Oregon Stripers?

Phil Layer · 12-01-2003, 12:25 PM

I'm reading a book entitled "Coastal Fishing" which is pretty much directed to the right coast, not the left. It is still interesting reading.

Anywho, in their discussion of striped bass, they mention these fish being off the coast of Oregon as well as the east coast.

Why is their no mention of these fish on this board?

God forbid there is a species nearby that I haven't yet targeted! :shocked:

outdoor.spec.ops · 12-01-2003, 12:33 PM

I have seen them feeding in the breakers when Pink Fin fishing, and have heard of a few caught this way. I have always seen them targeted in the rivers however, although I am sure you can target them in the ocean.

Bounty Hunter · 12-01-2003, 01:09 PM

I hear they used to be stocked by ODFW around Coos Bay, but that they were found to not be very salmon/steelhead friendly so that was stopped. I think they may have also migrated up from the Bay area. Either way they are considered a dying fishery, from what the older fishing mag articles used to say. If you want one, you better hurry.

Chromaflage · 12-01-2003, 01:30 PM

The Umpqua used to have a great striper fishery. I've never done it, but I've seen pictures of 20 to 30 pounders that were caught on that river. I have heard very little about them the last few years.

ORS

Birdnest · 12-01-2003, 01:44 PM

Last summer on vacation we spent the night in Bandon. Stopped into a local bait shop to look around and saw quite a few pics of stripers on the wall. I think it is the Coquille River they were coming into spawn, or something like that.

It should be noted that I am a guy from WA giving OR fishing info.

Joe

Popeye · 12-01-2003, 02:12 PM

Years ago they were plentiful in the Smith River, but I haven't heard anything about them in a while. I grew up in the Bay Area catching them.....quite a fightin' fish!

Mello-Yello · 12-01-2003, 02:24 PM

When I was a kid, growing up in the tidewaters of the Coquille River, striper fishing was huge, and so were the fish. 40-50# fish weren't uncommon.

There's still a pretty strong fishery going here, but you rarely hear of anything really big being caught.

I've read a number of articles about people fishing stripers in the surf and being very successful. Then again, I've read almost as many articles about people fishing steelhead in the surf, but you won't hear a lot about that either.

I think most of Oregon's coastal rivers used to have great striper fisheries, but have no idea why they've dwindled.

M-Y

Trophy · 12-01-2003, 02:56 PM

Yeah, stripers are a great fighting and tasting fish, and I dearly miss catching them. Having stripers to our already diverse fisher would be really great. But it being pretty much confined to the less populated SW section of the state, I think most people there are more careful to divulge any secrets.

Tagster · 12-01-2003, 03:34 PM

I am pretty sure that this is a big time zipperlip fishery.

There have been a few threads over the past few years on this, it might help to do a search in the archives. :smile:

Another source for information would be the "fishing in Oregon" book. I think there is a fairly extensive write up on striper fishing.

Good luck!

Tag

Threemuch · 12-01-2003, 03:38 PM

They fight good, but I would pass on them as table fare. The grain of the meat isn't fine enough. Halibut is far superior IMHO. And they can't be easy on the salmon smolts. They sit in the estuarys and bays (small ones never migrate) and pick off smolts. They can make sturgeon fishing with shrimp baits very difficult.

Rarely is a man introduced species a good thing. I think stripers on the left coast are bad. I doubt that there were ever many in the columbia system, because you could never get em out. It must just be a hair too cold, because there is plenty of food for em in that system.

KB

skein · 12-01-2003, 04:02 PM

As I understand it, they only manage a successful spawn every few (or more) years. When they do, it's gangbusters for a few seasons, then tapers off until the next successful spawn.

I think the lower Smith around Gardner can be pretty good, and even in the mainstem Umpqua. There's some guides down there that seem to know their habits, and I think that's probably the best bet to learn the fishery.

That's all I know - and admittedly, most of it is heresay.

Skein

Noah II · 12-01-2003, 04:05 PM

I love Striper Fishing. Probably the next best thing to catching Tuna.
I haven't fished for them in years, but used too have great fun in the Smith right out of Reedsport. Many of the guides like to fish at night and many of the locals carve their own lures. Kinda like a Rapala. It seem the height of the season was in May, or right around there when the bait fish(Smelt) moved into the rivers. I seem to have heard that the fishing dropped off for a few years when they weren't getting any smelt runs. I also recall that the boaters mostly used small skiffs and electric motors. Back when I was fishing for them the locals claimed the next world record size Striper would probable be caught out of the Smith. They are pretty spooky except when feeding. They will surround a school of the bait fish and go wild after one when it tries to escape. Cast your lure in the center and you are sure to get a bite as you reel in.
Nothing like having a Striper take off away from your boat at about a hundred miles per hour with just his fin sticking up out of the water. Then when you think you must be out of line, it will stop then turn around and charge the boat!!

