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Striped Bass

Introduction

The striped bass (morone saxatilis) is a popular North American fish sought after by anglers. They are a true bass and a member of the temperate bass family. Although they are native to the Atlantic coast, the striped bass have an interesting story behind them as to how they have found their way throughout most of North America.

The U.S. Fish Commission carried striper fry to the West Coast beginning in 1879. After the building of the Wilson Dam and the Pinopolis Lock in 1941, many spawning stripers that had entered the lakes through the Santee and Cooper rivers were trapped.

The striped bass goes by many other names as well, such as: striper, rock, rockfish, striped sea bass, striper bass, linesider, squid hound, greenhead.

Distribution

Today, "stripers" as they are often called, are found along both the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines, and thrive in large bodies of water ranging from the East coast to the South coast to California.

It is said that the first freshwater stripers were caught by anglers intending to hook largemouth bass. Large stripers weighing over fifty pounds are commonly caught in freshwater lakes.

Habitat

Striped bass inhabit the same general waters as largemouth bass, except stripers prefer rocky bottomed lakes and open water. They are often found in deep, clear impoundments with water temperatures in the mid-70's.

Behaviour and Reproduction

In the spring, when river temperatures reach 55ºF, the bass begin to swim upstream. Spawning begins when water temperatures reach about 60ºF-67ºF. Stripers do not build nests; instead, several small males escort a larger female to an area where eggs and milt mix in a flurry of thrashing males. The floating fertilized eggs must be kept afloat by the river current for thirty to seventy hours. The eggs are semi-buoyant, but if the water temperatures are outside of the spawning range, the eggs will sink and die.

Only a small fraction of the sixty thousand to 5 million eggs produced by each mature female will survive. Because of the specific water conditions required for successful spawning, most freshwater striper populations are the result of widespread stocking programs. Natural striper populations are limited to the Santee-Cooper complex, the Colorado River below the Davis Dam (Lake Mohave), and portions of the Arkansas, Missouri, and Washita rivers.

Features

Stripers have large heads and mouths, a long body, a protruding lower jaw and small eyes.

Colourization

Stripers are bluish-white or dusky silver with a greenish or dark back and closely placed black spots arranged in narrow horizontal lines along their bodies.

Size

Large stripers weighing over fifty pounds are commonly caught in freshwater lakes. The largest recorded striped bass, weighing 125 pounds, was caught off the North Carolina coast in 1891.

Feeding Habits

Stripers are voracious, carnivorous fish that prey on smaller fish species including herring, menhaden, flounder, alewives, silversides, eels, smelt, shad, minnows, and on small creatures such as worms, crabs, crayfish, squid, mayflies, etc.

Many anglers say that they have better luck catching stripers at night or in low-light conditions.

River Techniques

Stripers feed aggressively in the spring before moving upstream to spawn. When the river temperatures reach the mid-fifties, the fish swim to deep holes and depressions in the river floor, protected pools, and areas below narrow points of a river's width.

In large rivers where stripers school together below dams, use medium bait casting equipment and twenty-pound test line. Attach a large minnow, shad, or herring under its back fin to a weighted No. 3/0 hook, and wait for an eager striper to hook itself.

Cut bait is another successful seasonal lure - stripers love triangular pieces of cut shad, about four inches in length, threaded on a No. 2/0 hook. Add enough weight to push the lure to the bottom of the river, and then cast the bait upstream on an angle. As the bait bounces along the river bottom, keep the line tense and anticipate gentle strikes. Set the hook at the first sensation of a strike.

When fishing from the banks of fast-current rivers, try a twelve-foot surf rod with twenty-pound test line on a spinning reel. If casting large silver spoon lures, attach a ball-bearing swivel to the spoon to avoid twisting the line. Bright white or yellow lures work well in fast waters - brightly coloured one or two-ounce lead head jigs are popular favourites.

Other hot fishing spots are found below power-generating stations in fast rivers. Stripers lay in wait below the generator discharge tubes and feed on the small fish that are pulled through the generator. When fishing near operating power-generators, anglers should cast a jog or spoon lure near the tubes, letting the bait sink without hanging on bottom debris.

