In the surf you just gotta put in time. Nothing better than a big striper crushing a topwater plug in the froth. I'll be fishing a coastal lagoon for striped bass in the 4-8 pound range. Lots of fun on light tackle in my inflatable pontoon. Stripers are pretty much stupid school fish until they get large,then they are rogue predators .

dwatkins here's a video of my friend Matt ,pretty much how we do it.

you couldnt knock me out in 30 minutes...

Stripas !
When the CT River was cleaned up, the herring came back and with them, the Stripers.
In my yoot there were no Stripers in the CT River.

They are a beautiful fish and they are making a great comeback.

Those east coast stripers are the real deal. Man I want to fish Montauk someday. I really want to catch a bluefish and false albacore from the beach. That [Bleeeeep!] looks like the ultimate fun.

looks like a blast! Let’s go sometime I’m in San Mateo

Fished Montauk back in 2001 for a day with a guide. Pretty much non stop action, we had a blast. Those currents a pretty nasty. Average size was around 8-9 ponds, the biggest was around 18-19. Worth the trip. I have a good friend that lives in Queens, so we drove through Long Island and the Hamptons...unreal compounds on the Ocean. The traffic jam coming back on a Sunday was crazy. it took us about three hours longer. I say go for it V.

I've always wanted a Permit. I think they are the coolest looking fish in the Ocean.

Just roll up a job application like a newspaper and swat him on the nose.

Cool vid Vapid! I've always wanted to catch a striper (not stripper) . When I was a kid in the mid 70's, we had family friends who lived at Brinnon and they would rendezvous with us and several other families at Pillar Pt the first 2 weeks of August for dynamite king action.

The Brinnon guys started taking their Whalers down to the Rogue (I think) and they fished tide-water for stripers, and they landed some pigs! My pops and his buddy did a DIY trip and failed miserably, so on their last evening the buddy sprung for a guided trip with Denny Hanna, the self proclaimed "striper king". They ended up snagging a 22# fish, which was kept. Dad wasn't too impressed with the trip, but I remember eating some striper and it was DELICIOUS!!! I know a guy who landed a low-teen striper on salmon gear at B-10 in the early 2000's and it kicked the chit out of him he said.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing!!!!

I would be down for that. I'm gonna try and get my ducks in order by new years so I can take some time off to fish the North Coast. Shoot in San Mateo you have a lot of options to surf fish. Same here in Monterey Bay. Sometimes I catch stripers right out my back door when there are schools around. I live about a 3 minute walk from fishermans wharf.

Sounds like a guy I know on the dark side...

Given Stripers life history they have a better chance at long-term survival on the Pacific Coast than do salmon. They are the future.

They will absolutely love Puget Sound, with all the restored estuaries and nice, slow-flowing lower rivers.

Unfortunately the striped bass have taken a stronghold in many of the California Estuarine environments that are home to threatened steelhead juvenile populations,several on the central coast of California. Unfortunately I don't see them being eradicated. There have been stripers present here since the 1970's that I know of ,but it wasn't until around a decade ago that the population began to boom. I believe there are spawining populations in at least 1 of these rivers as fish have been found in upper stretches. These rivers are highly regulated,and so the fishing season for them is extremely limited. It isn't looking good for California central coast steelhead.

Somewhere in my slides is a picture of me standing next to a Striper my Dad caught in the Sacramento in 53/54. It was longer than I was tall. I only caught a couple, and mostly by accident.

Also have a picture from a year or two later of a nice Monterey Bay Chinook.

Take away the Stripers and what do you have, though? Not enough cold water for salmonids, not enough stream miles to access. If we can get rid of the Klamath dams there will be salmonids there (assuming decent management) for another century or so. The Central Valley will be given over to Stripers, pike, and other warm water species rather soon as there is simply not going to enough cold water.

Many of the coastal creeks and small rivers, if they can be protect from diversions, dams, and warming should hold out on salmonids, too.

Hank's illustration of what not to eat transfers well up here, too. Except, don't eat PS resident salmon. Also, I suspect that when the walleyes really boom in Lake WA (another decade or so) they will be primarily C&R due to mercury and other chemicals in the lake. Top predators concentrate them nicely.

Thanks for the history lesson Frank,I was talking about Striped bass in the central California estuarine environs near where I live. Also I appreciate you pointing out earlier that these Bass are invasive species. I learn a lot from you on here

How old were you in 1957,28? On a serious note the Petaluma is on my list of spots to try if I'm ever in that area. If I see some really old guy in scrubs fishing I'll be sure and cast over your line.

Funny goddam thread.
Politics, fishin'.....just need some guns and chicks to round it out.