out to deeper water and look for them tuxedos deep. We've been catching a lot of nice fish on Duh spoons this last week, in 20-35 foot!

[JustinD]

Cooch....check out the new plastic rattlin' punkers. Cheaper and they can handle a good beating, plus they just call the big ones up. I posted the pictures in the other photos section. And from now on get a real bait and forget about that tiny little magnum spook.....Heard you have said that a time of two (10" of good ol' fashion striper love). Buy a punker right now and recieve a free 20# striper on topwater.

[pablohoni]

Yeah I am glad I've came across this web site...I attribute my success to all the online video. I just started having success for stripers this year. I've fished for stripers for years trolling and bait fishing with my dad without catching anything worth talking about. Cooch with guys like you, Rich, Bobby, and Fong I bettered my odds of cartching them 1000 percent. I live over here closer to the foot hill lakes so most of my fishing has been for blacks over here. I am just starting to learn my way around the Delta. I know your pricing is all about the same, From watching all your videos I feel like I already know you and have gone out with you. Maybe someday I will save up enough money to go out with you.

As far as spooning for the fish deep, I've heard Fong talk about the legend spoon with internal rattles. Which ones would you suggest.and what size weight?

I'm still trying to figure out the tides...Do you change where you fish on the incoming tide compared to an outgoing tide?
Those fish were stacked in Little Franks on the outgoing tide!
Between my boat and my buddy's boat we caught 70 fish!

Thanks for all the help!!!!
Pablo

[civicrr]

Justin,
Where are you finding the new plastic Punkers at? What is the retail on them? I can't seem to find them out there. Even the BD website doesn't list them.

Thanks.

[Cooch]

Cooch....check out the new plastic rattlin' punkers. Cheaper and they can handle a good beating, plus they just call the big ones up. I posted the pictures in the other photos section. And from now on get a real bait and forget about that tiny little magnum spook.....Heard you have said that a time of two (10" of good ol' fashion striper love). Buy a punker right now and recieve a free 20# striper on topwater.

Well, I guess it's time I'll have ta do that huh!

[Cooch]

As far as spooning for the fish deep, I've heard Fong talk about the legend spoon with internal rattles. Which ones would you suggest.and what size weight?

I'm still trying to figure out the tides...Do you change where you fish on the incoming tide compared to an outgoing tide?
Those fish were stacked in Little Franks on the outgoing tide!
Between my boat and my buddy's boat we caught 70 fish!

Thanks for all the help!!!!
Pablo

I've got a ton of the old DUH spoons I've been using for years. Rick Tietz has a real nice spoon too much like this over at Blade Runner Tackle(916-422-5582). I also have an assortment of the good ole Hopkins slab spoons that work as well. I typcally use something in either 3/4 or 1 oz.

I spend most of my time fishing for stripers out west in BB, around Franks and the many sloughs in the middle Delta. Much like when I fish for blacks, I don't foucs much on the tides, but more their migrational routes during the day. The stripers are constantly on the move following or searching for shad. That is the primary forage that draws them in from the Pacific and the Bay. The Delta is just a maze of Striper highways, and I like to figure out the exits and off ramps they use heading to their daily fast food stop. I also know they have a special pallet fer Blue Gills, especially the bigger fish, so areas that typically hold a lot of gills, like Big Break and Franks, are high on the exit route list.

I never spend all my day chasing stripers, so making long runs from here to the South, North & East Delta, typically doesn't fit my daily game plan, especially this time of year with the fog. I don't have the same "big fish" fetish with the stripers like I do with blackies. The declining numbers of the big stripers also dictate this as they can be difficult to stay on, day in and day out. I would much rather have us catch 15-30 schoolie stripers to 12 pounds in a three hour period, then go hunt the big blacks, than run around looking for those 20-50 pound stripers. If we get one along the way, very cool, if not, we get our rod yankin desires filled by chasing schoolies using a wide variety of tactics through our day.

With that all said, I have areas I can count on to catch fish every day and we'll just cycle through them from sun up until about 10:am when the fog begins to lift. I'll go to these areas no matter what the tide is. I also have my evening runs I'll go plug and play from 3:30p until dark. In as much as these areas are a part of their daily migration, it's also a part of mine when fishing for them. If I should happen not to find them on a given day, I abandon them and focus on the blackies.

[Hipster]

Cooch,

Too bad we as REAL old time nutcases never got to REALLLY hooK up fishin, yea we spent a day on the river a time or two,but hell we always get together at the Rally!!!

Cooch you are the reason we still all fish, for the love of the bite, I look up to you as a person , a man a teacher!!
I do regret we never got to spend more time fishing. I will leave it at that!!

[Cooch]

Cooch,

Too bad we as REAL old time nutcases never got to REALLLY hooK up fishin, yea we spent a day on the river a time or two,but hell we always get together at the Rally!!!

Cooch you are the reason we still all fish, for the love of the bite, I look up to you as a person , a man a teacher!!
I do regret we never got to spend more time fishing. I will leave it at that!!

I'm just a PM a way brotha!!!!!!!!!! Here, Pardee, hell lets plan fer both, just push that button!