Stripers on the surf

[XFactorTackle]

Read the Dec.2010 article in Salmon,Trout ,Steelheader by Larry Ellis regarding the Coquille River. There is information about striper fishing there on page 64.

When I was a kid I came into some old issues of Outdoor Life and Sports Afield from the early 1950's. There was an article I remember in one of those about striper fishing from the beach and the pictures were all from what is now Humbug Mountain State Park beach south of Port Orford. People were catching a lot from that spot back then. I talked to a tourist at the park a few years ago that got spooled by something big right off the beach there while he was perch fishing. The same thing happened to me at another similar spot a few miles from there last year. It was the first week of June and I had a tiny chunk of IQF farmed prawn on a #8 snelled hook. It was a huge and lively fish and after about ten minutes it finally broke off. I never did get a look at it but assumed it was a striper. I also know of one person who got one right off Battle Rock beach in Port Orford a few years ago. So, does anyone target stripers from the beach here? Yep, me, or I intend to keep trying this year with heavier line and bigger hook.

If anyone scores a striper from the beach, let us in on the details.

That's great info C_Run, thanks for sharing.

 

[C_Run]

Not much action on the saltwater forum of late. My two attempts to surf fish in the last two months were both fiascos involving injury, poor planning and hurricane force winds and not worth reporting on. I just got a copy of "Fishing for Striped Bass in California and Oregon" from 1952 through Amazon. They had several copies used for $15. Just skimmed it a bit so far and found it's about 99% related to California and scant mention of Oregon. However it does look entertaining and has a lot of information about rigging and methods. The style of writing, some of it politically incorrct, is kind of funny. If I uncover any gems of wisdom I will post again. I did learn that all of our striped bass came from two introductions of a total of about 400 fish and were not raised in hatcheries like I had thought.

 

[skunk]

I moved from Cali and need my Striper Fix. I make custom Plugs specifically for Striper no I just need to figure out whens the best time to hit the Surf up here.

Wow, nice paint jobs...good looking plugs.

 

[gmcnair]

Catching a Striper while surf perch fishing is a rareity in Oregon. I have perch fished around Bandon and Coos Bay for years and have never seen a striper caught and have not met anyone that goes after them in the surf. They are too far and few between. When perch fishing I use sand shrimp, sand worms, sand crabs, and rubber worms. This bait may be too small to attract Stripers.

It would be cool to have a hatchery that stocks the ocean with Stripers. It sounds like a cool sport on the East Coast.

Caught some nice perch a few days ago when the weather was nice.

 

[C_Run]

I'm not sure anyone is still paying attention to this thread. I got done with my book "Striped Bass Fishing in California and Oregon, by Leon Adams, 1953. If anyone would like it, just PM me and I can mail it to you. It will just collect dust here otherwise.

 

[Kevinb5688]

I was fishing for surf perch around bandon and caught a surf perch that had small fish in its belly, i cut one out and put it on my hook. First cast i had what i thought was a nice perch on and when i got it in it was a 2 lb stripe bass.
So i put more of the 2" baby surf perch on my hook and had one big fish on that broke my 10lb test. After that i just caught a bunch of perch. So there are some stripers out there.

 

[christopherbeebe]

i hear coos bay and coos river are good spots for striper, i also hear it is a very underutilized fishery. striper are anadromous fish and live for a long time, being under fished i would imagine there are some pigs swimming to and from the ocean out there. striper are also very opportunistic feeders, but i would try throwing large swimbaits 6"+ like a.c. plugs, l.a. sliders, storm wildeye shad ect. and lead jigs like crippled herring and pt.wilsons darts, when we fish for striper here in lake mead we usually don't use less than 20lb test, cause stripers can run 2-5lbs on average up to 60+lbs . the old timers i talked to when i lived in coos bay say they use pacific staghorn sculpins (bullheads) for striper in the bay, rivers and sloughs. night fishing is also very productive for stripers.

