Stripers in the Russian??

RUSSIAN RIVER "Shad action has been good in the evenings at Johnson's Beach for the past few weeks, with anglers finding up to 10 fish a person using standard shad jigs and clear, sparkle grubs. The shad are still coming in, and some are still down at Cassini's, but most fishing is at Johnson's Beach, Vacation Beach and Neeley's (below Johnson's). Smallmouth bass fishing will peak around the end of June, but anglers are still getting 5 or 6 in a half day's drift. A few schoolie stripers showed up last week "18 or 20 inchers "remnants of a big, big striper run of huge fish about 20 years ago.

I think there was a discussion about this awhile back - maybe embedded in another thread.  I could have my rivers mixed up too, who knows.  One thing I do know is with a title like that, your bound to get some of the northern experts involved.

Michael

I have caught a few but have never seen a report of them being caught

I can remember a report from the early 80's of a guy fishing at Johnsons and thinking he had hooked a big salmon actually reeled in a 25 pound striper. Mike, do you remember the big sturgeon caught down  below cassinis in the 80's?

No but in 1983 I watched an 80 yr old guy land a 101lb Dino while fishing for Steelies just above the Monte Rio Bridge. It was unreal when 6' of Dino came flying out of the water in the middle of shoulder to shoulder Fisherman. Tied up the hole for over an hour.

My buddy and I caught several 12'ers one day while fishing for catfish from his yard in Guerneville.

On a side note - I also landed a schoolie while grubbing for perch from South Salmon Creek.

  I have heard old timers say that there were huge sturgeon and stripers running the russian when they actually allowed the water to flow into the ocean on a regular basis!  The flow is now a lot less then it was "back in the day" I believe!  I remember years ago when I fished for steelies on the russian there was talk of huge sturgeon laying low in the bigger holes such as Korbel. 

It has been many years since I used to go down there and fish for Stripers, but during the '80's and all the way to the mid 90's I fairly regularly used to go to the mouth of Willow Creek during full moons and target Stripers while flyfishing from my float tube or pram. We would fish from sunset until 2 or 3 am. They would take Sar/Mul/Macs, Deep black Whistlers, topwater flies, Zara Spooks and we would occasionally also fish crankbaits. Basically you would listen for a big "whoosh" (kinda sounds like someone chuckin bowling balls into the river) of a Striper rolling on the surface corralling smolt and head that way. Fish were between 4 and 30 lbs, a lot were in the 10 to 15 lbs class. The key was full moons WHEN the salmon and steelhead smolt were downmigrating, but when the river mouth would temporarily close with the tides when the SCWA would drop the flows to put in the summer dams.

So our best fishing was May, June,  but July, August wasn't too shabby either, but by mid August usually we were starting to head toward the Klamath about then for the halfpounder and salmon run.

We rarely fished for them after September, instead we fished the delta in the fall. The Striper "catching" seemed to taper off in the '90's, we assumed it was due to SO MUCH WATER being diverted out by the SCWA for Santa Rosa drinking water and all the friggin vineyards. If the mouth stayed completely closed, the fishing sucked. I rarely killed any fish, but was commanded to bring home a fish by my dad, so I sliced open the belly of this 18lb Striper and this  fish had consumed 8-9 salmon or steelhead smolts, 6 fairly large sculpins, one small clam, one 6” lamprey,  and a 3” long wooden stick!

The only thing, those fish got spooky at night, one noisy oar, one dropped Pepsi can in the boat and it was over for the next hour.

Most people I took down there were sworn to secrecy, and the only way to do ensure that was blackmail. I would drag them to "Everybody's talkin'" ( an old strip club in Santa Rosa) , take a photo of them there and threaten to give it to their wife if they blabbed about my little honeyhole. But seeing how it has been almost 15 years since I've been there, I guess it is fair game now.

Hope it helps, TN

PS> I would bring a paintball gun for the furbags. I used to use a wristrocket and marbles, but it isn't enough to keep them away. They are dangerous in the river.

We would get one or two a yeaar when we sampled the lower river.

Does anyone have pictures?  Everyone says there are lots of pictures of sturgeon/stripers in the Russian, I just want to see them!!! (Not doubting these fish being here, just want to see pictures.)

So what is the consensus regarding water in the Russian in the summer?  I've heard from octogenarians that the river mostly dried up in the summer.  Only after Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma were built was there water in the summer.

Does anyone have pictures?  Everyone says there are lots of pictures of sturgeon/stripers in the Russian, I just want to see them!!! (Not doubting these fish being here, just want to see pictures.)

When I fished down there, it was pre-digital camera (hell- Al Gore hadn't invented the internet thingy yet) and the only fish pictures were taken with instant Polaroid cameras and stuck on the wall at King's News and Tackle in Guernevillle. I bet if you go in there, you will see some.

Sad thing is, the SCWA wants photographic proof of Coho's existance, and soon it will want photos of wild steelhead too. PUMP, PUMP, PUMP, and then flow the Chocolate river in.

2 years ago i caught maybe 30 or so schoolies around healdsburg after the shad run in mid may, most were 12-16", i caught a few that were in the 20" class. they were all stacked up in one deep run, i fished for them every evening with top waters, almost every cast would get busted. it lasted for about a week then one day they were gone. last year i caught a 4 lb striper when smallmouth fishing around wholler. i have some pictures somewhere, i'll try and dig them up. aside from the occasional word of mouth story about someone catching a striper in the river i've only talked to one other person whos actually done it (while shad fishing 2 years ago). my theory was they followed the shad up the river, then back to the ocean, last years dismal shad run = fewer stripers. any input from Sean on this one?

aside from the occasional word of mouth story about someone catching a striper in the river i've only talked to one other person whos actually done it (while shad fishing 2 years ago).

Might have been me you talked to as I caught one two years ago shad fishing just below Veterans Beach.  I think i have a pic saves somewhere......

Does anyone have pictures?  Everyone says there are lots of pictures of sturgeon/stripers in the Russian, I just want to see them!!! (Not doubting these fish being here, just want to see pictures.)

Sad thing is, the SCWA wants photographic proof of Coho's existance, and soon it will want photos of wild steelhead too. PUMP, PUMP, PUMP, and then flow the Chocolate river in.

this is getting off topic, but I have to ask, Where in the ... did you come up with this?  Please explain.