By Gita M. Smith
PHOTO: Nicholas May caught his 35-pound striped bass when he was 10, out on the Atlantic Ocean.
Want to go after some of the biggest fish you’ll ever see? Then get ready to go fishing for striped bass this summer. The world record striped bass, caught in 1982, weighed 78.5 pounds and was 53 inches long. It took one hour and 40 minutes to land that striper!
Kids all over North America enjoy fishing for stripers because they are found in oceans as well as fresh water lakes and rivers. Nicholas May caught a 35-pound striper for the first time when he was 10. He went out on the Atlantic Ocean on the charter boat “Misty” with his family, off the coast of Rhode Island. The boat left the Port of Galilee, and Nicholas threw his line out with a squid jig on the end. His fish measured 38 inches -- that’s more than three feet long!
Striped bass prefer moving water which offers them some protection as well as panfish and other food being swept along in the currents. That’s why you will often find stripers on rivers near dams where there is rushing water and a hard current. Of course, that makes it hard to control a boat, so always wear a life preserver when fishing for stripers and be sure that an experienced adult is steering your boat.
Stripers are also stocked in lakes in almost every state, as long as the lakes are deep enough to offer the fish some cool water in summer months. Striped bass are very sensitive to temperature changes, and they prefer 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
Stripers can’t breed unless they have very long rivers for the eggs to hatch in. The trouble is, a lot of our rivers have been dammed up to make reservoir lakes, and in many places there’s not a long enough stretch of open water between all the dams for the striped fish to breed. So most states have stocked the rivers with stripers or with hybrid bass -- a cross between a female striped bass and the much smaller male white bass.
The availability of cool water is a must, especially for older fish. Big stripers, particularly those weighing more than 10 pounds, are prone to suffer from heat stress, which makes them lose their appetites and get infections.
On many Southern lakes and rivers, the bait used to catch stripers is gizzard shad. But you also can have success fishing with a topwater lure, which is a one that you work along the top few inches of water. Stripers will rise up and chase a topwater lure that is splashing across the surface.
At certain times of year, you can find stripers holding deep in the water where it’s cool. If you have a fish-finder on your boat, you might see them on the screen, halfway to the bottom of a lake. At other times of year, they will be chasing schools of shad not far from the surface.
Striped bass eat any kind of small fish and a variety of shellfish. Adults prefer gizzard and threadfin shad, shiners and minnows. Younger fish prefer to feed on snails and mayflies. They move in schools, and all members of the school tend to feed at the same time.
Heaviest feeding is in early morning and in evening, but they feed a little bit every now and then throughout the day, especially when skies are overcast. Feeding slows when water temperatures drop below 50 degrees.
Fishing for stripers is not a job for ultralight tackle. Make sure you have a rod, reel and line that are up to the job of a big, heavy fighting fish.
Fishing for stripers in the ocean is a different sport altogether. If you go out after stripers in the sea, you may be using a size 6 octopus hook or a treble hook with chunks of bait on each hook; the line may be heavy wire or up to 60-pound test monofilament.
For more about striped bass, go to:
http://www.floridaconservation.org/Fishing/Fishes/stripers.html
– Gita M. Smith