If you want an update on the Striper fishery, There is a big Sporting Goods Store in Reedsport that was pretty knowledgeable back then and could probably line you up with a guide if you wished.
Doesn't ifish have some guiges on the South Coast that could bring us up to date here?
NoahII

That's all I know - and admittedly, most of it is heresay. What Skein says. . . me too

[ 12-01-2003, 05:07 PM: Message edited by: Noah II ]

WP · 12-01-2003, 04:11 PM

In the early 70s I commercialed in Coos Bay. There was an active fishery for stripers at that time. Some folks would take salmon gills and bait a hook with them, drop it off the edge of the docks and take 20-40lbs stripers that would sit where the salmon were being cleaned. They are not picky eaters! I personally saw a number of them but never tried it (bus man's holiday kinda thing.) They also fished them in many sloughs and around the North Bend bridge. Don't know of any ocean fishery then, people focused on salmon and bottom fish...even TUNA was ignored by sports fishers. There was also a small commercial fishery in strippers, along with the shad. I loved fishing for strippers in my youth, in the SF bay area (Sacramento delta).
Dave

greenbuttskunk · 12-02-2003, 01:54 PM

I flyfish for them in the salt back east, but have never done it here in oregon. I was down on the docks in portlan on the willamette last year and the guys said they were fishing for stripers. Who knows. They are a blast to catch, but I too suspect here on the west coast they are hard on smolts.
GBS

onebadfish · 12-02-2003, 05:27 PM

smith river down by coos bay. as late as early 80's, i remember hearing about good striper fishing. aint anyone from around winchester bay or coos bay on this board who could tell us?

verysweepy · 12-02-2003, 09:17 PM

If you ever head to Las Vegas go out to Lake Mead, it has a good population of stripers, I grew up fishing out there. And as far as stripers taking a toll on the smolts, I can believe that, They stock trout at lake mead on a regular basis but they have never really taken a foothold because as soon as they are stocked the stripers show up and eat them all up.

ultralight · 12-02-2003, 09:20 PM

I visited the San Francisco area a few years back, and saw several pictures of huge stripers caught in the surf. The pictures were from the 60's and 70's, I believe, and I was told that it was very common to catch your limit of 30 or 40 pound fish in less than an hour. About ten or twenty miles south of SF, in the town of Pacifica, I think some people still toss spoons and plugs and occasionally reel in a striper. That's something I'd be willing to give it a go!

Threemuch · 12-03-2003, 07:38 AM

Pacifica is just south and west of San Francisco, not 10-20 miles south, and they still fish stripers in the surf there. I don't think 30-40 pound limits are the norm, the average fish probably runs 8-10 pounds. Lots caught off Pacifica pier too.

It's hit and miss though, locals have a big advantage. The fish show almost every day in the late summer/fall, but for maybe a half hour, and if you don't know what part of the beach they hit, it's easy to miss. I have been on one end of the beach casting away, and seen the birds on the other end. I ran as fast as I could, and when I got there it was over.

The live bait boats, particularly the Happy Hooker, specialize in the beach bite. They back right into the surf, I could have hit them with a cast, and I was only in the water about to my waist. They were catching fish right and left, you can do a lot with bait and chum for these fish.

Biggest Striper I have caught was off Stinson beach trolling for late season salmon, almost 30 pounds. Schoolies are almost always on tap all over the bay and into the delta. I don't buy too many stories about 30-40 pound fish being the norm, not from the SF fishery. They get caught, but they are pretty rare. Most biguns are caught in the delta on live bullheads (pogeys here, but actually pacific staghorn sculpin). Thread em on the hook with a bait needle just under their skin so the hook comes out by the head, throw a half hitch over the tail and cut half their face off from the horn to the lips, they buzz like an alarm clock. Dinner bell for a striper. And some big incidental sturgies are caught like this too.

There are tons of spots in the sloughs and backwaters of SF bay where you can take kids and catch 3-5 pound fish on ultralight spinning tackle until your arms get sore. That's big fun.

