West Coast Dave

John, Sorry it took awhile for my reply. I have been really busy. Well it is April 1st and our Striper fishing is about to go into high gear. April and May are red hot for Striped Bass fishing in the Delta. They start making their spawning run. In June the Stripers start going downriver and back to the bay and the ocean. They will stay there until September when they migrate back to the delta for the winter. This is what is known as our fall run. November through March are considered to be slow months for Stripers. That is why Sturgeon are targeted during the winter. Fotunately that is when they are most active, as they like high muddy water that is a result from our winter storms. I tried Steelhead fishing this year, but with little success. I could only go out for them on the weekends, and unfortunaltly we had large rain storms hit us every weekend from January to March. There are some fish still around all through April, but they are smaller ones. I will try to fish for them along with Stripers in the Delta. In May the Shad will show up, and I can't wait for them. They are a blast to catch.
If you are coming here in the fall, there will be resident Stripers in the American river that hit lures cast from the bank. 50 pounders are in the river and have been caught. The largest Striper caught in the American river was 52 pounds. The Striped Bass fishing there is hot from June through October, but resident Stripers can be caught in there year around. June-October is hot because every year some Stripers migrate up the American in May following the Shad. These are often large fish, since they eat the Shad. These fish mix in with the resident fish and stay through the summer. Every year fisherman fishing for Shad get a large Striper trying to swallow the shad that they caught. Some have even managed to land the Striper with the Shad stuck in it's mouth. Also big Stripers have been known to strike Shad darts. Some big Stripers have been landed this way. But alot are lost because you use 6-8lb test line for Shad. There also are usually some Stripers still biting off the beaches in the Bay area and in the S.F. Bay itself. So give me an e-mail when you visit in the fall and we will go fishing and not casting.
When is it a good time to travel back east and fish live eels for Stripers back east? I would want to go when the fishing is hot there. I would also like to try that C.C. Canal. That sounds like a good place to fish. Do you fish there at all? Well good luck with the web site. And I will see you later.

Tight Lines, West Coast Dave