Went out with my brother on the napa river for some striper action.fished one small section and caught about 25 fish. 5 were keepers .One of our friends had a 30" fish...
Shon I have to get out a needle and burst your bubble ...95% of the stripers were under 20"...Not spawners...Small shakers feeding on sticklebacks flowing out of the ponds with the out going tide... It was not a good year for egg loaded females on the napa river...The number of caught and released fish were very low ... History lesson....My father built the napa valley marina in 1957.Two of my brothers still own and operate it today.Both have houses on the river and fish it year round.As a family we grew up on the waters of the napa river fishing and hunting...The NVM is one of the largest private owned boat harbors in california...
I guess what iam saying is your replay was un accurate....pop!!!
"technically" most fish we catch in the Delta and rivers like the Napa are not "spawners" per se, albeit they are on their way to spawn. About 1/2-3/4 of stripers spawn in the sac, from teasedale on up to RBDD.
As far as bubble bursting goes, fish as small as 11 inches are part of the spawning process. While the females generally only begin to spawn after 5 years, when they reach lengths of appx 19-21 inches, males mature much quicker, as early as two years, and as small as 11 inches. So, many of the smaller fish caught, which are generally males this time of year, (although this is generally the week when i start seeing the larger females show up) especially if your catching shakers in large groups (then you know they are prob males), are fish that are involved in the spawn.
Now for reality, no one really makes a fuss about "fishing" for spawning stripers, the real harm comes from keeping the larger females. Bass are much more resiliant than trout, they can handle the catch and release game much better than trout. My two cents.
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all of a man's addictions end and begin when he learns to fly fish
Do your homework "pop" a male striped bass reaches sexual maturity at 2 years of age that would be a fish that measures roughly 12-13 inches in length, A female on the other hand begin to reache sexual maturity at the 4 year mark and that would be a fish that is around 18 to 24 inches in length. Anyways I wasn't serious about the catchin spawners comment, Just messin with ya man. Stripers don't get all messed up like trout do during there spawn, No redds to dig or anything like that, its a free floating egg mass.
drifter gives a good tecno explanation ....Stripers are a freash and or salt water fish...many yeas ago the napa river water system was gravel bottom and had lots of year round run off..resident stripers would mature and spawn at a normal growth rate around 2 to 4 years based on sex....Today the napa river get no year round run off and has a thick silt bottom with no fresh water flow to mix with the incoming tide....On top of that there food source has vanished.No more bull heads ,mudsuckers, grass shrimp,shell fish,shad,etc....Most of the stripers are traveling fish and come into the napa river sytem following food....They move with the food and leave when its gone. Your correct about the striped bass in general.But times have changed and so do the water systems...Long gone are the days when you would catch tiny first year stipers up and down the river....gone are the days when our fish had a water system that would allow them to grow and mature at a normal rate.... I dont know everything and I didnt learn it from a book or the internet.when your dad(83yr old) ,3 uncles (85yr old and up),9 cousin and 2 brothers grew up on the lower napa river and still live there you learn from whats passed down to you when your sitting in a boat for hrs summer after summer....Unless you want to say my dads full of poop...........
on another note...my brother went back last night and fished the same spot and the fish were all most all gone...Also broke the tip off his rod ...
I, like you MX19, grew up learning the rivers with the help of a rod and many of hours on the water. One thing is for sure though, no matter how much time you spend on the water, unless you are doing some scientific studies along the way yourself, or doing some reading, you can never now a species to the fullest extent possible. Hell, i had no idea about how old a 11 inch striper, or 35 inch striper was until i read it somewhere. I think the science stuff ultimately helps us learn more about the fish and their environment, and helps us learn how we can take measures to improve both. How to catch them on the other hand, well, thats where the experience and time on the water comes in.
I have not had a chance to get out and fish for stripers in the last two weeks, but from what i heard, your brother's experience is no different than most this past week. Apparently the stripers gorged themselves on the annual smolt migration down towards the delta, and fishing has pretty much shut off since.
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all of a man's addictions end and begin when he learns to fly fish
My brother was at the smolt feeding frenzy....He said most boats were catching fish ,but their size was small and the numbers caught were low....bad for the striper run, good for the smolt.... I agree with you.You can learn a lot about fish and fishing from a good read or the internet...Im more of a get your hands dirty and learn from experience kind a guy.Which means I make plenty of mistakes along the way...
