The last couple of days have been cold, overcast and foggy with the occasional rain shower or stretch of drizzle. Yesterday and today I have come home from my morning striper trip and started a fire in the woodstove to feel warm. In fact on my afternoon trip yesterday I wore an insulated underwear top and was glad to have it on as the evening wore on.

This change in weather has certainly affected the stripers in a big way. The water temperatures have fallen a few degrees and this morning the warmest water was in the main channel, the shallow coves where the water temperatures are usually warmest were at least three degrees colder. In fact way down river even the nearby ocean was warmer. The stripers have developed lockjaw with the cold water. Hopefully it will only last for a day or two. They have to eat sometime. Don’t they?

There is an amazing amount of baitfish in the river; clouds of bay anchovy and mackerel everywhere along with the usual herring. I am assuming that with all of this food and falling water temperatures the feeding sprees will be off for a couple of days.