Developing Fall Striper Patterns
By Tim Sherman

Captain Jerry Sersen shows a big bellied striper caught on a Clatter Shad in the Bush River last fall.

We often hear bass fishermen talk about a specific pattern they used to catch fish. Whether it is a recreational outing or in a tournament, knowing where to fish, and what the fish want under the water and weather conditions is critical to their success. Rarely do we hear striper fishermen talk about patterns. In as much as bass fishermen rely on them, there are paradigms essential to catching fall stripers, especially in shallow water.

Location, tidal stage, water temperature, weather conditions, and lure selection all play important roles in developing patterns for stripers in the shallows. Some may be less important than others, yet they all have to be factored in before leaving the pier or launch ramp.

LOCATION
As with real estate, location is most important element. You have to know where to look to find stripers to catch them. Finding riprap banks, jetties, submerged rock piles, ballast dumps, points of land, and old pilings will lead you to the stripers. And yet not every rock pile or jetty will hold rockfish all the time or even at all.

There are two important aspects that have to be considered –- deep water access and a food source. The main concern for stripers in fall is to feed heavily without exerting energy. Rockfish move out to deeper water as the tide falls below there comfort level. It is not a hard and fast rule, but they typically aren’t found around cover near flats where they have to move 100 yards to a comfort zone. Remember that “deep water” is a relative term. A fish relating to cover in 3 feet at high tide has to seek the sanctity of a similar depth when the tide ebbs. This means there needs to be cover or a structural drop in 6 feet near by at high tide. Stripers will move there as the tide falls. The more important of the two aspects is forage. Shallow cover must have a food source close by. Without silversides, bay anchovies, alewives, or shad, there is no reason for a striper to be around a particular piece of cover.

TIDAL STAGES
There are locations that seem to hold stripers on every tide. Others may draw them on the either the ebbing or flooding tide. The way current flows over a piece of cover dictates when rockfish will relate to it. A submerged rock pile in a cove off of the main river may be best on a flooding high tide. A main river point that is fixated in an upriver position may hold stripers only on an ebb tide. Most forms of cover in the main flow of the river have the capability of holding rockfish as long as there is tidal flow providing both a food source and deep water are near by.

The direction of the tidal flow should be taken into account before casting. Predator species such as stripers face into the current and wait for baitfish to be washed by. Setting up behind stripers so that you can retrieve your lure in the wash is the best presentation, especially around points and main river cover like ballast dumps. Casting parallel to the current-fed side is a good presentation. Don’t forget to cover the point of the jetty with casts into the current, in the same manner as you would fish the ballast dump.

WATER TEMPS/ WEATHER CONDITIONS
You will notice a steady change in the size of stripers early this month. As the water temperature drops ever closer to 65 degrees, small sub-legal stripers will be replaced by a better class of fish. The key range of water temperature for catching aggressive fall stripers in shallow water is 55 to 65 degrees. In late fall, you can still find stripers in the shallows, yet they will not be as aggressive, slower presentations that keep the lure in the strike zone longer are the best when water temps fall below 55 degrees.

We all know that high pressure bluebird days have a tendency to lock the jaws of a striper down tighter than a bank vault. Autumn days with mostly sunny skies and moderate barometric pressure or overcast days with a slight breeze are more conducive to catching stripers. On sunny days there will be more movement of stripers than on overcast days. As the tide falls, you can bet that stripers will use the access routes to nearby deeper water. The observant angler knows to follow them as the tide dictates. You will find that stripers may not move to deeper waters on overcast days, with the contingent of having enough water to cover them and enough tide to push forage. They feel safe with the concealment of cloud cover. That is until they feel the penetration of your hook.

LURE SELECTION
Let’s say you have found perfect conditions for catching stripers at your favorite submerged rock pile. You’re marking them with the fish finder and baitfish are flittering on the surface. So why aren’t they biting. There are times when stripers will strike any lure that is presented. Yet other times, they will only bite what looks like the prevalent forage.

I came across this scenario last fall while fishing with Captain Jerry Sersen of Reel Perfection Charters. Sersen’s service specializes in shallow striper fishing, along with largemouth and smallmouth fishing. This day was a stereotypical overcast fall day that gave us a clear advantage over the stripers. We had worked several rock piles in the Bush River. I started out with a soft plastic shad bait and Jerry was casting a Clatter Shad rattle bait. After he landed his second striper in only a dozen casts, I figure I should be casting one, too. The stripers wanted lures that had the profile of a shad and a rattle in them.

Just having a shad profile, or a lure of a different shape with a rattle did not convince rockfish to bite. When the bite would slow on the Clatter Shad, I had to go through the progression of jerkbaits, Lit’l Fishies, and mullets, to figure it out. All the while Jerry stayed true to the pattern he has known for decades -- stripers in the Bush River want shad shaped, hard bodied lures with rattles. The theory was also prevalent with topwater lures. The cigar shaped spooks drew no strikes, but Yo-Zuri and Tsunami walking lures with a shad shape and rattles brought them up from below. Stripers can truly be this finicky!

Putting together several elements of fishing is the essence of developing a pattern. Each aspect from locating stripers to selecting the best lure has its own merit in refining the pattern. In autumn shallow striper fishing, thinking like a bass fisherman can assure you a day of catching stripers instead of heading home with out a striper to fillet.