 

[C_Run]

Thanks Kevin and Christopher for more information. One of these days I expect someone will put a picture of an Oregon-caught striper on here. I will be giving it a shot this summer down on the south coast. ( Someone please take my book. See post #25.)


6/2 The book's taken. Thanks

 

[calamari]

Leon Adam's book is a great one but as noted mostly for California stripers. The calendar in the back is as accurate today as it was in the 50's. You can extend the dates to Oregon I would think as far as when they are in the rivers. April-May is the best down here so that is probably true in Oregon too with an adjustment for colder temps.
Some things to consider is that a study was done (ODFW?) on the stripers in the Umpqua that showed through DNA that any and all fish in that system came from just 7 fish that entered the river in the past. In the 1970's there was a good fishery in the Umpqua for very large fish in the Smith River near Winchester. Those fish are pretty much gone and if there is a strong fishery in the Umpqua nobody is talking about it.
A friend lives in Coquille and lived for stripers down here and was very good at catching them. He doesn't fish the Coquille as the numbers are so low it's not worth his time to learn it.
Lastly, stripers being planted by ODFW I think will never happen. There is no end to the uproar in Calif. about their predation on downstream salmon and steelhead smolts. It makes no sense to introduce an exotic predator while paying people to reduce the population of a native fish(Pike Minnows) that isn't as good a predator as stripers are.
It's a pretty much long odds fish in the Oregon rivers where they are concentrated made tougher in the surf. There is surf fishing in Calif. for them so maybe checking Calif. sources for tips would give you a leg up.

 

[C_Run]

Thanks, Calamari, for joining in this discussion and providing some good info. I had heard our stripers were inbred and , of course, fishing for them isn't what it used to be. There are plenty of anecdotes around about stripers caught or lost by perch fishermen so I think with some study, it might be possible to increase one's odds of success. I had my butt kicked by a big one about a year ago and it just makes me all the more eager to keep trying. I've been studying east coast and California fishing forums and articles to see what I might try to do differently. The folks around Bandon and Reedsport are not really very forthcoming with information. I know there are some guides who advertise for striper fishing on the Umpqua but that's probably something I will never get around to doing. I'm sure that one day one of the OFFers here will have a favorable report.

 

[Mad dog]

What I have been told from friends in Coos bay, Coquille and Mrytle point is that most years the striped bass are not successfully spawning leaving missing age classes of fish between adult and juvenile. If they spawn successfully several years in a row the stripers might appear to be on a bit of a boom cycle. During a bad spawning cycle they all but dissapear.

 

[Hawk]

During my life i've (mostly c&r) many Striped Bass up to 42 lbs. I've seen them caught up to 66lb 3oz. Most i caught in CA. There was good catching in San Luis Main Reservoir, San Luis O'Neill Forebay, Delta/Mendota concrete canal, CA Aquaduct (from Tracy to Firebaugh), CA Delta, Sacramento River, San Antonio Lake, surffish over by Moss Landing, etc.

In early 1989, i saw at San Luis Forebay, a man from Soquel on his bassboat, using a homemade jig, he caught the 66lb 3oz (?) striper (heard it was freshwater record). Later in the year a man caught one a few ounces bigger, in the Colorado River, close to Lake Havasu.

In 1989 i saw a man in a float tube with a flyrod hooked into a biggun striper in the Forebay. It pulled him around fer a spell. :lol::lol::lol::lol:
This fish was over 55lbs. :shock:

Many a time i rigged up using a sliding weight holder (weight from 1 oz, on up, depending on conditions). A lot of the time i would thread on a Pileworm (best worm), once ina while a Bloodworm. Another favorite bait we called a bullhead (small fish we caught with a bit of nitecrawler on the canals, by the Gate Valves used to irrigate the orchards, fields). Also used cut Anchovies. We also used jigs & various lures.

Best of Luck brothers & sisters.

catchin stripers is an awesome adventure.


