How to Catch Freshwater Striped Bass (Complete Guide)

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To catch freshwater striped bass, use live bait like shad or minnows, or artificial lures such as swimbaits and jerkbaits that mimic their natural prey. Focus on fishing in deep waters, near structures, and during low light conditions like dawn and dusk for the best results.

In freshwater environments, stripers spend their year in the main body of the lake but go up into streams and inlets to spawn. These fish can reach massive size and are pound-for-pound one of the strongest fighting freshwater fish you can catch.

Table: How to Catch Freshwater Striped Bass

Technique	Bait/Lure	Location	Tips
Live Bait Fishing	Live shad, minnows	Near channels, deep holes	Use a downrigger or weighted line to keep bait at the desired depth.
Trolling	Large spoons, swimbaits	Open water, along drop-offs	Vary speed and depth to locate active fish.
Casting	Jerkbaits, topwater lures	Shallow areas, near structures	Use erratic retrieval patterns to mimic injured prey.
Jigging	Metal jigs, soft plastics	Deep water, especially over schools	Keep the jig moving to attract attention, adjusting the pace based on the fish’s activity level.
Drifting	Cut bait, live bait	Over deep holes, along current seams	Use a balloon or bobber to keep bait at the correct depth.
Surface Fishing	Poppers, topwater lures	Early morning, late evening	Cast near cover or in areas with surface activity.

How to Catch Freshwater Striped Bass

I will explain how to catch striped bass later in great detail but remember these two rules. Fish striped bass by locating schools of alewives, gizzard shad, and American eels, and run your bait right through the middle of those bait schools. Trolling, jigging, and casting will catch both hybrid stripers and freshwater striped bass.

Landlocked Striped Bass Seasonal Guide

Spring: In spring, landlocked striped bass move towards shallower waters for spawning, making them more accessible to anglers. Focus on fishing near river inlets and shallow bays using live baits like shad or artificial lures that mimic small fish. This is often considered the best season for striped bass fishing as they are more aggressive and feed actively.

Summer: During the hot summer months, striped bass tend to move to deeper, cooler waters. Use techniques like deep-water trolling or vertical jigging with spoons or deep-diving lures. Early mornings or late evenings are the best times to fish, as bass will occasionally come to shallower waters to feed.

Fall: As water temperatures drop in fall, striped bass become more active and feed heavily, preparing for winter. They can be found in a variety of depths, often chasing schools of baitfish. This is a great time for topwater lures and live bait fishing in areas with visible surface activity.

Winter: In winter, striped bass activity slows down as they seek deeper, more stable water temperatures. Fishing can be challenging, but success can be found by jigging or using live bait in deep holes or along channel edges. Patience and slow retrieval of lures are key during this season.

Sea-Run Striped Bass Seasonal Guide

Spring: During spring, sea-run striped bass move upstream into freshwater for spawning, often found in estuaries and lower sections of rivers. Target these areas with lures that mimic their natural prey, like swimbaits or soft plastics. Key spots include areas with current breaks, such as near river bends or structures.

Summer: In summer, some striped bass may remain in freshwater, especially in larger river systems. They can be found in deeper, cooler waters during the day, becoming more active in shallows during cooler mornings and evenings. Techniques like live bait fishing or using topwater and sub-surface lures can be effective.

Fall: As temperatures cool in the fall, striped bass become more active, feeding heavily in preparation for migration. They are often found in areas with abundant baitfish. Anglers should focus on using baitfish-imitating lures and live baits in these active feeding zones.

Winter: In winter, most sea-run striped bass migrate back to saltwater, but some may overwinter in deeper sections of rivers. Fishing can be challenging due to their reduced activity. For those that remain, focus on deep holes and slow-moving water using slower fishing methods with jigs or baitfish-imitating lures.

Locating Landlocked Stripers

1. Lakes & Reservoirs

During summer, look for raised humps of shallow water surrounded by deep water. At night during May and June, listen for the sound of explosive feeding action associated with nighttime spawning of alewives and gizzard shad. These will almost always occur on defined points over fairly deep water.

Springtime, you can find stripers up in inlets and tributaries. You’d be very surprised how many large fish you’ll find in very small water.

2. Rivers

Rivers are great locations to find striped bass most of the year. You’ll find them patrolling medium-to-deep water along the edge of channels and bends.

