[Darth_Wader]

Hey Gang:

In six more sleeps my family and I are heading to the Maritimes. For the first few days (June 29-July 4th) we're in Halifax. From there we're on to Saint John from the 4th to the 10th. What are the odds of finding a straggling striper or two? I'll be using a fly rod. How are things looking there on the striper front?

Thanks,

Alex

 

[ipop]

hi alex/DARTH, i'm looking at trying fly fishing for stripers too, i just got all geared up for flys, my rod is still a little light but we'll see. i know all the local spots and would be happy to help you out (and catch around a 100 stripers per year, just never yet tried flies for them). i only check the site every couple days (busy at work) so don't panic if i don't reply quickly. do you have a boat or shore fishing? your timing looks good for stripers.

 

[Darth_Wader]

ipop:

Thanks for getting back to me. It'll definitely be shore fishing/wading. 100 stripers per year... very nice. I'm thinking of tying some extra Clouser Minnows and a Deceiver or two in anticipation.. as long as I'm able to find saltwater hooks here. Then again I'm willing to bet that the vise is coming. I'm bringing my 8 wt single hand and 13' 8/9 two-hander. I'd be ecstatic with a fingerling just for the record lol. Even if I don't catch a thing.. I'll be just as happy being away and somewhere new with my family.

LOL.. good timing...sounds good to me.

Alex

 

[Well Hooked]

IPOP
I'm interested in tying some striper flies and have been experimenting with some small versions of "surf candy" patterns. They worked great on the sea trout this spring. I've also tied some zonker eels. Unfortunately I haven't found any fish to try them on. I do however have a 17 foot Lund with a 90 so if you and Darth need a boat for your excursion drop me an email at [email protected]

 

[ipop]

Darth, i hear a clouser set the new world record for striper on the fly, so keep that in mind, well Hooked too. thanks for the offer of the boat and your company to Well Hooked, it gives us the option of trolling for them too. i have some striper flies. actualy,...uh, i have a pile of striper flies. i had the fishing pox bad late this spring and picked up $300 in flyes, most of which was striper flies and i would be interested in trading or have some if you need them. some of these are wild!!! the ones made with a whole hand full of blue and white feathers, a bunch of each color of flash, a inch diameter deer hair head...and 2 big salt water hooks...well, i just can't wait to nail a big one with it!!! i do have smaller flies for stripers, flys from salmon candy on up, a few interesting styles of clousers and bunch of flies designed for tarpon that should work just fine for stripers. it's funny but a lot of the gear we use for stripers is the same gear used for tarpon.

 

[Perry]

ipop, you will love flyfishing stripers. It is a blast and great fight. What are the stripers feeding on? That as in lures and baits dictate the fly selection.

 

[ipop]

Perry, the stripers at this time have a wide selection of "bait fish" to chose from, but almost all of them have white bellies - trout, shad, gaspereaux, suckers,etc. some have a little flash like the few herring that have shown up. matching the hatch is good, and by me that worked last year, but sometimes something different is what they are looking for. and i have seen nights when they would only take one type of bait fish...and i didn't have that lure/pattern (did i mention the fishing pox?!!! lol!)

fly placement in the water collum will probabley be very important..or restricted. where i fish, bouncing a fly along the bottom won't work, to much to get caught on. timing it to not quite touch the bottom, up and down on a drift should work, that's how most swim baits work for stripers. zipping along just below the surface, occasionaly porpoising up should be a real hit, i hope. and then, of course there's popping!! and i have a few big pink and white beauties that should make things interesting. again, i hope!!!

 

[Perry]

Ipop, The main baitfish here is the gaspereaux and the stripers bust them up so I use a Crease Fly which is a top-water. It is especially good in moveing water. The flies I use for subsurface are quite large and to reduce weight I am useing tube flies. If you would like to see examples I will post some. Clousers are a bit like shooting a pellet gun at you rod so be careful. LOL

 

[ipop]

perry, i wouldn't mind seeing your "crease fly", i have seen tube flies before but only have 2 small ones desinged for bone fish, so i wouldn't mind seeing what you use for that too. as for gaspereaus being the main bait fish, weeeell i guess it depends on where you fish them. i fish in the north end, reversing falls and lower most times and i only saw a hand full of gaspereaux and a good size shad in my stripers last year. however almost every striper had smelt in them, often a dozen or more. i have seen times when they had hundreds of shrimp, and days when it's all small trout.

 

[Nim Rod]

holy crap--this is good stuff---Perry N ipop on stripers

 

[Bonasa_U.]

holy crap--this is good stuff---Perry N ipop on stripers

Yeah, no kidding - flyrod stripers at that. All we need is Robbie to join in.... he found out what clousers can do to flyrods LOL......

J.

 

[youngchief]

Ipop, The main baitfish here is the gaspereaux and the stripers bust them up so I use a Crease Fly which is a top-water. It is especially good in moveing water. The flies I use for subsurface are quite large and to reduce weight I am useing tube flies. If you would like to see examples I will post some. Clousers are a bit like shooting a pellet gun at you rod so be careful. LOL

Perry - Do you fly fish for stipers from a boat? if so do you use a striping basket? I finally got my outboard fixed and paired it with a trolling motor to cruise the SJ river, thinking I'd be wise to build a stripping basket to help shoot the line and not foul it on deck.