P.S. On the San Luis Forebay someone caught a 99lb Sturgeon. They come through the canals with the stripers, from the CA Delta.

 

[calamari]

Another thing to consider is that stripers are very migratory. On the East coast they move up and down the coast over their entire range so I suppose the incidental fish caught by perch fishermen could be from anyplace including the Sacramento/San Joaquin system in Calif.
The major difference between the southern Oregon rivers and the Calif. Delta system that I see is that there isn't the food base available for stripers to forage on in Oregon. The Delta has a huge number of soft finned fish for stripers to feed on along with a huge estuary to allow the juveniles to grow in. Oregon's rivers have relatively small estuaries and sporadic forage availability with the exception of the Columbia River. Since they've never established themselves in the Columbia I'd guess that there is something critically lacking in food and/or reproduction conditions in the chain of rivers along the Oregon coast leading to the Columbia. I would further guess that too low spring and summer water temps is a big factor in reducing their range up the coast.
Water quality is not good in the Coquille which would be the feeder river for surf stripers in the Bandon area beaches. The dairies in the Coquille valley spray huge volumes of manure water onto their fields and river banks degrading the river conditions for spawning and juvenile survival. When my friend and I drifted the river near Coquille for stripers the one time we tried it, there didn't appear to be any living thing in the river except one fungus encrusted downstream steelhead. We also found about 50' of gill net hung up in a tree. Tough for stripers to have much of a chance.

 

[Mad dog]

Another thing to consider is that stripers are very migratory. On the East coast they move up and down the coast over their entire range so I suppose the incidental fish caught by perch fishermen could be from anyplace including the Sacramento/San Joaquin system in Calif.
The major difference between the southern Oregon rivers and the Calif. Delta system that I see is that there isn't the food base available for stripers to forage on in Oregon. The Delta has a huge number of soft finned fish for stripers to feed on along with a huge estuary to allow the juveniles to grow in. Oregon's rivers have relatively small estuaries and sporadic forage availability with the exception of the Columbia River. Since they've never established themselves in the Columbia I'd guess that there is something critically lacking in food and/or reproduction conditions in the chain of rivers along the Oregon coast leading to the Columbia. I would further guess that too low spring and summer water temps is a big factor in reducing their range up the coast.
Water quality is not good in the Coquille which would be the feeder river for surf stripers in the Bandon area beaches. The dairies in the Coquille valley spray huge volumes of manure water onto their fields and river banks degrading the river conditions for spawning and juvenile survival. When my friend and I drifted the river near Coquille for stripers the one time we tried it, there didn't appear to be any living thing in the river except one fungus encrusted downstream steelhead. We also found about 50' of gill net hung up in a tree. Tough for stripers to have much of a chance.

Good!!! They are not native there and I hope they never get firmly established! The Coquille is one rockin' Salmon and Steelhead stream though....I hope it stays that way!

 

[calamari]

Good!!! They are not native there and I hope they never get firmly established! The Coquille is one rockin' Salmon and Steelhead stream though....I hope it stays that way!

I'm with you. I love to fish for stripers but they don't mix well with salmonids when those fish are in a decline or generally stressed more than normal.

 

[Finsanity]

Not surf fishing, I know, but as I recall, you've got a nice Bayrunner you could use too.

 

[bythesea]

went out today@siltcoos only caught 3 perch and missed about 7 others.strange today got out about 2 hrs before high tide they were hitting good for the first hour then they just quit.I think the tides were to low not breaking hard enough....Oh well 2 were really nice perch though.....FISH-ON!!!

 

[striperkiller]

Tried to upload an Oregon striper pic but it didn't work. But my profile pic is one

 

[TTFishon]

Tried to upload an Oregon striper pic but it didn't work. But my profile pic is one

That's a dandy!!!

 

[striperkiller]

Its the one fish I target hard. Catch a lot every year.