They will even follow bait schools into very shallow water less than 3 feet deep. Locate schools of bait and you’ll likely find some stripers following nearby.

In big water like St. Lawrence and Delaware Rivers, American eels are a favorite food source. These stripers can be tougher to locate in bigger water but are usually bigger and just as aggressive.

Day

There are various tactics that are effective during the day. I will cover 3 that are proven effective in most waterways.

From Shore

This works best on small rivers and inlet creeks where stripers congregate during the early spring chasing baitfish who are in-turn following the first warm water to hit a water system.

Big fish can pool into small water now. You’ll likely be fishing in water you can cast a bait almost all the way clear across. Focus on using spoons, plugs, and even soft plastics.

Cast as far as you can and reel the bait in slowly. If the current is strong, you may need to reel faster to compensate. I think until you get your first strike, to cast at 45-degree angles to locate fish instead of casting straight out.

Doing this will enable your bait to remain at various depths a little long thus giving you a better chance of determining how far from shore the stripers are patrolling.

Use heavy gear as not only could you end up fighting a 30+ pound monster, but you may have to contend with a strong current as well.

“Jigging”

I put jigging in quotations because what I’m going to recommend isn’t what you’re typically used to in terms of jigging. Most fishermen think of jigging as dropping a heavy bait down to depth and lifting the rod up fast, letting the bait then fall before lifting it again.

This method is like that but crazier. You’re going to need an electronic fishfinder here. Locate a large school of shad or alewives on your screen.

You should be able to make out big shadows amongst the school. These are striped bass swimming through the bait.

Figure out what depth the bottom of the school is at and using a reel-mounted line counter, drop your spoon or jig about 10 feet beneath the bottom of the school.

Here’s where the fun begins. Instead of jigging as we normally know it, reel the bait up as fast as you can to about 20 feet beneath the surface. Then open your spool and return the bait back down to beneath the school.

Repeat this process until you get a strike. Stripers will key in your bait as it looks like a shad or alewife that is panicked and going rogue away from the main body of the school.

Most of your bites will occur on the reel up so be prepared for an explosion of action as you reel. Hold on tight as these are big fish you’re dealing with and they have the power to match.

Trolling with Planar Boards

This technique is very effective on a river or lake. You’ll be trolling large baits through strike zones.

Rivers & Lakes

In rivers, you could be trolling your bait over water as shallow as 2 feet deep. Use planar boards to carry your bait out wide from the boat. Focus on staggering your rods at different angles and distances so they fish roughly 30+ feet apart from each other.

I recommend trolling medium-sized lures that mimic alewives, herring, or shad in smaller rivers. In major tributaries like the Delaware River, try to mimic American eels which stripers love eating.

To do this, use soft plastic eel baits and even jointed big minnow baits can give off this impression as well.

Locate humps in the main body of the lake where the water can be as shallow as a few feet surrounded by deep drop-offs to deep water around it.

Stripers will congregate in the deepwater alongside these humps. Troll your shad baits along these raised areas using either planar boards to carry your baits out wide or just straight back behind the boat.

Watch your depth and fishfinder closely. Not only will you spot big stripers as you drive along but it can also prevent you from running a ground on the shallow hump if you aren’t careful.

This is the best lure for hot topwater action during the time when stripers are busting up shad, alewives, and other baitfish on the surface. The most exciting way to catch stripers and this lure delivers.

For a complete guide to how water temperature impacts striped bass fishing, check out this helpful article I wrote. To learn the best water temperature for striped bass fishing, check out this helpful article.

To learn the best time of day to catch striped bass, this helpful article I wrote is just what you need.

Nighttime Striper Fishing

You can probably do well fishing freshwater stripers year-round at night but there’s no better or more exhilarating time of the year for night fishing than during May and June.

It is during this time alewives and gizzard shad will rise up to the surface in pairs nightly to spawn. Striped bass are very light shy so they’ll prefer the complete darkness of a new moon over the well-lit evenings associated with full moons.

Alewives will spawn on defined points near bays over deeper water. Gizzard shad will also spawn on points but they’ll be in shallower water closer to shore.

You can move closer to these hot spots but if you really want confirmation of where you need to fish, just listen for the explosions of bass striking these mating pairs on the surface.

You’ll be able to hear them clear across the lake on really calm nights. The sound has been described as someone throwing a brick off a bridge into water. The sound will make a very loud “dooooosh” sound.

