How to locate delta striped bass!

hey what's up guys NIC the informative fishermen here I've been receiving a ton of questions lately oh where are you finding the big stripers on the Delta and I'm gonna tell you something right off the bat it's hardly ever the same place yes they do frequently repeat certain areas and I'm going to go over that but it's hardly ever the same place every single day so for example I'm whacking them in grizzly Bay last week I may be up in Sherman Island Liberty Island big break the next week because that's where those stripers have shifted so what I want to do is I'm going to kind of talk a little bit about seasonal things where they go the size of stripers and where they frequent more often than not and I'll probably talk about a few baits here too to kind of just key in on a few extra things and hopefully that'll help you track them down and figure out how to dial them in yourself alright now since we're in late fall early winter when I'm filming this video may not be by the time you're watching it but we're gonna start with fall later September sometimes those stripers start showing up sometimes even earlier but usually October November December is my casting for stripers time and this is all based around casting for them there's if your bait fishing for a striper a lot of this doesn't apply I'm talking about casting lures for them for the big ones the medium and the small ones so we're gonna go over how to locate them first thing I want you to remember they're coming in from the bay they're coming in through our Delta way they're coming through grizzly they're coming through the mothball fleet they're following the Sacramento River up they'll go into the feather the Mokelumne stripers are going into all the rivers so I want you to imagine that Sacramento River and I'm going to be laying images over over this video footage the whole time to give you a better perspective on what I'm talking about the closer you are to these rivers or in these rivers the higher your odd of locating bigger than average stripers the more tributary arms you go off I'm not saying it's impossible to catch a bigger one but the numbers get smaller for how many big fish frequent these areas for example if you come in off the Maine for meadow down the San Joaquin channel all the way into the Stockton Delta where I live infrequent most of the time very rarely are you gonna find a striper over 10 pounds occasionally a 20-pounder that does happen but not nearly as often as if you were to pull off a big break Sherman island Frank's tract Liberty Island all of these places along the Sacramento River you got up to the Mokelumne Snodgrass there's a lot of different areas that I mentioned right here and if I somehow blew up your spot by mentioning multiple areas that have big stripers roaming all over the place and you took offense to it that's on you not me now when it comes to locating you're bigger than average stripers you're going to be throwing your big baits your glide baits your Big Top water walking baits and you're going to be looking for flooded ponds or big shallow flats and when I say these big shallow flats they can have grass on them it could be a sandbar it could be a hard bottom shoal but you're really looking to put the boat in about four or five feet and cast up to a foot usually those big freakish stripers that are up there shallow eating are looking in that three to four foot of water way more often than not you wouldn't think a 30 or 40 pound striper would be up in 3 feet of water but they are and that's where they prefer to feed you're getting that bait in that strike so you're guaranteed if you pass one that is next to them there's not a lot of ways they have to travel down or travel up you know vice versa bounce around they don't have to run it down very often so when I say flooded ponds and you heard me mentions Frank's track it's like the lake out in the middle of the Delta big break Liberty Island Sherman island tons of big flooded old farm fields where the levees broke down the water gets in there where the average depth is usually for four or five feet or less those areas like that right along the main Sacramento or along the feather or along the Mokelumne are going to have those bigger fish now one thing you need to keep in mind the bigger fish are generally not chasing bait fish around they get into these shallow areas they look to eat Squa fish bass blue gills crawfish just like any other big predator to where you're not driving around looking for birds diving for those big freakish fish so when it comes to areas to target for the huge ones flooded ponds are huge now what I want you to imagine is the tide rushes into these ponds as it's rushing in it's coming over a shallow area it's coming from deep water it's flooding over a shallow area into these big areas the way that current is hitting the Stryper Stryper is always looking into the current a big one small one they're all the same they're all looking into the current if the water is flowing into these flooded ponds they're gonna be just past the inside with the current in their face looking to feed so you're gonna cast way up there to them if the tides going out and