Stripers outside SF Bay

As some of you know I am a fishery biologist at the Bodega Marine Labs, like bsteves.  I am looking for reports of striper being caught in the ocean ....further than HMB that is.  I have seen a few reports of fish being caught off the Russian River mouth etc. and there have been in the past reports of fish caught as far away as long beach.  I am interested because the extent to which striper leave SF Bay and not return to spawn is completely not known in the management community and may be very important for the population.  The recruitment (production of babies) has just about completely collapsed since 2002.  I am part of a team of scientist trying to figure this out, and the potential for striper to leave SF Bay for greener pastors is entirely possible but unknown.  SO let me know if you see our catch anything.

Jim

I caught a small striper (~14") from the Salmon Creek surf last month, and my buddy has been catchin a lot of small stripers in the Russian, near Guerneville.

I was in Ventura last year and a guy working in a bait shop (who was originally from the Bay Area) said Stripers were being caught down there.  I was very surprised to say the least.  Maybe you ought to post this on some of the So. Cal boards. 

Santa Cruz reports stripers are hitting off Manressa Beach. A few years ago, I was wading out on a flat at Manressa and had a school of 50+ buzz right by me. To me that was a good sign.

Jim - if you want to get some intel on Stripers caught along Pacifica, call Coastside# 2 and talk to Marque (650) 359.9790. Most striper fishermen in Pacifica have their pictures taken at his tackle shop. Tell him your an NCKA member  He also gets daily reports from the Pier Fishermen.

When I was down at Cal Poly I saw a few caught at Avila beach by the creak mouth by people drifting for hailbut. I talked to guys that were tossing swim baits in Morro Bay, they say they get a few every year mixxed in with white sea bass. If I remember right one had said they get stripers in August and September down there, and that is around the time I saw them caught at Avila.

I've been receiving regular reports of stripers caught from Moss landing up to Santa Cruz.  (I write the fishing report for the Sentinel, so I geet to hear all this stuff) Mostly around manresa to Cement Ship in aptos.  This since mid-january or so.

Mostly undersize juveniles with an occasional fish to ten pounds.

Conjecture is they spawn in the Salinas or Pajaro Rivers.

It would be an interesting study............

Allen

I see them caught quite often below the healdsburg dam 10-12".

A couple of perch fishermen caught some stripers off of Kehoe beach in Point Reyes.

I think the Russian River held the record for a number of years 44lbs

I saw a guy catch 2 in the 10lb range about 4 weeks ago near Seascape.

No significant Delta recruitment since 2002?
Oh my, that's catastrophic. SF Bay Stripers are in big trouble then.

I read last year that water flows were being significantly impacted and that emaciated Seals were showing up in surprising numbers indicating the Upper Bay and Delta were in trouble all around, not just the Stripers.
I guess we finally developed and populatied the Bay Area to the breaking point of the Delta--at least for the current drought cycle.

Sad, I wish there was something we could do about it, but water rights go to the commercial interests with lobbying and campaign contribution power.

At least Stripers, to my knowledge, are not slaves to their natal waters like Salmon and may be able to move on up and down the coast. They are pretty hardy too--they really punished them in Chesapeake Bay for over  decade and yet they appear to be bouncing back. So we can hope this is jsut a temporary setback.

I'd be very interested in how you try to figure this out and what the results are.

I guess we finally developed and populatied the Bay Area to the breaking point of the Delta

I could understand if it was only local development it's the exporting of water to SoCal and Valley agribusiness I have a problem with. 

Mickfish,
I hear you. And with a drought being declared because the Sierra snowpack water content is 1/3 normal, we are in for a tough year water-level wise. SoCal is hurting more than we are so we can expect water wars this year. Ugh.

So in 2002 Department of Water Resources signed new 50yr contracts with the Metropolitan water district....the biggest consumer of water in the state basically.  In this contract additional volumes of water were sold.  So, in  a sense the breaking point of the system was surpassed.  While we had relatively wet conditions in 2003-2006 the estuary responded similarly to the 87-92 drought.  Now we have a drought.  BUT we had a good wet year last year and many of the central valley reservoirs are full enough to met the needs this year, but we can't afford another.  Great measures are being taken this year to alleviate the estuary conditions issue this year.  The team of scientists that I work with have had ALOT of input and managers have been buying into what we recommend.... so more water will be allocated for estuarine water quality and to curtail pumping at the Fed site, and with the pending law suit the state facility may get shut down as well....not sure yet how that will affect the recommendations... but things look promising.  Lets just hope we don't have another dry year.

Jim