Fishing for Striped Bass

Fishing for Striped Bass is too much fun. These suckers can get HUGE, land locked striped have been caught nearly 70lbs. They are aggressive and fierce feeders.

When you are fishing for freshwater stripers, the best bait you can use will be:

• Gizzard Shad
• Skipjack
• Threadfin Minnows
• Alewives
• Crawfish
  
• Trout

They basically hit anything that moves, stripers have been known to eat smaller stripers. I saw a guy fishing for catfish, and his catfish we're getting hit when he was reeling them in. Catfishermen sometimes even catch Stripers when they are fishing with Chicken Livers.

Stripers don't necessarily look for cover and structure as much as some other fish, except in current. When river fishing, you can often find them near cover closer to the banks.

They are very tempature specific fish, with a optimal water temp of 63 degrees. So instead of structure, look for cooler water, and bait. When you find bait, you will find the stripers near by in most cases. The bigger fish are more effected by the water tempature, then the smaller fish. The bigger fish, are often large and lazy. A lot of big stripers are caught on cutbait, because it is said they wait for the scraps from the smaller fish feeding frenzies, instead of using all their energy to chase down bait.

Cut Baiting

Cut bait fishing for Stripers can be very effective. you can often find the biggest fish on cutbait. When cut-baiting, there are several methods. Some prefer to cut the fish in half and use either the head or tail section. I prefer to cut the head off, and use it; sometimes I cut the nose/eye area off as well to double the sent.

You will want to make sure you use FRESH cut bait, the fresher the better. You will notice more hook ups when using fresh bait. I would also suggest chumming the area around as well.

Another thing I noticed is, when cutbaiting you should use a more oily bait. When fishing with a more oily bait, there will be more scent. Skipjack is a great oily fish, and stripers can't resist them.

More fishing information coming soon!