Sight fishing for stripers
I hope everyone was fishing somewhere this weekend ‘cause the conditions are very nice out there: clear water, minimal swell, plenty of bait fish and species feeding on bait. Instead of hitting usual spots just outside town I decided to spend my 1.5 h all in one spot a bit further up the coast.
It looked the same as it was about 2 years ago and sand gave way to some rocks that were teaming with life: corbinas zooming around my feet, small schools of big surfperch darting around rocks, bait and giant smelt crashing the surface and, in a few minutes, I was on my firs Hali. Worked it through rocks on high tide and it was easy release. I did not plan to keep any fish and brought no measuring tape but this and the next two flatties were around 20-22” and had plenty of fight.
Next, my LC got attacked by a school of giant smelt, and the biggest would win the race and give me a nice run, with biggest one even tacking drag! Then, among smelt I saw a supersized one chasing the lure – no mistake about it – it was striper and the nice one too but missed it in all the chaos.
I’ve seen the stripers there 2 years ago and was not surprised. What happened in next 5 minutes, however, gave me a bit of heart race. Parallel to the shore, just 10-15 ft out in clear water there was a school of 7-8 big stripers in 2.5-3 ft range cruising towards me. I started casting in front of them and a couple turned around and gave chase. But the trough was full of eel grass and after few cranks my LC would load up and the fish would turn away. I continued cleaning the hooks and casting in front of the monsters at frantic pace keeping them interested for about 5 min but none of them wanted extra salad on sardine LC. On a couple casts they would follow almost to my legs.
I waded to a weed-free spot and my lure would come back as clean a whistle but nobody was interested in it over sandbar. Hooked a couple more smelt and called it, watching a small Leo go buy on my way from the water. I had no other gear except for 2 LCs and still had an aquarium-like session. I’ll get them next time.
Have fun out there.
