Stripe-ah

I’ve had a revelation in fish form.

Stripers, fly caught, in my home town.

See… a couple weekends ago we were doing a family photo shoot at a local park. It went well, as you can see from the nice photo below.

The Fam

The Fam

As we were leaving I saw a guy with a fly rod. I asked him what in the name of all that was holy and good he was fishing for. He said he was catching stripers right there. Like… right there. just a hundred feet or so away. He gave me the skinny and I thanked him.

I’ve been thinking of that nearly non-stop ever since and today, when my wife got home a little early, she said she thought I should go fishing.

I agreed.

And then this happened.

striper one 12311433_10154484612391808_320635074_o

Stripers. On the fly. Many of them. Without a boat. Minutes from home.

And in an instant, my fly fishing life just changed. I realized my son may have his first fly caught fish be a striper, not a trout. How wild is that?

As I was leaving that spot tonight I saw that same fisherman and I thanked him again for changing my whole perception of the Bay… for changing my life, in fact.

Pretty awesome.

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7 comments

  1. Nice job Pilgrim. See, the bay ain’t so bad. I remember walking along the asphalt walkway at Coyote Point Park a few years ago & saw 15 – 20 lb stripers busting bait against the rocky shore 10 feet in front of me. After that I always carried my pre-rigged 5 piece 7 weight rod with me anytime I was near the bay. There’s a body of water in Oakland, yes Oakland, CA that has a park. There are HUGE stripers in this water at certain times of the year. Continued luck

  2. It is just getting better and better

  3. fantastic!!!!!! lucky you

  4. Time to rename the joint “Stripe-ah On The Brain”?

  5. Not just yet, but they are going to take up some real-estate in my head.

  6. Awesome. Just wait until you hook into fish over 20″. That’s when the game changes. Don’t get me wrong. Those 16″ fish pull harder than any other 16″ fish in the water, but once you get into that next year age range, they start putting you on the reel and take some line. I had a blast in the Sac Delta when in town a few weeks ago and those west coast stripes are a real trip. Plus west coast stripers seem to have a little more zip than the ones I’ve caught out east. They seem to be skinnier and more streamlined. Less weight for their length (an 8-10lb fish out there would weigh b/w 10-15 out east at the same length) but that sleeker profile seems to make them even harder fighters.

  7. Looking forward to it!

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