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What did I
do or didn’t I do to contribute to the success or failure.
This year the questions were more about the reward rather than
the defeat.
When there are stripers showing on the fish finder, what does
it take to fool them into biting? Sometimes they will strike at
our first offering; but the statement, “I threw the whole
tackle box at them and couldn’t get ‘em to bite,”
is so often lamented. Yes, that’s why they call it fishing
and not catching sometimes. There are things we can do to catch
more stripers from trip to trip. The way we present lures to them
is a huge part of fishing fortune.
LURE SELECTION
I am becoming ever so more a believer in matching a lure to the
size of the prevalent baitfish in an area. The day I found a dominant
striper shoreline on the Patapsco River, I started out casting
jerkbaits and rattle baits. I didn’t get a bite until I switched
to a 4-inch soft swim bait. On subsequent trips to the area thereafter,
only one striper attacked the rattle bait and they never would
strike a jerkbait.
Another fishing theory we hear is “big lures for big fish”.
I agree with that statement to a certain extent. When big stripers
arrive in the lower portion of the Chesapeake in late fall they
are looking to feed heavily, and big bunker are their main prey.
If you look at this theory more closely you’ll see that it
falls in line with matching your lure to the size of the prevalent
baitfish. I do know this: When fishing the Patapsco last fall,
I caught stripers from 10 inches to 10 pounds on the same 4-inch
swim bait.
CASTING
ACCURACY
Being an avid largemouth and smallmouth bass angler, I know that
precise placement of a lure is a must in many cases. Is casting
accuracy important in striper fishing? You bet it is! And I have
personal examples to prove it.
Two years ago I was fishing with Captain Jerry Sersen on the Bush
River. He found stripers on submerged ridgeline in shallow water.
He told me to cast my rattle bait toward a sign on the shoreline
to get my lure in the strike zone. My first few casts went noticeably
to the right of the sign. Jerry gave me an incensed look that
meant I would be whacked with his casting rod if my next cast
wasn’t directly at the sign. The ensuing cast was spot on
and was met with a resounding strike and an obligatory “I
told you so” look from Jerry.
Stripers are known for using bridges as ambush points. I’ve
caught them from bridge pilings from June to November, in 55-degree
to 78-degree water temperatures, in 5 feet to 25 feet depths.
Presenting your lure precisely to bridge pilings is crucial, and
there are variable other than the direction that you cast. Depth
and current also have to be considered. A swift current in deep
water can sweep a lure away from a piling and the prospective
striper may never see it or brave the current to give chase if
it does get a distant visual.
ANGLER
INTERVENTION
Let’s say you are marking stripers at your favorite shallow
water hot spot. The stripers are show like boomerangs on the depth
finder and you can’t get them to bite. It’s up to us
to figure out what it will take to get these fish to bite. With
plastic jigs, we can speed up the retrieve for a reaction bite
or use a lighter jig head to give the lure a slower descent. With
rattle baits, you can use a sweep and reel or a yo-yo style retrieve
when the straight wind fails.
When different presentations with a failsafe bait goes unnoticed,
it’s time to change lures and go through the progression
of presentations again. Last November Captain Jerry and I ran
into the scenario where the stripers on our favorite rock pile
went fickle on a tide change. We caught several on Clatter Shad
rattle baits, but they weren’t responding as the tide began
to rise. We tried sweeping and the yo-yo tactics, but still got
no response. Jerry, always having the gear grinding on how to
get them to bite, clipped off the Clatter Shad for a blade-style
bait. He let it fall to the bottom and ripped it vertically. Within
a few casts, he had discovered our new pattern.
Light tackle anglers must realize that stripers can be more cunning
than what we give them credit for. It is up to us provoke them
into striking once we’ve found them. Sometimes a simple cast
and retrieve is all it takes, yet other times we have to make
our lure hop, skip, jump, or roll over and play dead before a
striper will bite it. Tweaking lure presentations most often determines
whether we catch stripers or are left questioning our fishing
prowess at the end of the day … or season.
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