The Delta, California,
November 2, 2011
A report from SteveT for
mikescatchreport.com
I went fly fishing for striped bass
in The Delta with a friend but it was a very, very,
slow day. We were suppose to on the water at something
like 6:30am but we ended getting out there at about
11am.
I was using my new Sage TCX 890 rod and my old Sage 3400D reel with a T-14
shooting head. Did I mention it was slow? We caught 10
fish between us and in most of the place we tried we
didn't even get a grab. Almost all the fish were dinks
and only one fish was above 18-inches. But it was a big
one. The striper weighed 14-pounds and measured
33-inches. By West Coast standard it's a whooper. By
East Coast standards it's a midget. But it was my
personal best on The Delta. I think I got that fish at
about noon or 1 pm. So much for the "early bird gets the
worm" proverb. Might has well just sleep in.
I came home and told my wife I caught a 33-inch striper
today. The first thing she said was "Wow. That's big.
Almost as big at the 37-inch striper I caught on the East
Coast." Dang it, that was cold. I can't believe she
remembered that.
It only took me 10 years and countless of hours and $$$ to
catch it and it swarm away to be caught another day. That
made me feel good.
East Coast striped bass were introduced into California
waters in 1879, when 132 juvenile fish were transported by
train from the Navesink River in New Jersey to the West
Coast and released near Martinez. Within a year people were
catching striped bass around Sausalito, Alameda, and
Monterey. The Fish and Game Commission was concerned that
the low number of introduced striped bass might fail to
establish itself so 300 more stripers were introduced in
lower Suisun Bay in 1882. By the mid-1890's the commercial
net catch was averaging over a million pounds a year.
However in 1935 all commercial fishing for striped bass was
stopped to improve sport fishing.