Barviewrocks · 12-03-2003, 08:09 AM

I once read some studies on the Oregon striper runs conducted by people at UC Davis in the early 1970's. They were interested in comparing the toxicity levels in the Bay area / Sacramento Delta area to a more pristine environment like Oregon. The main findings I remember was that while the Sacramento fish had high levels of toxins (presumably from pollution), the Oregon striper population was relatively clean. There were also many fish in the 40 to 50 pound category and a very high percentage were hermaphrodites ( able to change from AC - DC and vice versa). I always wanted to know how they did this successfully. :smile: When I was in grad school, I used to fish for stipers in Monterey Bay and San Luis Reservoir in California - they are great fun and one of my favorite eating fish next to sea bass and "Pilar" style tuna.

Mark Mc · 12-03-2003, 08:43 AM

Some of these SF Bay stories woke me up. I started in the fishing business in SF Bay. In my days as a deckhand, and then after I got my license, we spent a lot of time chasing stripers. In the peak of the summer, we would do a salmon run in the morning, then turn around and do a live bait striper run in the afternoon / evening. The bay fishery is interesting in that the tides influence everything. There are dozens of spots in the bay that only produce during a certain part of the tide. The south tower of the golden gate is probably the most famous, on the outgoing tide. The bait stacks up against the wall, so the boats take turns drifting right up against the wall, with a big surge up & down. One particular skipper had a habit of keeping the boat in gear with the bow pinned against the tower, hogging the spot while others screamed at him. When it's hot there, it will be a fish on every hook. One day at the tower, we almost got hit buy a guy committing suicide of the bridge.

The beaches, as Kurt mentioned, is another motherload. A charterboat needs lots of chum down there. In some of the really good summers on record, the 3 or 4 boats that fish it steady would run two trips a day, and get limits for 20 - 40 people on most trips. It's not unusual to get 10 or 20 salmon mixed in, and halibut (CA) as well. It's not uncommon for the boat to bottom out (hit the sand) at the bottom of a big swell, when backed in tight to the surf. There have been feuds between the wading surf anglers and the boats, usually starting with a surf angler being at a spot first, and the boat comes along & chums all the fish away, and the surfcaster casts his 4 ounce sinker at the boat & customers.

There are spots in the bay where the stripers only come up & bite at sundown. So you wait & wait, then fish like mad for that 10 minutes when they're up & boiling on the surface.

My favorite striper memory is not so much about the stripers, but the live bait. My best friend Tim, whom I grew up with on the docks, was getting ready to pass the bait from the receiver into the boat (boat was the Wild Wave when it was in Berkeley in the 70's). Well Timmy slipped on the slime, and fell INTO the bait receiver. So there he is struggling underwater, in the receiver full of bait, and Bill Beckett is screaming at him "don't kill the bait, and don't rip the net." We still laugh about that one. That was way more embarassing than the time I was showing a customer how to cast a bait at the south tower, and I threw his rod overboard through my bait-slimed hands.

Jet Drifter · 12-03-2003, 09:12 AM

Yep, I was told night fishing for Stripers on the Umpqua tidewater in the spring is a blast

I haven't tried it because [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img] I am uncertain of the Oregon General Fishing Regulations which state daytime fishing only, but the bag limit for Stripers is so many within 24 hours :whazzup:
So I guess night fishing for Stripers is legal, huh?

Mello-Yello · 12-03-2003, 09:51 AM

Yep, that's when most people fish for them. Stealth is the key with stripers, as they're quite skiddish.

Many of the locals are very zipperlipped when it comes to fishing stripers. There are a few reasons for this, but IMHO, the biggest reason is they prefer live bait, which duh, is illegal.

This is a fishery that I keep saying I'm going to get involved in, but it tends to interfere with all my other interests...and I have to sleep sometime.

Years ago, when fishing bluebacks (sea run cuthroat...i.e. harvest trout) in tidewater, it wasn't uncommon to hook into a nice blueback, only to have it ripped off by a striper. We often wondered if it would be legal to fish blueback using a standard baithook, with a huge, unbaited trailer hook dangling say,8-10 inches back...I'm guessing the intent alone would make it illegal....yes?

Threemuch · 12-03-2003, 12:05 PM

My chart shows the distance between the pacifica pier and golden gate park as just over 8 miles along the coast. My point was that the peninsula is alot smaller than most people think. I think Pacifica buts up against San Fran, or maybe just has a slice of Daly City in between the two. Doesn't matter.

Anyway, the 30-40 pounders in the sixtys or some waybackwhen is a pretty common thing. Seems like every fish was bigger 30 years ago. My guess is that those are the ones that got remembered. Popeye was there! Did you whack the biguns back then?

