Tips on Fishing for Saltwater Bass

Location

The largest population of striped bass is on the East Coast, where they spend most of their lives within three miles of land. Their range commonly extends from Maine to North Carolina, and the primary spawning area is Chesapeake Bay, with other contributions to the population coming from the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. The 2006 striped bass stock assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission estimated a population of 56 million fish.

In 1879, 132 fingerling striped bass were taken from the Navesink River in New Jersey, placed in milk jugs and loaded on a train to California. Those 132 transplanted stripers were reinforced three years later with an additional 300 fingerlings. The young stripers flourished in the San-Joaquin Sacramento Delta. An even more ambitious stocking effort took place in the 1960s and striped bass were firmly established.

Unfortunately, West Coast bass face some serious challenges. Rivers the bass rely on for spawning are often diverted to irrigate crops. Additionally, California's Dept. of Fish and Game view stripers as an invasive species that is a threat to their natural salmon population. As a result, the state has removed their support of programs designed to support the striped bass population. The state's 2008 striped bass population estimate is fewer than 1 million fish.

Regardless of which coast you are on, when it comes to location, stripers are attracted to structure. Whether it's an inlet, rock jetty, or a set of old pilings from a pier, striped bass use structure to conceal themselves and ambush their prey.

Best Time to Go

You can catch striped bass during the day, but they are most active at night. The twilight of sunrise and sunset triggers the most aggressive feeding response.

What Season is Best?

The answer to this question depends on where along the coast you plan to fish. Striped bass winter along the southern half of their range, spending most of the time several miles off the coast. When spring arrives, the bass move inshore to spawn in estuaries and bays. December to April will provide the best opportunity if you are fishing anywhere from southern New Jersey to North Carolina.

If you plan to fish in the northern half of the striper's range, your best opportunities will be from mid-April to early December. Striped bass prefer water that is 55 to 68 degrees, making July and August particularly slow for striped bass fishing. The months of May, June, September, October and November are known to produce the most spectacular bass fishing.

Top Bait or Lure

The key to attracting striped bass is finding what the fish are eating, and then using that for bait, or finding a lure that duplicates the behavior of the forage fish. Popular baits for striped bass include menhaden, sandworms, clams and eels. Lures that consistently catch stripers include bucktails, poppers, swimming plugs and metal jigs.