Stiper forage

[Hitman]

I've been cranking a lot of stripers the last 4-5 weeks on craw colored cranks. I started to wonder if it's because there is a lack of shad in the delta right now. I would assume if there's no steak to eat one would eat chicken right?

I took home 2 keepers and found them both to have very large craws in their belly. Has anyone else noticed this?

Hitman

[CBoat]

Yes last year in Shermans. Stripers with Craws in them. Some stripers had small bass in them too.

Where in the Delta are you cranking up the Stripers?

[Ray]

The craw thing, a few years ago, cool november day, i had a few fish cough up ~3" craws all over my deck and in the live well, interesting note here is, the craws were a powder "BLUE" color!

All this talk about striper has me excited, appreciate you guys sharing, i'll be out this week Thrusday, if anything other than sun and wind burn, i'll share.

Ray

[RichThiel]

Glad too have you aboard...

Rich Thiel

[Hitman]

CBoat...sorry for the late response. I've been cranking stripers in the Mokulume between B&W and Tower Park...mostly around the tulle berms. All have been schoolie sized until this past Tuesday. Found some bigger fish up the 5lbs at the bridge pillings.

Hitman

[CBoat]

Thanks for the info Hitman,

I guess I will have to head up the river further. Last year I stayed in the Sherman Island area and did pretty well. But I keep hearing from friends and reports of fish further up the river and areas where I used to fish. I will need to explore some again.

It used to be so easy to catch 30 to 100 quality stripers a day from 5 to 30 lbs. back in the good old days. I used to come home with my thumb bleeding. Now it has become an art and if you are not on the river all the time to find where they are holding, its tough to catch a lot of quality fish.

I have gone out to Sherman and Big Break earlier this month and hit a couple of 5 lbers. Had a couple of nice blowups so this is a sign of more good things to come.

Can't wait for more fish to move in. I will be going out today to fish for Stripers exclusively, ( with one exception, I will have a frog on one rod )

Seriously, has anyone been out to San Luis? I htink I will make an exploratory trip out there soon.

CBoat

[Hitman]

Hey CBoat let me know how you do. I'm going out tomorrow morning for stripers.

Only 2 baits tied on - Lunker Punker and FishTrap

Hitman

[DanIsaac]

Stripers love shellfish, ANY KIND! Yes, you can take that as a hint...........


Dan

[frankc]

hey cboat, been to the san luis and they been catching them around the trash racks, swim baits and anchovies...hope this helps...i am going there next week....

[CBoat]

We fished from 1:00 to 4:00. Total fish about 20 with many follow ups and missed hits. But the biggest fish again was 5 lbs. I had a follow up that probably would have went 8 lbs. or so.

All fish were on a rattletraps - decked out with some special additives of mine:), johnson spoon, and Finsfish on a jig. I thru the Lunkler Punker like a mad man and didn't get even a follow-up.

I fished in Big Break and outside of Big break for most all fish. Went into Sherman and beat the water to death and caught one shaker. We found a school of small fish straight out from Lauritzens by the Bouys and caught some fish out of that school. Don't ask me where as I couldn't even explain it. For three hours of fishing we were happy as the weather was great and not too much traffic.

That is the scoop as we had to leave early as my partner needed to make an appointment. I think the evening bite would have been off the chart for topwater.

[CBoat]

The drive out to San Luis is brutal. I always say I am going to do it this year and I never get around to it. The Delta is just 40 minutes for me and I am in the water. San Luis is 2.5 hours from me. Let me know how you do. Go back in the back of some shallow coves and throw Zara's for me and let me know how you do.

CBoat

[Hitman]

CBoat, dont give up on the Punker...it was working for me Saturday. I noticed you only fished from 1 to 4 so that might have been the issue. I was out at first light and had a topwater bite thru 10:30am. After that is was rattletraps and fishtraps. The punker I noticed called up the larger fish...my buddy caught more fish on the spook but I got him in quality!!!

Hitman