First River Striper!! And, Some PBs

[NorthJerzyG]

Started a long weekend yesterday so I took a ride out to try for some big trout. Gauge readings were showing above average flows but the temps looked good. When I got there the water looked to fast to wade and I considered leaving to find some smaller water. Figured, since I was there, might as well take a few casts....

First cast, first spot, Boom, fish on! Fish felt pretty good so I'm thinking it must be a 20" + trout. Finally get him in after a nice fight and see it's a....... STRIPER!! My first ever and out of trout stream no less. :D Over the next 10 casts, I hooked 3 and landed 2 more. Biggest went 18-20", a NEW PB, lol, and had been eating well!! The one I lost may have been bigger but shook of my barbless hoooks. I'm assuming these where Big D stripes that swam up a trib to escape the high muddy waters, but I didn't think there where still stripers in the D this time of year??

Decided to stay a while and work my way downstream in search of more. Soon after I fought and lost a pretty heafty bow right at my feet. Couple casts later, I had my F5 rapala just floating downstream when something practically jumped out of the water to grab it. Thought it was another trout, but ended up being my PB fallfish, lol. Decided to get a quick pic, set my phone down, and realeased it. After a few seconds of searching, noticed I had realeased my phone into the river as well!!! :eek: Grabbed it and dried it of quickly but it had gone black...... :mad:

Almost called it day after that but kept going. Picked up another bow and a small smallie before calling it a day. Got home and left my phone out in the sun for a few hours, occasionally flipping it like a burger, and sure enough, it came right back on!! Drowning my phone almost ruined my first striper experience, almost............

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i419/NorthjerzyG/IMAG1940_1.jpg (http://s1092.photobucket.com/user/NorthjerzyG/media/IMAG1940_1.jpg.html).......

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i419/NorthjerzyG/IMAG1937.jpg (http://s1092.photobucket.com/user/NorthjerzyG/media/IMAG1937.jpg.html)..........

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i419/NorthjerzyG/IMAG1938.jpg (http://s1092.photobucket.com/user/NorthjerzyG/media/IMAG1938.jpg.html)........

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i419/NorthjerzyG/IMAG1944.jpg (http://s1092.photobucket.com/user/NorthjerzyG/media/IMAG1944.jpg.html)

[JDTuna]

Congrats man! Looks like a great day. Yeah, stripers will stick around the Delaware throughout the summer. We used to catch them in live bait in the spring/summer fishing for channel cats at night.

[ScowardNJ]

Very cool catches G!

[americandesi]

Nice fish! I caught a big fallfish myself when I was targeting smallies on the big D last Sunday

[kcritch]

Very cool...Great report. Glad your phone came back too. Nicely Done!

[Eskimo]

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That's awesome.

I've seen people catch large stripers on the Delaware in the middle of summer not far from where the river I think you were fishing at spills into the Delaware. I can message you more details if you want.

You definitely need a waterproof phone case. When you're fishing, everything inevitable ends up in the water at some time. It doesn't have to be an expensive $90 Lifeproof case. You can buy the soft waterproof bag-type phone cases that cost $10-15.


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[NorthJerzyG]

Thanks all!! Wasn't sure if they were residents or refugees. I definitely thought I would find more workin towards the D but nada? Right place, right time I guess!

As for the phone, I do have a water proof case but I hate using it. Takes to long to take the phone out of the case, take a pic, and release the fish. And, it's hard to get a good pic with the phone in the case..... Gotta say, I would definitely reccomend any model HTC smartphone!! They take a beating!!

[Skunk City]

Love those river stripers, even the smaller schoolies are kickass fighters.

[Chrisper4694]

If you want to really dry it out put it in a ziplock bag with rice, but if it's working it might be good already. Sounds like a pretty good day anyway!

[Eskimo]

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If you want to really dry it out put it in a ziplock bag with rice, but if it's working it might be good already. Sounds like a pretty good day anyway!


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[NorthJerzyG]

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So that's how the rice works!!! :p That's really funny!

[Dave B.]

Nice job on the linesides G! There are actually resident stripers in the D, have been for many years now. I've personally caught them as far up as 10 miles above Port Jervis, NY and have seen them on occasion up into the W. B. Delaware up to Shehawken. First time I saw one up that high was in '96 or '97 can't recall for certain just now. A guy was playing an approx. 14" brown on a fly rod right in front of the parking lot at Shehawken when a striper about 36" came up and inhaled it. The guys shocked expression was absolutely priceless!

I've also seen them up in many D tribs including the Musky and Paulinskill in NJ and the Brodhead in Pa. The mouth of the Lehigh at Easton is a popular striper spot.

[NorthJerzyG]

Thanks for the info, and, you named it.... :) Definitely made my day either way. Was about the last think I thought I might hook into. Gave the drag a nice workout!!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Good looking mixed bag G! Good to see you figuring out the secrets of the BIG D tribs. There's all kinds of interesting things happening on the great big river.:D