07-01-2011, 05:50 PM
[cool][#0000ff]You are right about stripers. When I lived in Sacramento my home was right over the levee from the American River. Got to know how opportunistic those stripers were. There were almost always a few in the river but they really swarmed upstream to wait for the annual dumping of steelhead and salmon smolt from the Nimbus hatchery. But while they were waiting they dined well on small sunfish and crawdads in the holes below the hatchery.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]My sons and I liked to put on the mask and fins and gather crawdads in the holes and eddies on the American River. During the day the "bugs" (the smart ones) hid out under the rocks on the bottom and we had to roll the rocks to get at them. The sound of rolling rocks often attracted a big ol' striper or two. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The fish would set up station a yard or so away to wait for "escapees". We had to grab fast for the crawdads or they would squirt out away from us...and the stripers would pounce. What you call a symbiotic relationship. Especially when I would rig up a rod after the crawdaddin' and send a fresh bug back out to the stripers with a hook in it. Had a lot of enjoyable meals munchin' on steamed crawdads while waiting for the fresh striper fillets to finish cooking on the grill.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Once the hatchery dumped their annual production of steelhead and salmon smolts the feeding habits of the stripers switched gears. Then it was time to start flingin' rainbow pattern Rapalas. You think a wiper boil is exciting. Wait until you have a whole river erupting in front of you with stripers over 20 pounds.[/#0000ff]
[signature]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]My sons and I liked to put on the mask and fins and gather crawdads in the holes and eddies on the American River. During the day the "bugs" (the smart ones) hid out under the rocks on the bottom and we had to roll the rocks to get at them. The sound of rolling rocks often attracted a big ol' striper or two. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The fish would set up station a yard or so away to wait for "escapees". We had to grab fast for the crawdads or they would squirt out away from us...and the stripers would pounce. What you call a symbiotic relationship. Especially when I would rig up a rod after the crawdaddin' and send a fresh bug back out to the stripers with a hook in it. Had a lot of enjoyable meals munchin' on steamed crawdads while waiting for the fresh striper fillets to finish cooking on the grill.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Once the hatchery dumped their annual production of steelhead and salmon smolts the feeding habits of the stripers switched gears. Then it was time to start flingin' rainbow pattern Rapalas. You think a wiper boil is exciting. Wait until you have a whole river erupting in front of you with stripers over 20 pounds.[/#0000ff]
[signature]