The News Outside

My friend and I have just started fishin for hybrid stripers this year pretty hard. We really have not done to bad, we are mostly trolling for them and not doing to bad, and actually caught quite a few crappie fishing with minnows this years. Any advice from trolling to fishing with bait would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve fished for hybrids and pure striped bass down in Tennessee but never around here. We’ve had good results dragging shad/bluegills around with rods setting inside rod holders using the trolling motor. We also caught them with bright jigs tipped with crawlers or leeches and swimming them. I’d like to try an Alabama rig for them since they have a tendency to pound schools of bait fish.

The advice I could give you is going to depend upon the body of water you are fishing. Is there a good shad population? If so I would throw a lot of 3 and 4” shad body plastics on jigs. Troll that california rig? Have used from 1/4oz up 1 oz jigs depending upon the condition . Another thing I have found is that the hybrids love crawdads or crayfish depending upon where you are from…. I normally keep a surface plug (rattlin chug bug, zara sppok, jumpin minnow) tied on one rod in case they happen to bust the surface in the area white or firetiger seem to be the prefered colors. Nothing like catching these beast on a surface plug. Early morning or evening is the general rule for the surface but I have also been blessed in the middle of a summer day when they start busting shad on the surface. I have caught a number of these fish on 1/4oz white rooster tails as well. Have witnessed and after witnessing a number of the hybrids fall prey to chicken liver believe it or not. Now for a real good time John from the smallmouth camp sells some flies that these critters can’t seem to avoid attacking. If fly fishing isn’t your thing use a spinging rig with a casting bubble and about a 3 - 4’ leader. I have caught them on this fly when they seem to have lock jaw. If you find them trolling I would stop and cast for them where there is one hybrid typically there seem to be more. I think they act more like the whites than the pure striper. One moring I was told they aren’t hitting. I watch and looked and saw about a 3” shad moving with the current barely swimming just going with the current. I tied on a 3” shad on 1/4” jig letting it go with the current keeping the slack line out. I caught 27 in about 4 hours. These fish ranged from 5lbs to 12 lbs what a glorious morning that was. Everyone was chucking shad bodies but were using 3/8 to 1/2 jigs retreiving way to fast and wondering why they weren’t catching anything. Like most predators I think they are going to hit something that appears like what they are naturally feeding on. Rattle traps have produced a good number of these as well for me. I haven’t seen another species of fish that brings the excitement this one will. GOOD LUCK!

should have been Alabama rig not cali rig like the previous poster mentioned. Wow waking up is a process and forgive the other typos….

We fish Otter Lake the most, but Sangchris is real close also and these two went back and forth there for while on the state record, Lake Jacksonville is reported to have a lot of stripers from the 8-15 lb. range and they are hardly fished for there. All these lakes are with in 25-35 minutes from us. We have heard and read where chicken livers are good, there is guy that fishes the pipe that seperates the north and south part of Otter and catches them a lot on livers. We have been catching them on crank baits running from 5-9 ft. he has 18 ft G3 with a 25 hp motor and we have been trolling at just above idle as slow as we can go. If using shad, would you use a sliding bobber when you find them or would you say go to the bottom? Do they tend to come closer to the surfice the warmer it gets in the year or are they shallow in the morning and evenings and go deeper in the summer during the day. We have noticed getting more hits when finding schools of bait fish when trolling so you are saying to stop and start casting just like you would for white bass if I get it correct what you stated above. We also noticed more hits off of points also. we have noticed a lot of the white bass traits in them, my buddy thought he had a bigger one on the other day, but caught two that were about 1 1/2 lbs. each at the same time on the same crank bait. We think these are great tasting fish but at what size would you say to start throwing them back that they start getting a strong taste to them? Has anybody tried brining and smoking them? Thnaks in advance of any and all tips.

I would definetly follow the bait fish. WHen you do hook 1 trolling I would stop and try both. One under a slip bobber where depth changes can be made easily and one on bottom to find out what works. I typically have found I can throw plastic and catch the hybrids on most days as well as with shad. I start by burning it under the surface and working my way down. I do think especially wind blown points are the key. But you have a good idea already where there are baitfish there will be hybrids.

Throwing plastic! Texas rig? Recommended plastic? Brand?

I put a 3” most of the time sassy shad on (white) or a 3” twister tail(white) on a lead head jig. !/4oz all the way up to 1oz depending on the circumstances and what I am doing. If and when hybrids are hugging the bottom carolina rig a super fluke in yes WHITE. On occasion I have thrown other colors but by far white dominates the waters I fish. on producing strikes. The strikes are usually so violent they set the hook themselves and are pulling drag soon there after. Berlin all I can do is tell you what has produced fish for me and there is no other fish I would rather pursue than the hybrid. I have found joy again in catching others but this fish species had me uh strung out for a while…lol

I can see what little fishing we have done for them how it can become a hard core passion, but I just enjoy fishing of all kinds. And as good as these are to eat I don’t see myself giving up crappie, gills etc. ect. Just last week over at Otter we trolled for them first, then crappie fished for a while, trolled again for hybrids then catfished for a hour or so before going home. Now we figured when trolling for them setting the hook was probably not needed after trolling for salmon up north, with these fish being big and strong and hitting the way they do. Now using live bait for us might be a little different on setting the hook though, old habits are hard to break.  Looks like I will be buying some new plastics soon (white, I get it) and some bigger jig heads. We are going in the morning to give a go at it again. Thanks again for the info and anybody else has opinions please give them.

  Oh I forgot something, as far as eating I agree I think they are great eating fish. I do not believe the size matters either as long as you cut out the red meat in the center of the filet or the meat that is close to the skin that is red.