We had excellent striper fishing right off the back of the houseboat in every spot we stopped between Bullfrog and Dangling Rope. The key seemed to be using plenty of cut anchovy for chum, then you could catch as many as you wanted with various techniques. We got decent fillets out of about 90% of the fish caught.

We had a lot of fun catching stripers on the fly rod off the back of the houseboat. I figured I would share our fly-fishing technique so others could enjoy this exciting sight fishing experience.

I used an eight weight rod, but a five or six weight rod would have been fine considering the condition of most of the fish. Sinking tip fly line helps to get the fly down. A ten foot tapered leader with 8 lb. monofilament tippet seemed to work fine. Any fly that resembled a shad or piece of cut anchovy seemed to work well, but there was one fly that worked extremely well. It was an all white fly with a strip of rabbit fur and a shimmer fish shaped body (see photo). I don't know what it is called but bring a bunch if you plan to fly fish. They get beat up pretty quick.

All we did was cut up about five anchovies into small chunks and throw them in a fan pattern around the back of the houseboat. Then wait for about 15 min. or watch the back of the boat with polarized glasses until you see fish cruising. Cast and let it sink to about 10 feet and strip it back with a short choppy motion. When they hit, hit them back hard to set the hook. If your a trout fishermen this may take some getting use to. Often, we had numerous fish off the back of the boat at the same time and you could just plop the fly in five feet off the back and watch them attack the fly. It was a lot of fun.

If this technique doesn't work try hooking one on an anchovy, then as you fight that one have someone cast the fly in the vicinity of the hooked fish. A trailing fish will often take the fly. In the slower times this worked well.

Thanks for all the tips. Your web site is great.