Striped Bass Gear and “Tactics”

[Zach Matthews]

Hey guys –

I just wanted to share my evaluation of some of the striped bass gear I’ve been using, with the pluses and minuses of each.  Rod weight and line type are both pretty critical, and I think the kind of line you’re using has more impact in this sort of fishing than in any other I’ve done.

My main rod for stripers in rivers has been a Scott S4s 10 weight with one of Scientific Angler’s Mastery Streamer Express Clear Tip lines and a heavy duty Nautilus NV reel (9/10 I think).  This is my favorite system for fishing medium-depth rivers like we have around North Georgia and Eastern Alabama.

The advantage of the ten weight is the ability to whip fish quickly and also present a heavy fly all day.  It also becomes a serious advantage when you’re standing in a canoe, because you can safely use the canoe itself as additional drag without fearing that you’re going to shear the rod off at the butt. (Yes, I am talking about Nantucket Sleigh Rides–any fish over 10 lbs. will pull you around faster than a trolling motor).  The Streamer Express Clear tip is basically an integrated shooting head; I can crush a cast with this even standing in my canoe and it picks up easily when not fully retrieved for a quick cast if they start busting bait.

My second system is similar to the first; it’s an 8 weight (either old Scott Heliply or an S4s), also with a Nautilus reel.  I’ve been using the Mastery Streamer Express Wet Tip (I am providing links because SA has like 9 million lines for sale).  This one is great when you’re primarily going to be pounding on deeper pools, because the Type 5 head will go ahead and get down.  I’m not as happy with it for general hole-to-hole fishing because it has a greater tendency to snag.  I also just feel like it is not as massy as the INT lines and doesn’t do as good a job of turning over (it is still more than adequate, I think I just like the INT lines better).

Lastly, I’ve also been swinging my spey rods for these fish.  I nearly got burnt to pieces by a relatively small fish last summer on my CND Expert 13′ 6/7 and a Rio Skagit floating line, so this year I swapped over to a Scott T2h 13’6″ 7 weight and an SA Skagit Extreme with an integrated sinktip (a good deal price wise as Spey lines go).  The only problem is, I don’t think the 7 weight is quite enough rod to pluck these nasty striper flies off the water.  I’m a mediocre spey caster so my casting is definitely partly to blame, but I really feel like a 9 or 10 weight spey rod would make what I am laboring to do a real breeze.  When I catch a good cast I can ping the backing knot on the 110′ Skagit Extreme line, but more often than not I am stuck around 70-80 feet, which I can just as easily do with a one-hander.  That being said, I feel like Spey has huge potential to open up lots of new water for stripers, since you can reach areas stealthily on foot without needing to approach in a boat.

In my experience, most stripers will eat on the first cast if you can locate them.  When I’ve been able to sight fish to them, that has been the case.   When they are busting bait on top, a moment that typically lasts only seconds, that has also been the case.  I’m real satisfied with my tactics currently, but as any experienced striper fisherman can tell you, it’s a real waiting game in a lot of ways and you need to spend a lot of time on the water to identify when and where things are going to happen.  Knowing a river is more critical by far than your “tactics,” and I am only now getting to be about 40-50% where I want to be on the water I am fishing most.

Ideally I’d like to be taking my fishing into the full dark hours, but logistically that’s pretty difficult when you’re also running your own shuttles and some of the put ins have gates that get closed at dark.  I definitely see the most activity in the hour before sunset and I imagine that continues after the sun is on down.  

Rigging for these guys is mostly straight 30# Ande monofilament knotted to 20# with a double uni knot.  I can’t remember the name right now.  No-slip mono loop for the flies, which are all baitfish imitations.

Here are some shots from my season so far:

(Lauren has caught some substantially bigger fish, but bikini pics are banned from the board. :))

This one was yesterday:

Zach

[wraysinclair]

good read. learned some stuff….

[Mike Lewis]

That’s pretty much what I’ve gathered too Zach.

Can you tell me more of this fly this fly:

I’ve tried a ton of patterns, and mostly been successful with my version of the Clouser Deep Minnow in standard colors.

For gear, I use a 9 wt. RPLXi with a low end Lamson and Rio outbound Short (clear tip). This set-up is not perfectly matched, the front end of the reel seat could be a little tighter in the rod (left to right). Casts pretty well with small or large flies though with limited or no flase casting.

Then about 4-5 feet of 17 pound floro. Non-slip mono loop. Never had one break me off on this line, but my bigger fish have come in years past on spinning gear.

As for darker hours, you got to figure out which gates don’t get closed, and maybe a friend with some river access……

[Zach Matthews]

That’s a Major Mullet; you can get them at Cohutta Fishing Co. up in Cartersville or maybe at the Fish Hawk if they haven’t hidden them. 🙂

[andrew stoehr]

Ideally I’d like to be taking my fishing into the full dark hours…  I definitely see the most activity in the hour before sunset and I imagine that continues after the sun is on down.  

Zach

I don’t know if these freshwater fish are different, but I’d assume not…in which case, I suspect you’re right.

[Mike Lewis]

Totally jinxed myself on the never break off comment (should have said somewhat rarely). I got into three of them last night. Should have retied my knot, but no, got popped off by the third. Tried to use a reasonably close facsimile of your fly, seemed pretty hot. Thanks for the tip.

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