Delaware river stripers

[Creekrun]

Hit the river yesterday with a friend 10 miles north of the Delaware Water Gap. Caught numerous post spawn shad and some small mouths. What was interesting however were the numerous fish we saw finning in the slack water along a current break which turned out to be small stripers of 8 or 9 inches. They were very hungry and hit anything we dragged past them. Obviously they were not this years hatch but having caught only mature stripers this far above the bay in previous years, I was intrigued that these little guys would be that far up the river. Any thoughts as to why they may have been there?