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Fish Profile - Striped Bass |
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Striped Bass- Seven or eight black stripes, dark back, almost black with silvery sides and white belly. Produced in hatcheries. Tips: Jigs and crank baits, live shad, and cut bait. Trolling, cast to schooling fish. Striped bass are very important sport and commercial fish in the United States. Their speed, power, and large size makes them one of the most exciting sportfish. Known as an accessible giant, striped bass in the 50+ pound range are taken every year. Striped bass are easily distinguished by the seven to nine dark horizontal lines found along their sides, two to three of which extend from the head to the base of the tail. Unlike white bass or white perch, stripers have a streamlined body shape, with the depth of the body generally less than the head length. In addition, striped bass have two patches of teeth on the tongue. Striped bass are found in both fresh and saltwater. They generally occur around rocks and wrecks in nearshore waters, rivers and large reservoirs. Striped bass are found along the Atlantic Coast from the St. Lawrence River in Canada to the St. Johns River in Florida. Stripers are migratory fish. In the ocean, they move north in the summer and south in the fall and winter. Striped bass found along the mid-Atlantic coast are produced in the Hudson and Delaware rivers, the Chesapeake Bay system, and the Roanoke River. Hudson River striped bass are most commonly found between New Jersey and Cape Cod. However, they can travel as far away as North Carolina and Nova Scotia. Striped bass vary considerably in size, ranging from 18 to 55 inches in length and three to 70 pounds in weight. They are slow to mature and are long lived. Smaller striped bass in the ten to 20 pound range generally travel in large schools. Older and larger fish are usually in small "pods" of only a few fish. Adult striped bass are voracious feeders, primarily eating fish and invertebrates, especially crabs and squid. As the water warms up (above 56 degrees Fahrenheit), trolling with lures such as jointed plugs or bait is the most effective method for catching stripers. Although boat fishing provides the best catches, shore anglers also take their share of fish. Jigs and plugs retrieved on a fast cast may catch a striper warming itself in shallow water areas during high tides. In saltwater, boat anglers catch the most stripers by trolling or controlled drifting using large plugs or spoons or fresh cut bait or eels. For surf fishing, casting plugs, spoons or jigs may produce good catches. Surf casters should fish on a moving tide.
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