Hybrid striped bass are especially aggressive in their feeding. Striped bass are slightly less so, but still very decisive in their attacks.

To fish these events, throw topwater swimbaits that look like shad or alewives right into the middle of the action. You want to reel the bait in very slowly through the commotion and produce the tiniest of wakes on the front of the bait.

Funny enough, alewives will often try to spawn with your lure. This will lead to you snagging a couple on accident. When you pull in your bait and see the attached alewife, note the size of the fish and match your bait size accordingly.

Alewives especially will circle in pairs at the surface and striped bass will key in on this circling behavior. Striped bass are easier to catch at the beginning of the alewife spawn as they aren’t so dialed in on this circling behavior yet.

This means you retrieving a bait slowly in a straight line will draw aggressive strikes. Later, as the season progresses, it will get to the point where striped bass will only hit baits that present that circling motion at the surface.

This can be very hard to recreate on your own. You can still get bites but you’ll have to be a lot more patient later in the season. There will be explosions all-around your bait and it will be very exciting but they may not hit your lure at all.

The prime window to be on the water is from 10pm-4am. Many striped bass fishermen though say the hottest action hours are from 11-2. This is when the evening spawn is at its peak and the striped bass are most dialed in.

Like I said earlier, stripers are very light-shy. One dark nights, they’ll be right at the surface aggressively striking food. On brighter nights, they’ll still be hunting but they’ll be down a little deeper. On these nights, toss lures that will sink down 2-6 feet deep.

You may also find these spawn sites much tougher to find on well-lit nights since those tell-tale explosions won’t be occurring at the surface. Again focus on defined points and don’t be afraid to move if you aren’t seeing bites.

Striped bass prefer defined points with steep drops in water depth. The last thing I’ll reiterate on this topic is to remember striped bass are very light shy at night. This means keeping your artificial light to a bare minimum.

Don’t use flashlights, headlamps, and boat lights to illuminate an area. I’ve read reports from anglers who turned on a boat light for a second to untangle his line and all the explosions at the surface stopped, only to start up again minutes later 100 yards away.

Be mindful of this and be patient. Don’t let the excitement and emotions of the action dictate how you fish. Make sure you reel that bait in very slowly and keep that wake small.

Flyfishing

You can certainly catch striped bass and hybrid stripers on the fly. For summer night fishing, replace a plug with a big stream or large dry fly. The only downside to this technique is you’ll be casting a fly in the dark which can be tricky.

You can also cast along raised humps during the summer and cast into rivers and tributaries during the spring and fall with a big streamer. I believe they even make eel flies which you can use to target river stripers.

Winter flyfishing is tough but doable if you’re on a river that doesn’t get ice.

Seasonal Considerations for Freshwater Striper Fishing

Winter

If you are on a lake that freezes over, you can catch hybrid striped bass ice fishing. Look for areas of deep water near a raised hump.

Jig dead shad, spoons, and jigs here. If your state allows, you can rig tip-ups with live bait to include gizzard shad, threadfin shad, and alewives.

Spread out your tip-ups over different depths. May sure to keep your bait off the bottom as stripers rarely hunt down there.

If fishing in the south or on a river, go deeper by trolling or jigging. Big stripers follow the schools of bait all year long. This does not stop in the winter. Locate the schools and you’ll locate the predators.

Spring

Fish early-to-mid spring in the tributaries, shallow bays, and creeks feeding into a lake. This is where the baitfish will go in search of the warmest water.

Trolling is your best option in this small confined areas. That said, casting at 45-degree angles from shore can yield amazing results for hybrid stripers and freshwater striped bass alike.

Summer

You can fish stripers in the summer but the easiest way to locate and catch them is at night. Focus on dark, small moon nights in late May and June.

Spawning alewives and gizzard shad will draw striped bass to the surface in a frenzy. I covered this in great detail earlier in this article but it deserves more coverage.

Fall

You can catch striped bass and hybrid stripers all fall long but I’ve learned the best time to fish for fall fish is in November along deep channels.

Now the deepest channels are where the warmest water in a lake is and that’s where the great schools of bait will congregate.

You will have a very hard time fishing now without electronics. Fishing from shore on a lake is impossible. But you can still catch some stripers in rivers if you pick the right spot.

Best Time of Day for Striped Bass

The best time of day for striped bass is nighttime during the summer. This coincides with the annual alewife and shad spawns.