Mark Mc · 12-03-2003, 12:29 PM

As recently as the late 80's and the early 90's, there were some good seasons where the beach produced plenty of 20 - 30 lb fish. Some days the average fish would be 20 lbs, on others 10 - 15 lbs. It varies year to year. The fishery has continued to be pretty healthy, with huge numbers of small fish being produced, that will be big-uns in a few years.

ultralight · 12-03-2003, 01:00 PM

Threemuch,

You seem to be fixated on some distance and direction fetish or such. But since you brought it up, the distance between the Golden Gate Park and the Pacifica pier is 13 miles, according to Mapquest.com. And I said "South" since there is no striper fishing (at least that I know of) done in downtown SF. It's funny how you get specific with distance and directions then say "Doesn't matter."

Actually, when I said 30-40 # fish limits being common back in the Sixties and Seventies, I was being somewhat conservative. Many of the pictures at the Cliff House and the Pacifica bait store show even bigger fish caught in matter of minutes. I was told that people came there expecting to catch their limits, and there were people lined up shoulder to shoulder, all along the beaches such as Stinson, Baker, China, etc.

It's apparent to me that there are lots of Californians transplanted in OR :smile: I wish I was alive back then to have had a chance to get into such a frenzied action. Someone mentioned San Luis Reservoir, which brings back my memory of catching my first striper in O'Neil Forebay, where I believe the world record freshwater striper was caught!

Miss B Haven · 12-03-2003, 01:52 PM

Jet Drifter/MY - Live bait is legal in TIdewater (and the Ocean). The problem is this (from the Regs):
1. It is unlawful to transport live fish between bodies of water.
2. Live fish may not be used or held for use as bait, except live nongame fish may be used in the ocean, bays and tidewaters when
taken from the waterbody in which they will be used.
Gotta catch it where yu use it. Are the tidewater areas considered part of the Pacific Ocean? This one's bothered me for a while. Chovies and Herring swim the Ocean and in/out of all the Estuaries but would you get a ticket for Jigging Herring live in Newport and then fishing them outside?

As far as night fishing goes it's all legal except as follows from the regs:

1. Angle for or take salmon, shad, steelhead, sturgeon, trout, whitefish, except in daylight hours (one hour before sunrise until one hour after sunset).

This is under the Gamefish section which includes Stripers.

Bill Monroe · 12-03-2003, 03:38 PM

Stripers are some of the best-tasting fish you'll ever eat (cut off the dark parts) and most funnest you'll ever catch. I once floated the Umpqua from Scottsburg, maybe Sawyers, and we caught them feeding on the surface, chasing smolts. I wrote then that if striped bass like hatchery steelhead smolts, the state of Oregon should be growing more hatchery steelhead smolts...still believe that's one of the greatest things about hatcheries...best fishing is May and June in the Umpqua and Coos, when they come in to spawn. That's a show all its own...the males circle the female near the surface. She's only ready for a few seconds or so and when she is, there's an explosion across the water that can be heard and seen for miles. I was with Jim Teeny one night down there when he caught one on his nymph. Ginger color, as I recall...we parked on a flat and could see them coming because the surface welled up as if torpedoes were below...very cool fish. I also haven't done it in several years though. John Griffith, now a Coos County commissioner, fishes for them in the surf off the north jetty, but I think that may have stopped when the beach was closed to protect snowy plovers.

And BTW, I've also caught steelhead in the surf off Whidbey Island when I was stationed up there...also pretty exciting to have one come up through the curl of the wave at your feet just as you're about to pick up the hoochie (red and chartreuse). If anyone knows where it's done on our coast, I'd be interested...

Mello-Yello · 12-03-2003, 04:28 PM

You're right Mel, my duh...I mis-worded my sentence. It's not that they're using live bait, but the type of live bait they're using...which is illegal. not non-gamefish...

At the risk of tempting any ethically challenged individuals, I won't go into anymore details.

If you happen to catch some guys 'heading out' for some striper fishing and start asking them how they fish and what they use for bait, often times they choke all over themselves when trying to answer.

Those are the ones... :shocked:

Trophy · 12-03-2003, 04:28 PM

There seems to be no lack of interest for stripers here, but it seems like everyone's got information that are at least several years old

Surf fishing for stripers has a huge following in the East Coast...too bad ours is a dwindling, if not pretty much dead :depressed:

Jet Drifter · 12-03-2003, 08:56 PM

Thanks

Mel
For Stripper night fishing from the boat, I'd like to use a red lighted bobber or float to help me to detect the bite.