Lures are easily snagged on obstacles in the fast current, and must be retrieved quickly. Strikes are sometimes difficult to detect in fast water. The bass will let the lure enter its mouth as directed by the current, without actively pursuing the lure. Therefore, any change in pressure or hesitations in the line may signal a strike.

When fishing near power-generating stations, anglers must not anchor their boats at the working dam. Instead, begin at the dam and drift downstream with the motor running at low speed, while trailing a jig or large shiner.

In large rivers, anglers may safely anchor at the edge of the main current, about thirty feet above a "boil" - a surface phenomenon indicating a structure on the river bottom interrupting the current. Below the surface boils, fish tend to congregate in the river-bottom depression forged by the churning waters.

Live shad or minnow bait hooked through both lips work well in fast rivers, as do jigs and deep-running crank bait (Bombers or Magnum Hellbenders). With the reel in the free-spool position, let the striper engage with the live bait for a few seconds before equipping the reel and setting the hook. With artificial lures, dangle the bait above the bottom depression, using the rod to change the vertical action of the lure.

At a slower, non-power-generating dam, many large stripers may sit in the large pool area beneath the dam. In low-water conditions, cast a sizeable bright coloured lure, or try traditional floater-divers and surface lures. If the fish are in deeper pools of twelve or fifteen feet, use a large yellow jig with a yellow plastic flip tail worm. After the lure sinks to the bottom off the pool, suspend the bait one or two feet from the bottom, and occasionally raise and lower the rod tip.

Lake Techniques

In large impoundments, striper fishing usually requires a depth finder and temperature indicator. The exception is in late spring, when the best striper fishing is often from shore, and at night. Around the same time that stripers are returning to the lake from smaller streams, schools of gizzard and threadfin shad begin to spawn nightly in the shallow bays. Stripers ambush the spawning shad from deep water, intercepting the schools as they move into shallow water to spawn.

Night lake fishing for large stripers usually requires heavy spinning equipment and twenty-pound test line. Cast a deep-running crank bait parallel to the shore in a rocky area that features a ten or twenty foot drop-off. Pace the lure at a medium speed to ensure that the lure maintains its maximum depth. At night, loud, rattle crank baits filled with split shot attract both stripers and impressively sized largemouth's.

When summer fishing from a boat, some anglers use temperature indicators to find the cool, oxygen-rich, thermocline layer of water. The layer above the thermocline, called the epilimnion, is warm and low in oxygen content; equally, the hypolimnion layer below the thermocline is cold and low in oxygen content. The oxygen-rich thermocline layer cools as the water deepens, and attracts many varieties of fish. Therefore, anglers try to position their lures in the fish-filled thermocline layer.

Stripers swim throughout a lake and are hard to track at most times during the season, except in late spring. While a depth finder may determine where a striper is swimming, the striper does not remain in one area for long. Fish the areas likely to hold fish - in the thermocline layer, at drop-offs, in the lower half of the lake, along river channels, over submerged islands, and ridges in the thermocline layer - by trolling a crank bait or a live shad. Use live shad and minnow bait or large jigs along dams at depths of twenty or forty feet.

Early Fall Techniques

In early fall, smaller feeder streams begin to cool to temperatures more than ten degrees cooler than the lake surface. Schools of forage fish move toward the stream channels at the beginning and end of the day, followed by striper bass.

Fish the openings of fast streams using a live minnow or shad hooked through both lips with a No. 2/0 hook. Weight the line about one or two feet above the lure, allowing the bait to reach the bottom. Next, either slowly drag the bait or let the lure sit on the lake floor where it lands. When a fish strikes, try letting it take five or ten feet of line before setting the hook. This technique may be slow fishing, but it is effective.

Winter Techniques

Excellent fishing opportunities abound in colder waters. At the turn of the fall season, stripers follow shad into smaller streams and feed vigorously. While surface feeding, stripers are indiscriminate eaters and swallow most plug, spoon, or jig lures.

In relatively open areas of the lake where the feeding persists, anglers (wanting a challenge) cast large streamers with a fly rod. After the energetic surface feeding subsides, the odd striper may strike a large white or yellow jig positioned thirty feet below the surface.

Early fall stripers average five pounds; December stripers are larger at eight or nine pounds; and by late January some stripers reach over fifteen pounds.

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