“Striper fishing is red hot these days,” disclosed Captain Barry Canevaro of Fish Hookers Sportfishing. “Trolling has been the best method, but I’ve been getting some positive reports from guys fishing with shad and bullheads down in the upper part of Suisun Bay. I’ve pulled the Fish ‘N’ Fool IV out of Richmond and I’m now ready to begin targeting stripers and sturgeon out of the Pittsburg Marina.”

“Yesterday my anglers caught a total of 10 sturgeon and 5 of them were keepers,” exclaimed Kevin Yost of Lucky Strike Charters. “The keepers ranged from 48 to 66 inches. Recently, I’ve noticed that the largest fish are hitting during the slack period of the tide. Roe is still the hot bait.”

“Today we are anchored up in 54 feet of water and things are going well. We’ve landed a couple shakers and a 74 inch oversize fish so far. With the water temperature dropping and the full moon behind us, I think the sturgeon bite is going to get even better,” continued Yost.

According to Gene Buchholz at the Hook, Line and Sinker, the surface temperature is 65 degrees in the west delta and both black bass and stripers are providing sport for trollers.

“Swimbaits are producing black bass and there has been some good frog action, drop shotting and crankbait fishing on tap too. In our last Hook, Line and Sinker tournament, we weighed an 11 pounder, a 10 pounder and a pair of 9’s. During the evening, stripers are hitting surface lures,” said Buchholz.  

EAST DELTA
Trophy caliber black bass are available in the East Delta. To catch them, anglers have to employ proven big fish baits and focus on slowing down their presentations. The fishing is very good at this time, but anglers that rely typical summertime tactics will likely be disappointed.

“We had a pair of monsters over 10 pounds today,” reported Randy Pringle of the Fishing Instructor Guide Service on September 26. “One of the big fish fell for Optima’s Furbit The Frog and the other one grabbed a Optima wake bait. The fishing was just phenomenal today. At one point we had a 3 pounder hooked the Optima wake bait and a fish of about 8 pounds tried to take the bait away from the smaller fish repeatedly.”

“The weather was cool last week and that means the water temperature is down. This drop has caused the bass to become somewhat lethargic. To catch them you’ve really got to slow down your presentation. When working the frog you want to twitch it a little and then let it sit. With the wake bait a slow steady retrieve works best,” tipped Pringle.

“When the wind comes up the spinnerbait bite should come on strong,” he advised. “When the fish are not responding to frogs and other reaction baits, we’ve been getting them on E-Chip equipped Persuader jigs and while flip shotting Berkley Chigger Craws. For guys that are not familiar with flip shotting, you take a flipping stick spooled with braid and add a 36 inch 20 pound fluorocarbon leader to the end of it.”

A sinker is tied to the tip of the leader and a Chigger Craw is rigged about a foot above the weight. The rig is flipped near cover and action is added to the Chigger Craw by shaking the rod tip, according to Pringle.

During the recent cold snap, good striper action was available to pluggers working Mildred Island. Since then it has warmed up again and the striper bite has slowed.

RIO VISTA
Things are popping in the Rio Vista area. Stripers are providing superb action for both trollers and bait anglers. Sturgeon enthusiasts are catching solid numbers of keepers while bait fishing between the power lines and the mouth of Cache Slough.

“Striper fishing is great,” exclaimed Paul Cunningham at Rio Vista Bait on September 26. “My customers are getting both schoolie size fish and trophy size fish. Recently we’ve seen fish weighed in at 30, 24 and 21 pounds. Trollers are catching their bass while pulling shallow running Bombers, while bait anglers are having the best luck while fishing with shad.”

“Sturgeon fishing has been pretty good too. Today for example we’ve weighed in 3 keepers. Grass shrimp is the hot bait for sturgeon, in fact all the keepers we’ve weighed in over the past two weeks have been taken on grass shrimp,” added Cunningham.