Late Summer Stripers in The Delta

Hey all,

Any tips for targeting stripers this early?  Fishing Saturday morning, probably from Sherman because I like that area and it is a pretty short drive for me (from Concord).   

I would normally pick up mudsuckers and drift live bait, but always looking for other options too. 

For the record, I've never targeted a fish as fickle to fish for as stripers, haha.  I've only been at it a few years with stripers, but haven't connected with anything very large yet.  Tons of dinks, and certainly my fair share of skunk days - would love to connect with a larger class of fish. 

Thanks for any hints!

Rumor is a few schoolies have been caught on the Moke shallow trolling.

Rumor is a few schoolies have been caught on the Moke shallow trolling.

Sweet, thanks for the tip! 

First off, there are still plenty of striper in the delta although they are finally moving out into the bay. This has been a weird year for striper in the delta.

One caveat to what I’m about to say is that I don’t usually fish the main rivers, I prefer fishing sloughs. If you just want to fish the main rivers troll a 4”-5” jerkbait. If you don’t get any love, add a white worm on the back treble and you should do fine.

In terms of techniques I prefer artificials like swimbaits, jerkbaits, chatterbaits, and topwater to name a few. Live or dead bait also works great and when fishing around Sherman I have done well with pile worms or frozen anchovies. The smaller fish in the 13”-20” class are good fun on bass gear and can be caught reliably with smaller topwater, jerkbaits, and chatterbaits in 1-6 fow. For fish in the 20”-30ish” class a 5-6” pencil popper is great or 4” swimbait. I wouldn’t worry about trophy class fish if you’re new to delta striper fishing because most people take a very specialized approach in terms of gear, location and timing.

The trick with striper is finding them. If you find a school you can definitely catch 10+ fish no problem in 30 minutes but you might not get a single bite the rest of the day. Target changes in depth on a moving tide, I like outgoing, any pumps or pipes that are discharging water are great.

Honestly this video gives you a ton of useful information and was helpful for me when starting out. If you want more info shoot me a pm.

First off, there are still plenty of striper in the delta

Thanks for this - good info here. Ended up taking my 10YO for a short shore side trip by Dekker island, caught a couple short stripers. Nothing crazy, but a little action and good father/son time.

Glad it was helpful and you were able to get on a few!! I used to fish Sherman island with my dad when I was your son’s age. Those little stripers are always fun and you can get nonstop action sometimes. Sounds like you had a good time and that’s what’s important