[ 12-03-2003, 10:20 PM: Message edited by: Jet Drifter ]

ultralight · 12-03-2003, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Threemuch:
Pacifica is just south and west of San Francisco, not 10-20 miles south, and they still fish stripers in the surf there. I don't think 30-40 pound limits are the norm, the average fish probably runs 8-10 pounds. Lots caught off Pacifica pier too.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">It sounds like you know the area pretty well, but Pacifica IS about 15 miles South of SF (when you're on the coast), and the 30-40 pound limits were back in the Sixties, NOT now.

Phil Layer · 12-05-2003, 12:27 PM

Is it just coincidence that the Stripers pretty much exit the big picture and our salmon runs get really healthy again?

All this talk of limits of 30 pounders in 30 minutes is almost making me cry. Limits were one fish each back then, right? :shocked:

FishSniffer · 12-05-2003, 11:44 PM

My fondest memories for stripers come from my high school days. I lived in Alameda (CA) and school was next to the Alameda Naval Air station. A couple days a week one of our neighbors would pick us up after school and we'd go trolling next to the US Enterprise which was stationed there.

Limits in less than an hour of 25-40lb fish were common. That was in the late 70's and it's not as productive now.

I fished San Luis last summer with my sister and her husband and did pretty well but freshwater stripers just don't get as big as the ones we were catching out of Moss Landing between Santa Cruz and Monterey.

BTW: There is some decent striper fishing off the piers in downtown SF (south of Market). Same place where they now catch baseballs flying out of the new stadium.

Tugjunkie · 12-07-2003, 09:35 AM

Have had great fun with stripers on a fly rod in the CA delta, also I believe the record for fresh water striper... 60+LBs out of O'neil forebay(CA) was on a fly from a FLOAT TUBE.....that had to be
quite a ride....
Was talking with an ole timer here in Coos who was telling stories about night action using big lights & bait on the Coquille, "they gottem by the barrel fulls... back then there were alot of stripers....but not many anymore"
I plan to give it a try this spring if anyone is interested, but will be leaving the barrels at home.

keepem tight
Rick

Mark Mc · 12-07-2003, 10:51 AM

Phil - Lay, back in the '70s and into the '80s, the striper limit in CA was 3 fish each. It changed to 2 fish at some point, but I can't remember when.

Crashin' Bait · 12-07-2003, 08:58 PM

Brings back memories of chasing stripers all night with my dad and uncle at the Alameda rock wall. We used to catch alot of linesides jigging 2oz. bucktails or drifting live shiners.

Threemuch, so your the guy! J/K I used to jump on the Happy Hooker and the Huck Finn alot when they were fishing the beach. It gets kinda hairy when one minute you can hear the screws cavitating then the hull slams into the sand. We did see a private boat capsize one year.

starcrafttom · 12-10-2003, 09:06 AM

striper fishing in the central valley is not a thing of the past. The last few years have been great.This fish was caught on the sac near the chico 2 years ago by the women holding it. the big female topped 50 lbs. I have been living north of seattle for two years and miss the striper fishing around sac. But lucky me my brother just moved to coos bay and I will be draging the boat down this spring. There is a big flat out side the airport that is shallow and flat that should hold strippers in the mornings this spring. has any one hit this with a fly rod yet? I cant wait till spring.

tailchaser · 12-10-2003, 09:37 AM

Ok, I'll chime in a little on this one. M-Y has pretty much touched on all of the bases for here on the S.Coast, but there still is some great striper fishing to be had in the Coquille, Coos, and Umpqua drainages. However, it's an all or nothing fishery. You can go all night or day without a bite, or you can hook 20. It's completely random most of the time and there's no tell tale signs to know when they'll be on the prowl. Besides water temps anyhow. The best times are in the spring when you get a warm stretch for about a week straight and it gets the river temps up a bit. Typically this happens in May. For the most part though it is an extreme zipperlip fishery down here.

Methods are trolling anchovies, casting plugs, topwater, plunking 'chovies or shrimp, or chunks of shad even produce every now and then. But they are a very skiddish fish, so electric motors, or possibly 4 strokes are a must when trolling for them. We've caught fish in the bay on topwater plugs before but it's only when we've noticed them while sturgeon fishing or something and we'll throw on some plugs and get a few. But that's the scoop.

OOps I forgot.... People pick up small stripers every year fishing for pinkfin on all of the local beaches. Rarely do they get a legal one but quite a few in the 18-26" range in the surf. Most of the time they're tossing sandshrimp. And the local ODFW still releases smolts in the Coos system, however it's also the most regulated river for stripers on the S.Coast. Go figure.

tc

[ 12-10-2003, 10:39 AM: Message edited by: tailchaser ]