How-To — Striped Bass

Jetties are serious producers. Although they can be fished around the clock, they often produce best at night. The best jetties offer some sort of rip line and give you access to get behind some sand bars.  Approach: Fish swinging and fan casting are great methods for targeting surf, including sand bars and rips. Sometimes, jetties will help when casting heavy lures to reach fish "way out there," but never forget to fish the water close to and on both sides of a jetty. Fish often hang closer to structure, such as jetties, than people realize.   "If I Had Just...

Open Beach: There is often more than meets the eye at an open beach. Structure-wise, you have gradual drop-offs, fast drop-offs, sand bars, deep troughs, rocks and boulders.  Approach: Work the system at hand. Bounce along the bottom, fish along the top. Tide: Varies by structure.  "IF I JUST HAD ONE" with SHELL E. CARISLOCATION: New JerseyTARGETED SPECIES: Striped BassLURE: Slow Tail SeriesCOLOR: Bone "This lure has tremendous action. It casts great and I have been fishing for over 60-years in the surf and the way it swims in shallow water (2 to 7-feet) is unbeatable." "It tracks incredibly well because of its weight....

SHORELINE RIP Shoreline rips that occur around structure such as points are often great spots to find big fish on light tackle close to the beach. The best shoreline rips have some sort of mix or combination of deep areas, including holes; drop offs, rocks, boulders and deep basins.  Moving water means confused bait so blind casting in an organized manner is the ticket. Approach: Fan cast and fish the swing through a 45-degree strike zone.  Tide: Peak 45 minutes of movement is best. Often one tide lays up better than the other.   "If I Had Just One" with Capt....

Anglers are much more tightly lipped about their shore fishing than boat fishing and consequently, getting good shore fishing reports is difficult. I don’t even bother asking around when shore fishing; rather, I just run the playbook based on the conditions and season. WIND In a perfect world, an onshore wind is best for bringing fish close to the beach or shore. The only problem with an onshore wind is that it impedes your ability to cast lighter lures. As a rule of thumb, I especially appreciate an onshore wind in the night or very early morning when targeting big...

Developing a Strategy: The first step in developing your strategy is to fully understand the structure (or lack thereof) that you are casting to.  Open Water: “Open Water” is a pretty generic term and represents AT-LEAST 80% of targeting stripers by boat; to me, casting in open water means any situation where you are targeting/searching for fish that are not holding in physical structure such as rocky shorelines, jetties, or weed lines. Unlike rips, current seams, or other water “structure,” open water doesn’t necessarily provide highly visible and obvious places to fish. In open water, you might be blind casting or sight...