Trolling for Striped Bass

There are a few important differences concerning trolling for striped bass in the dark instead of trolling for striped bass during daylight. Remember that what’s listed below are only generalities-there usually are a lot of exceptions regarding these “rules.”

Typically, I’ve discovered that bass are nearer to the ocean’s surface during the night.

In darkness I find myself trolling for striped bass with 3 colors in locations where  I typically troll half a dozen colors during the day. Even if the striped bass are not in the hunting mood, they appear to hold nearer to the ocean’s surface once it becomes dark. Finding striped bass holding at 10-20 ft . deep is more frequent during the night-compared to marking striped bass at 25-40 feet-at least within the areas I typically fish.

Over the past few seasons we have had numerous nights when large schools of 20 plus pound striped bass held only a few feet beneath the surface.  Under bright moonlight, we could actually see these enormous stripers swirling on top.  This type of behavior happened at times in water as deep as 70 feet.  Needless to say only a few colors of leadcore line is required when trolling for striped bass during these situations.

I have also noticed that most bass in a general area like to travel in the same direction.  If one school of bass is identified as moving in a westward direction, then odds are other schools of stripers in the vicinity are also traveling in that general direction.

This past season it wasn’t uncommon for us to discover numerous schools of striped bass within twenty-five feet of water right before sun set. Usually all of these schools of striped bass would abandon the 25 foot contour and head towards deeper water.  Amazingly this transition would typically occur for all fish at the same time.

While it became darker, each one of these schools of bass would slowly head towards deeper water. By 11PM the majority of the striped bass in the region would be located holding in 60-70 feet of H2O. These fish would enjoy the rest of the evening residing in deeper water in a relatively non-active state, then slowly and gradually trudge back closer to the shoreline as soon as the sun rose.

Naturally these tendencies can change rapidly and become completely different. If a number of particular weather conditions develop these stripers’ habits could be played out in reverse.

One example is this past fall, when the wind blew strong off the ocean, the stripers would push up tight towards the beach in less than 10 ft of water as night time developed-as opposed to going out to deeper water. Then the next night, when the breeze changed, the stripers would revert back to their former routines.

How bass conduct themselves within the areas you fish could differ appreciably compared to the ways in which bass act where I fish. The critical idea to know is that it is often feasible to map out a pattern of bass habits in your area that will help you find and remain with big schools of fish as the evening advances.

Being able to stick with the striped bass biomass can most certainly help you put more big fish in the boat when trolling for striped bass.

Captain Ryan Collins is a charter and commercial striped bass captain from Cape Cod, MA.  His fishing blog, myfishingcapecod.com, is geared towards helping novice and veteran fishermen catch more and bigger fish when trolling for striped bass.

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