Welcome to NEFF

Sign up for a new account today, or log on with your old account!
Register

Give us a try!

Welcome back to the new NEFF. Take a break from Twitter and Facebook. You don't go to Dicks for your fly fishing gear, you go to your local fly fishing store. Enjoy!

Stripers in the D

I'm at the tidewater outside of Philly and people will start doing C&R in the river in Trenton usually around now. They are in free-flowing lower reaches through the summer (water gap to Trenton). I have heard of people fishing for them at night with live trout they get from the musky hatchery.
 
Seen them all the way up in Bard, its no big secret. You can fish for them too, but you have to dodge the 5000 people with their canoes, pontoon boats, tubes, etc. paddling around in circles right through where the fish are rising, like its the pool from Caddy Shack.
 
Trout Nazi said:
Seen them all the way up in Bard, its no big secret. You can fish for them too, but you have to dodge the 5000 people with their canoes, pontoon boats, tubes, etc. paddling around in circles right through where the fish are rising, like its the pool from Caddy Shack.
Click to expand...
Good morning, Back in the ninties the was a stripper caught in Milford, Pa. where the Sawkill comes into the D. I heard it was 40inches long. I think it was in June. Bill the mailman
 
The highest upstream I've personally seen a striper caught was Junction Pool one year when my buddy caught an 18" bass on a sulphur dry fly. I have buddies here in NJ that target stripers including some big fish in the Delaware well below trout country. I live 25 minutes away, but never chase them in the big D.
 
Future Fanatic said:
So. have any of you guys seen Stripers in the Delaware? How far up and when?
Click to expand...
I've seen the at Hale Eddy more than once, jumping clear out of the water chasing size 18 BWO's. :) Okay, kidding about the last part but I've seen them jumping out of the water chasing food.

What I'd like to really know... Have you guys seen, CrackerJack, Crazy Joe, Bevans, DJ, tommye, or Dave B. :)
 
Hugeeee one swam right under me right where the east and west branch meet. Beautiful clear day and water and I was about chest deep. Really cool
 
dcabarle said:
I've seen the at Hale Eddy more than once, jumping clear out of the water chasing size 18 BWO's. :) Okay, kidding about the last part but I've seen them jumping out of the water chasing food.

What I'd like to really know... Have you guys seen, CrackerJack, Crazy Joe, Bevans, DJ, tommye, or Dave B. :)
Click to expand...

DaveB posts on NJ Woods & Waters and sometimes on GST. Not sure where the others are these days.
 
dcabarle said:
I've seen the at Hale Eddy more than once, jumping clear out of the water chasing size 18 BWO's. :) Okay, kidding about the last part but I've seen them jumping out of the water chasing food.

What I'd like to really know... Have you guys seen, CrackerJack, Crazy Joe, Bevans, DJ, tommye, or Dave B. :)
Click to expand...

I've seen them at Bard schooling with the carp, every one I've seen has been huge, as in easily eating a 12-14" trout huge. I've also seen them further downstream, interestingly, after they've been in the river for a while they turn much darker. I had one follow a 20" walleye up that I was reeling in, it made that walleye look tiny.

I think the person to send after these things is our man #FIN-ITE 34. He seems to have the big-fish game dialed with those giant Pikes flies.
 
I found a striper carcass that had been filleted out on the Willowemoc several years back. That was a surprise. Of course, I can't be certain where it was caught, just where it was discarded.
 
i saw mine right where the 2 branches meet in may i believe. it was def warm out and the pics i have of the day look like may, i was in a short sleeved shirt it. was abt 10 years ago, again it was fucking enormous easily pushing 40 lbs. and swam right under me as i was wading chest deep right in the jaws (where the 2 branches meet)
 
Last edited:
Didn't Mark Celebuski used to post on this site? He has targeted stripers in the Upper Delaware for decades. Pretty sure JC, another former poster here, caught one last summer on the WB.

I've seen them in the West Branch, the Main Stem, and the Lackawaxen. Never seen one in the East Branch but I'm sure they're there. They're in the river year round, so I'm not sure it matters when you fish for them.

Two really cool experiences seeing stripers hunt in the river...

A couple of years back floating through Buckingham pool at dusk - trout and fallfish were rising everywhere on a spinner fall, and this giant striper was picking them off when they rose. There was this big wake moving through the pool, like jaws before he hits the boat, and it would just rip toward the smaller fish as they broke the surface. My friend and I were striking out on the trout and wished we had a giant streamer in our boxes.

A few years before that, at Bard Parker, I saw a giant fish repeatedly strike a duckling that was straggling behind its brethren. Three, four strikes, and then the duckling disappeared 10 feet from shore, in about two feet of water. Didn't see the predator, so maybe it wasn't a striper. Could easily have been a northern pike, which are around, or I suppose a giant brown trout or a really huge small mouth bass. But if I had to put money on it, I'd say it was a striper.

Both of these examples show the fish have totally adapted to river life, having left the salt permanently, and know how to target fresh water species. I'd think if you find slow, deep water and throw some very large, very heavy streamers, or better yet, neutral weighted streamers on fast sinking line, you'd eventually hook a striper. And if you didn't, as a consolation, you might get a really nice trout or walleye for your effort.
 
STREAMERS!!??!?

I'm a bit more pragmatic than you guys...

I think of a fly rod as a tool...

AND that's not the tool for THIS job...

Yes. I'm fully aware that this is a fly fishing site...
 
Don't get me started with those d-bags that anchor up right off your stern with their anchor rope in your lines. Kinda' like NJ stream trout fishing :rofl:
 
FIN-ITE 34 said:
Don't get me started with those d-bags that anchor up right off your stern with their anchor rope in your lines. Kinda' like NJ stream trout fishing :rofl:
Click to expand...
Not if you know where to go...it also helps if you know people with private property...now if you cross my chum slick in Hancock this year, I'll be launching 16oz. diamond jigs at you.:)
 
many moons ago on the upper EB, something big big took a ten in brown I was reeling in took it to Trenton and back. It spit the fish out about 15 feet from me. Never saw what it was. I assume Jaws.
 
I’ve seen strippers up there in June and July. Some were still silver not too long out of the salt, others were almost black and looked like long-time residents.

In what’s considered the trout water, I’ve caught smallies, walleyes, sunnies, and rock bass. I’ve seen pike in Lordville, and a musky down in Damascus that I thought was a submerged tree till it started swimming away.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dcabarle
Fish report for the Upper D.
Replies
2
Views
458
dcabarle
dcabarle
dcabarle
Anyone participating in this years FUDR One bug?
Replies
0
Views
538
dcabarle
dcabarle
O
Delaware Aquaduct Shutdown
Replies
0
Views
302
oasisman
O
D
Here is Practical Explanation about Next Life, Purpose of Human Life, philosophical/religious facts, theories etc.
Replies
4
Views
425
NJpatbee
NJpatbee
F
How about a fishing report?
2
Replies
30
Views
2K
dcabarle
dcabarle
Back
Top