there's a little opening going into a flooded pond a big flooded lake area you're gonna bomb up into that opening and they're gonna be sitting up on the high side of it with that water flowing in their face now that's bringing all the food source to these larger stripers you don't need to make tons of cast in these areas 10 feet 10 feet 10 feet 10 feet if you're stripers up there the currents rolling good over three or four foot of water and you don't get bit jump to the next one these big ones that are up there looking for an opportunity to feed are gonna eat a big glide bait like a savage gear shine glide or a big walking bait like the catch rafters I used to throw or dwb whatever you're throwing a big striking mega dog all this stuff works fantastic for it so shallow flats does it need to be a flooded pond no it absolutely doesn't you can be right along the Sacramento River and there can be an area that sticks off the shoreline a hundred feet that's consistently three or four foot deep these big fish will pull up on those same spots and feed frequently so when you ask a guide where you catching the fish that guide probably is in a different spot three days later so you need to is X Orbison as you can and run these fish down yourself because they're not going to be in the same spot I'm not in the same spot all the time looking for stripers I rarely even targeted the big stripers this year just the last few trips out I was targeting them and I got into a few nothing freakishly large yet but I will and I usually do I've been chasing largemouth now the medium-sized will sometimes when I say medium-sized I'm talking stripers 12 pounds to 8 pounds now sometimes these stripers are going to be in the exact same area that I told you right there these shallow flats the points these little island points coming up to have a real shallow point on them they're gonna get on these things and feed and it's gonna be titled dependent where you find a striper on the outgoing tide versus striper on the incoming tide is going to frequently change so if you catch them on the incoming tide in that spot that's probably they're gonna feed there maybe for the next couple days if you're lucky but it could be a one time one deal thing outgoing tide same similar thing keep it in mind try it but don't be afraid to bounce around don't sit there and stick it out until you think you need to catch them low light hours are always going to be a premium so these medium sized stripers this is where yes flats do work flooded islands work island points work any sort of current break coming around a corner if you see a big back Eddy and it's shallow that is a premium area for stripers but also now you start seeing a lot of white birds diving on bait a lot of the time that your small stripers but believe it or not those little tiny stripers are often fed on by the eight to twelve pound class stripers so when you see me fishing the Stockton Delta and you see me throwing a big glide bait I'm actually trying to mimic a juvenile striper but when I'm fishing off the Sacramento River I'm trying to mimic more of a fish or a big top water wounded fish out there that's a different scenario the stripers the further you go inland those medium or bigger stripers are feeding on these smaller stripers but remember the number of big ones are going to greatly decrease the more you get away from those primary rivers so hopefully you guys absorb something from that hang with us guys we'll be right back absolutely look at that bottle Potamus Ben yeah God choke do choked it look at that [Music] attention Northern California anglers had you been a boat country ribbon with one of the largest selections of lumina boats in the valley the North River Hughes craft 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catch more fish find out more by visiting [Music] www.disabilitydenials.com for Enfield's are pumping water in and you'll see the bubbles coming up little bubbles big bubbles as the water reaches the upper 40s low 50s this is where fishing the pumps becomes a big player you generally don't have to worry about too many baby stripers at that time normally I avoid baits with treble hooks unless there are big top water or a big glide bait but I'll start fishing jerk baits and a little flukes with a little treble hook Stinger on the bottom around pumps that time of year if you're still looking for stripers now dead of the wetters dead of the winter sits in the water reaches the 40's okay really really difficult to catch stripers until late February early March rolls around these stripers are gonna come out of their winter funk they're gonna start warming up they're gonna feed up further spawn when these stripers start to spawn in late March April mid May they're in shallow hard flat areas that are referred to as Shoals and the best part is you search Navionics or something or Scholz on the internet along the Delta it literally shows you where the majority of the shoals are these are like you're a deep shoal I would say is eight feet a shallow shoals roughly three feet you're gonna see a lot of guys out trolling in the spring it's a you know a little bit cleaner time to troll they're covering big shoal areas with