FRESHWATER
8 Feb 16 - Mar 2 , 2018 VOL . 37 • ISS . 05
Hand To Hand Striper Combat !
^Here is one of author Cal Kellogg ’ s favorite striper plugging baits , a soft plastic Fish Trap rigged on a Spintrix Underspin jighead . Cal cuts the body of the bait down to about 3 inches . This makes for a compact threadfin shad size offering that puts off a lot of vibration .
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Stripers are a fantastic gamefish that can be taken using a variety of approaches including bait fishing and trolling . Plugging is considered by many to be the most exciting way to catch stripers .
^Back in the days when soft plastic swimbaits weren ’ t widely available , bucktail jigs were a staple lure among the striper plugging fraternity . Old school bucktails like these work just as well today as they did decades ago .
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Topwater baits like these are the ultimate offering for striper pluggers . Not only are surface strikes exciting , but surface lures tend to draw the attention of larger than average fish .
Delta Stripers With Plugging Gear
When you consider factors such as accessibility , willingness to respond to a number of different fishing techniques , size , fighting ability and the quality of table fare provided it ’ s easy to understand why stripers are one of our favorite gamefish here in Northern California .
During the fall , winter and spring , when the bulk of our striper population is residing in the Delta , there are a number of different ways to target them . You can soak cut bait , show them live bait , troll for them , plug for them ,
FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO by Cal Kellogg jig for them and even toss flies at them .
For consistent numbers day in day out , bait fishing and trolling are great choices and truth be told these are the tactics that the vast majority of Delta anglers employ . While these approaches do offer steady results , they aren ’ t necessarily the most exciting ways to skin a striper .
If you want to experience the best of what Delta striper fishing has to offer you ’ ve got to cast for your fish . Depending on your preferences , that might mean using spinning or baitcasting gear or turning to fur , feathers and long rods to tempt them with flies .
I refer to plugging and fly casting as one on one striper fishing for good reason . It ’ s you against the fish . You are working the lure and when the fish strikes it doesn ’ t expend energy pulling out line against a clicker or tussling against a 1,500 pound boat moving at trolling speed . As soon as a bass takes a casted plug or fly , the angler gets to experience the power of the striper immediately and directly .
Now I ’ m betting that some folks reading this that haven ’ t had the pleasure of plugging for stripers , think that casting
presents
for bass is complicated and takes a lot of specialized skills . Well I ’ m here to tell you that plugging for bass is actually pretty simple . The hardest part of the equation is finding the fish , lure selection and presentation are actually pretty simple . In this piece , I ’ m going to stick with plugging with conventional gear for two reasons . First I have limited space and second while I ’ ve done a good deal of fly fishing , I ’ ve not yet had the pleasure of targeting stripers with flies .
Don Paganelli of Paganelli ’ s Bass Fishing Experience offers some good advice pertaining to finding stripers when out for a day of plugging .
“ You can find stripers everywhere and anywhere in the Delta , but when I want to plug for them , I know that the Delta ’ s numerous flooded islands can be real hotspots ,” relates Paganelli . “ These islands are generally uniform in depth ranging from 5 to 6 feet deep . Structure in the form of roads , ditches , tree lines and troughs really stand out on these islands , which tend to be relatively featureless . Any place the provides structure or a change is an area where you want to work .”
Stripers are often thought of as open water fish and while that is true to some extent , they are ambush predators . The structural features that Don mentioned attract baitfish looking for safety and the baitfish ultimately pull in the bass . Yet once the bass show up , the structure that the baitfish sought out for protection can become their worst enemy since stripers love nothing better than to crowd forage up against something solid to eliminate potential escape routes . That ’ s why stripers will often grab a lure right next to the boat .
Other key areas on islands are the levee
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