Striped Bass

Range: the Atlantic coast from the St. Lawrence River in Canada to Florida, most common from Maine to North Carolina, and the Gulf coast from Florida to Louisiana. Striped bass have also been stocked in inland lakes and reservoirs and on the West Coast, where they now range from Mexico to British Columbia.

Habitat: striped bass use a wide range of water: sandy beaches, rocky shorelines, inlets, bays, estuaries, deep rips and tidal rivers. They ambush prey from cover such as jetties, boulders, rocky points and piers, and they gather along sharp changes in depth like channel edges and sandbars off the beach.

Seasonal movements: striped bass are anadromous. Mature fish run up fresh or brackish rivers to spawn in spring, and then many return to the coast. The big migratory stock moves north along the coast in spring, spends summer in cooler northern water, heads south in fall and winters off the mid-Atlantic. Along the way, fish crowd into creeks, estuaries and tidal rivers early in spring, then spread along the beaches as the season goes on. Other stripers stay in their home rivers and estuaries all year.

Timing

Stripers are most active in low light and at night. In summer, fish after dark and at sunrise and sunset. During the spring and fall migrations they feed longer into the day, and schools of bass driving bait to the surface create "blitzes" when almost any lure gets hit. They feed more while the tide is moving than at slack tide. On an outgoing tide they often gather at inlets and river mouths to pick off bait flushed out by the current; on an incoming tide they move into bays and onto flats. Many anglers find the days around the new and full moons, with their stronger currents, the most productive.

Lures

• Swimming plugs: darters, bottle plugs, metal-lip swimmers and minnow plugs, cast and retrieved from the surf or a boat.
• Topwater: pencil poppers, bottle-neck poppers and walk-the-dog plugs for fish feeding near the surface.
• Bucktails and jigs: one of the oldest and still most effective striper lures, cast or jigged vertically when bass are near the bottom.
• Soft plastics: soft-plastic eels and shads, which many anglers find as effective as live bait.

Bait

Live eels are a top bait from shore or boat. Menhaden (bunker) is the most popular live bait from boats, and fresh cut bunker works from the beach. Clams and sea worms are dependable shore baits, and sand fleas work in the surf in summer. Drifting a three-way rig with bait near the bottom, or chumming, draws fish to the boat. On the Atlantic coast, you must use inline circle hooks with bait.

Trolling

Trolling covers water when bass are spread out or moving fast. Deep-diving swimming plugs, bunker spoons, tube-and-worm rigs and mojo rigs all catch bass; spoons and tube-and-worm rigs need specialized wire or leadcore line.

• Back bays and shallow water: a 7- to 8-foot inshore spinning rod with a 3000- or 4000-size reel and 10- to 20-pound braided line, or a 7- to 9-weight fly rod.
• Surf and jetties: a surf rod of 8 to 12 feet with a 4000- to 14000-size reel and 20- to 65-pound line, heavier around rocks. Surfcasters favor reels built to survive splashing and dunking.
• Boat casting and jigging: a 7- to 7½-foot spinning rod rated for 1- to 4-ounce lures.
• Trolling and live bait: a stout conventional rod of 6½ to 7½ feet rated for 20- to 40-pound line.

Striped bass are closely managed. Federal waters are closed, and states set size limits, bag limits and seasons that change often, so check your state's current rules before you keep a fish.