Thanks for your input!

 

[Perry]

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u225/nearnuff/flyrod.jpg I am have a learning experiance posts images on the discussion thread. I will edit this as I figger it out.
Still haveing trouble will get back to it later. Ipop I put the crease fly on the Gallery. I did an short article on how to tie it and will post later if I can find it. Computer crash a month ago. Gotta gp will post later. I might try for a fish!! lol

 

[Well Hooked]

IPOP and Darth:
I'm on vacation the next two weeks and don't have internet at home. If you want to reach me to set a time to trol for stripers my number is 449-0570. I'll go day or night, rain or shine.

Also IPOP I'd sure like an opportunity to see those striper flies. I hear big versions of gurgglers are real popular in Maine for stripers. I'm going to try and up-size the hooks from the 2's and 4's I tie gurgglers for smallies to 2/0 for stripers.

Are the "crease flies" just the foam bodied flies where you tie in a tail then take a piece of foam and bend it over the hook, then paint it up? I know that over simplifing the pattern, but you get the general idea.

 

[ipop]

youngchief, for boat i compleatly agree with you, a striping basket is a good idea. i may do the same from shore, depending on how many people are fishing. A home made set up should work just fine.

perry i'll look right after this post at those flies. they sound good.

well hooked, i'm assuming a 506 area code. now go edit that phone number out of the post so you don't get swamped with calls...lol.

if you see me striper fishing, i'm the guy with the long white beard, driving a car with the kayak on th top.

i did finnaly get out, fishing in the day of all things yesterday on the low tide rip from rowan island in the north end. there were 2 other striper fishers there, they arrived about an hour into it, and were still there when i left. theere were a few stripers out there, i hooked into and lost 2, had 2 more misses myself and one of the other guys had a hit too. that all started when i decided to wake up the stripers by doing some popping (yup, there's a good reason for the ipop logo). i was chucking a big big popper, 9", red head with an added white feather on the tail. about the third cast/series of pops i had a bare "keeper" size striper roll up and miss just behind the lure. ,,,!

a few minutes later the other guy had it hit and get off, then it was my turn again, it hooked up, but unhooked almost as fast. th other hit was a schollie right out front, justa little guy that got off (i should have landed that one but was busy laughing at it - ohps!! lol!)
i also saw a little striper size up my popper and decided was out of it's weight clas...LOL!!!!

maybe tonight...i hope!

 

[ipop]

well hooked, i lost your number but conveniently it's still showing here, so i will be calling you for striper fishing.
i landed 3 so far this weekend, 2 friday night and another last night. the first one friday was on my third cast, 7" magnum bomber...and it thought it was a 10" smallie - splashing all over the place, furiously twisting and flopping. he was 25" and would have soaked anybody fishing with me, he realy was throwing the water around. the second was a polite 23", who barley fought, just bulling enough to show he was a striper, then sat still, calmly waiting for me to remove the hooks from the same magnum bomber. last night it was a 21", again acting like a oversized small mouth. that was landed on a smaller crank.

oh, and a heads up, they weren't hiting a "match the hatch" pattern, they hit the opposite, a bait that stood out from the zillion bait fish out there. Go figure.

so they were all schoolies, and yes, i did hook into a bigger one, but it came unpined. next time!

 

[ipop]

weeeell, WellHooked and i found the stripers last night...they were on the ends of jimmie and dave's lines!!! they smoked us last night, catching several from under OUR boat too!! lol, it happens. at least Well Hooked got to see some stripers, even if jimmie is leaning on the nuimbers and size... at least they were catching something. i did redeam myself at the end. Wellhooked, i'm sorry but i just like we thought, i caught a keeper off the island after you left...and on a lure that looked almost the same as the one i had you trying at the end. i did find out why i wasn't getting any hit's on my gold bomber crank-it was broken and sinking butt first - okay if i know about it, a waste of time onknown in ther dark.

it was a nice 29" 7#9oz striper, no monster, still a great fight due to it having the hooks half torn out and barely holding as it came in, i went into the water after it with my griper - well worth getting wet...again!!
mmmmm, fresh striper nuggets!!!

we'll get out again and land a few bigger ones soon.

ps: i still have a job, just not the one i had yesterday with the same company.

 

[CoCoRover]

I was out fishing in the Saint John River monday morning to late afternoon and seen 3 different fish in 3 different places jump out clean out of the water. They were atleast 3-4 feet long. What would they be? I was thinking strippers or salmon. Any ideas? And how do I catch them?

 

[utopia fisher]

I was out fishing in the Saint John River monday morning to late afternoon and seen 3 different fish in 3 different places jump out clean out of the water. They were atleast 3-4 feet long. What would they be? I was thinking strippers or salmon. Any ideas? And how do I catch them?

they were most likely stergeon use a worm glob and a slip sinker

 

[bassfisher10]

does any one know some good striper fishing between cocagne and moncton?