basically deep diving jerk baits you can still get out there throw swim baits for these fish but this is generally when they're along the main river they're hardly ever in these islands once they're actually spawning early March late February you could still go throw them for the big ones in these flooded ponds and up on these flats more often with grass once the spawn actually kicks in these big fish are still there actively feeding when stripe respond they are still actively feeding what's a good thing to do is look for back eddies that's where that water's swirling around in a circle the male gets in there he the female lays her eggs the male gets in there they fertilize it gets mixed around in those back eddies that's also a great spot to throw a big swim bait a deeper diving jerkbait a flutter spoon up across those areas is going to be productive for you as summertime rolls around you're gonna have stripers that go way up into the rivers and stripers that inner out into the bay and get back out in the surf line up and down our coast now in these same areas where I'm talking about targeting the bigger stripers if you know they're there you heard of guys catching them the day before they're gonna be close by if you get there and you're trying and outside of primo time and when I mean primo time first thing in the morning later in the evening or a rainy heavy overcast day or good flowing current if you have a really small tide and the currents not very strong chances are they're not gonna be biting as well as the day that there is a bigger tide and that current was flowing really good for seeing all that bait and those bigger stripers into those key feeding areas let's say it's a sunny day all of a sudden not very windy not primo bite whether you can move outside those areas look for the deepest holes and throw something like a 285 yellow bird doctor spoon big flutter spoon let it fall the way to the bottom rip it up let it follow me to the bottom rip it up just a big flutter spoon like guys are doing for these big bass all across the the whole us now so that's another popular technique you can do to cast for them it's not like shallow fishing for them but it does work you can also use big jigging spoons like two and three ounce laser minnows is something I do frequently when I'm in the Stockton Delta and I'm fishing shallow the Sun comes out or the wind backs off and I see that my big fish are no longer shallow I'll move out to the main San Joaquin where it's a little bit deeper go slow try to find them on the fishfinder and I'll hit them with jigging spoons if they're concentrated I'll pull out the big flutter to spoon to look for that bigger bite now when I mention a smaller tide one thing I want you to remember if it's a small tide and it's a very wide area of the river the currents not flowing is hard it's not pinpointing those fish to a certain area so if you do have a smaller tide look for more of a narrow area where that water is cutting through sloughs right off of those main river channels that's going to help position those fish and vice versa if it's a really really big tide and it just seems like it's impossible in a narrow area look for a whiter part of the river to where you're gonna find your where you have good boat control and it's not just tons and tons of mud pumping in if heavy muds pumping in it could be really hard to catch them in that area that's where you want to go to a really bright color or very audible bait something with multiple segments or a big heavy-duty rattle tripe trapped something very audible don't be afraid to get really loud and pure white for stripers if it does get gin-clear bone works well but any sort of natural bait fest presentations also gonna help hopefully these tips helped you narrow them down guys I like to launch in Rio Vista I like to launch at Sherman island Antioch Pittsburgh up in the Mokelumne Wimpy's there's a lot of places to launch anywhere you're on a river channel come fall or spring spring I like to stay on the Sacramento River for the most part and fish those shoals like I was talking about hopefully you guys acquired some extra knowledge from this pay attention to my little charts that I put up there I am gonna circle some key areas for you guys to focus on to go get on some bigger fish but remember these are not like largemouth bass they're not gonna be in the same spot every time you need to spend a little fuel you need to run these fish down search them out find them and you will have success remember when it comes to big stripers you need to stay determined and hit a low light hit a premium hit a rainy day get some good rain gear stay late at night you're gonna have to go into warrior mode to get these big bad boys they're not gonna come easily but when you do find them you're gonna feel like a million bucks appreciate you guys watching informative fishermen comm Facebook YouTube and Instagram later guys

Channel: InformativeFisherman

Views: 62,928

Rating: 4.8757281 out of 5

Keywords: striped bass, stripers, ca, ca delta, rod, reel, line, hook, if striped bass, how to, savage gear

Id: DpptPcMLOC0

Length: 17min 51sec (1071 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 10 2018