Each night during May and June in many reservoirs, these baitfish come up to the surface to spawn in pairs. It is at this moment they are the most vulnerable to attack.

Freshwater striped bass nail these fish when they are at the surface. You can hear the explosions of freshwater striped bass and hybrid stripers clear across the lake on a calm night.

This is the best single time of the year to fish for freshwater striped bass. That said, you can catch striped bass very well during the day in late fall, winter, and early spring when the water is cold.

But for sheer action and intensity, nothing beats the summertime night fishing associated with the spawn of their primary food sources.

Best Bait for Freshwater Striped Bass

The best bait for striped bass in freshwater varies depending on the angler’s preference and the season. Popular options include live bait such as shad, herring, or eels, as well as artificial lures like swimbaits, jigs, or crankbaits. Experimenting with different bait types and techniques can help identify what works best in specific conditions.

Table: Best Freshwater Striped Bass Baits

Bait Type	Exact Size	Colors	Applications
Live Shad	4-6 inches	Natural	Trolling, drifting in deep waters and channels.
Minnows	4-5 inches	Natural	Casting near structures, shallow trolling.
Jerkbaits	4-6 inches	Shad patterns, Silver/Blue	Casting in shallow waters, near structures.
Swimbaits	5-8 inches	Shad, Trout, Natural shades	Slow retrieval in deep waters, near drop-offs.
Topwater Lures	4-7 inches	White, Silver, Poppers	Surface fishing during dawn and dusk.
Spoons	4-6 inches	Silver, Gold, Flashy colors	Jigging in deep water, especially near schools.
Jigs	1/2 – 3/4 ounce	White, Chartreuse	Bouncing off the bottom, near structures.
Soft Plastics	4-7 inches	White, Natural, Shad colors	Texas or Carolina rigging near cover or ledges.

Natural Baits

1. Alewives

This is one of the best baits for big striped bass and hybrids. If you can net a bunch of these, fish them near existing schools of alewives in the summertime.

Hook them through the lips for the best action. You can troll them behind a planar board, drift fish with them, or cast them into spawning schools of alewives during the nights in May and June.

2. Gizzard Shad

Gizzard shad are excellent striper baits. Perhaps second only to alewives, these are tremendous summer baits once netted.

Fish them exactly as I laid forth above in the alewife section.

3. Threadfin Shad

Threadfin shad are not as popular a bait for big stripers are gizzard shad and alewives but they can be just as effective. Fish these bait near raised humps in the summer or even dead jigging through the ice in the winter.

4. American Eels

There is perhaps no better for big river Stripers than American eels fresh from the ocean. You can troll alive or dead eels behind planar boats for excellent action.

These are very big baits but huge stripers devour them. Make sure you hook them through the lips so they can swim naturally.

Related Questions

How to catch striped bass in rivers.

To catch striped bass in rivers, anglers should use live bait such as eels, herring, or shad. Casting lures like swimbaits, jigs, or spoons near structure like bridge pilings or submerged rocks can also be effective. Successful strategies include fishing during low-light periods, targeting tidal currents, and using stealthy approaches to avoid spooking the fish.

How to catch striped bass in lakes.

To catch striped bass in lakes, start by locating their feeding grounds near structure like points, drop-offs, or submerged islands. Use bait such as live shad, herring, or shiners, or artificial lures like crankbaits, jigs, or swimbaits. Experiment with different depths and retrieve speeds to find what works best.

Best United States Freshwater Striped Bass Waterways

Just my opinion, but I think Raystown Lake (PA), Lake Lanier (GA), and the Delaware River are the best 3 options. The St. Lawrence River is also a big destination.

How to catch freshwater striped bass from shore.

To catch freshwater striped bass from shore, focus on areas where baitfish are likely to congregate, such as near river mouths, points, and rocky shorelines. Use lures that mimic small fish, like swimbaits, crankbaits, or spoons, casting them out and retrieving with varying speeds to mimic injured or fleeing prey. Early morning and late evening, when striped bass are more active and feeding closer to shore, are typically the most productive times.

What do freshwater striped bass eat?

Striped bass in freshwater environments primarily feed on smaller fish species, such as shad, herring, and sunfish. They also consume crustaceans and insects, including crayfish and crabs. Their diet can vary depending on the availability of prey in the specific freshwater habitat.

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Here is a complete breakdown of the best weather to catch striped bass.