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