Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3810 April 26- May 10 2019 | Page 7

Apr 26 - May 10, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 10 5 What’s Happening • What’s New What’s Hot! Sponsered by: Spring Time is Striper Time by Ernie Marlan It’s spring time and the striper season is here. Although, we got off to a slow start, the water conditions are starting to shape up and fishing is becoming more consistent. The slow start was due to the tremendous amount of the rain that we have had this winter. The water was much needed and is really good for the fishery long term. However, in the short term the high water conditions make it challenging for anglers. The debris and muddy conditions in the river and the delta often make it unfishable. The water is still a little high but it is stabilizing and we should start to see epic fishing very soon. I recently took a trip to the delta and found it quite challenging first thing in the morning. I only had three fish by 9:30 in the morning and the bite seemed to be getting tougher. I hit all of my normal spots but things just didn’t feel right. I was fishing a big incoming tide with about 3 feet of water coming in. However, I didn’t have the current that I usually like to see. I like to fish ambush areas such as tule points, shoals, turns in the levy and the more current I have the more predictable I think the stripers are. With the high water conditions, the amount of water coming down the river almost cancels out the current. The water still comes in but the current is not as pronounced in these areas. The best bait to use when trying to cover a lot of water is a lipless crankbait like a Pro Ripper 75 by Livingston Lures. This is my go to bait when I’m fishing a large area and searching for fish. Like all Livingston Lures when this bait hits the water it emits Electronic Bait Fish sounds that often help when bites are tough to get. The tough bite sent me on a hunt to water I haven’t fished in a long time. Around 1:30 p.m. and I found a spot near a tule island that had four breaks in it and the water was pushing through these breaks really good. Another advantage to this spot was that after the water pushed through the breaks, it pooled up into a nice little hole that was approximately five feet deep. This was a textbook spot where the stripers should be and even on this challenging day it did not disappoint. Lipless Crankbaits like this Pro Ripper 75 by Livingston Lures is a necessity when chasing stripers! I positioned my boat behind the pool of water and casted into the breaks of the tule island then allowed the bait to naturally work itself into the hole. There was a huge group of fish in this spot with almost every cast producing a schoolie size striper up to 8 lbs. I enjoyed catching and releasing these fish for a while then made a cast that was just like all the others. This time, as soon as the bait hit the water, a fish crushed it and I knew immediately that this was the fish I was after. The Quantum Smoke HD drag started to sing and the fight was on. After a good fight, unfortunately, the big one got away! I was hoping I’d have another opportunity at one of the larger fish again but unfortunately my luck had run out. In fact, I fished this spot for at least 30 more minutes but didn’t get another bite. Since it is spring and the stripers are in spawning mode, there are several male stripers that stay close to the female. I’d caught many males in the beginning then when I hooked the larger female and lost her, she swam away quickly and took all the males with her. That’s my belief of why the hole was empty after losing the female. It was fun while it lasted and ended up being a good day on the water. The bite was tough in the beginning but after covering a lot of water, it was productive and rewarding to find this nice group of fish. Until next time… The New Blade in Town! ™ WillowStrike 800-524-4742 PantherMartin.com Dept. FN049L 19 N. Columbia St, Ste 1 Port Jefferson, NY 11777 A NEW turbo-charged Panther Martin upgrade of the classic willow blade using our original shaft through the blade design with Panther Martin's unique convex/concave shape provides a super fast spinning action without a clevis.