First Striper
 

I grew up in Massachusetts. As a kid I fished the bays and later the canal. I never caught a Striper. When I got out of the Navy I again tried my luck with Stripers. Luck means No Luck. Again, never caught a Striper. I moved to California and finally, finally I caught my first Striper. All of 6 inches, caught in the Yuba River just North of Sacramento. Small, but my first! I've fished long and hard for Stripers with some success but nothing large. I'm back on the East Coast now and will beat my biggest, a 33 inch.

Did you know that Stripers were transplanted to the West Coast from the East Coast? They've done well. There's a large population of Stripers on teh West Coast now. They tried the same with the Maine Lobster in failure. Good!:topic:

My first striper was maybe 18" by boat on an umbrella rig after 4 bluefish, about 3 years ago. This past season I landed my first keeper, 42" 25-28# or so, Olive Gibbs needlefish worked like a pencil popper at the canal. Never had a fish pull drag like that before and panicked. Fortunately, Sweetwater's brother-in-law coached me and helped with the landing or I would not have had a chance.

It's amazing how vivid the entire day, from the weather, to my gear, exactly where I was standing, where the wind was... everything.

I heard that all the Stripers in the Pacific are all decedents of 150 or so transplanted fish.

A few years back i had the opportunity to fish for stripers in Cal. on the delta in an area called Discovery Bay there is a thriving population in that area which is not far from thier breeding grounds. There are stripers in areas all aroud the country such as Texas and Oklahoma. Here where i live we have landlocked stripers growing in numbers above the Lawrence Dam. Best of luck in your search for the big one.

By railroad car in late 1800's

http://www.arkansasstripers.com/stri...ific-ocean.htm

Quite a remarkable accomplishment. Irresponsible, but remarkable.

Cool story. My first striper was in Dux bay. 27" It has to be over 15 years ago. Been hooked ever since. I've caught land locked stripers in KS 4 years ago when I travelled there for my old job. They have a compo of a White Bass and Striper out there that they call Wipers. Pretty cool to catch and they behave the same way but are a little more aggresive and fiesty than ours. They don't get nearly as big, I was catching 12-18".