What approach to take when forage and fish migrations don’t coincide.
With so many incredible starts to striper season in the past decade, angler anticipation is high come April as boaters and surfcasters alike set lines across the region. Typically, the fishing continues to ramp up each week as the angle of the sun gradually warms the waters and each new and full moon drive the migration up from the south and stimulate local populations of bass.
Likewise, the most important forage fish, menhaden and herring, invade the estuaries and nearshore waters. Striped bass chase the protein-rich schools in order to fatten up after a long winter. Females that have eaten more are usually in better health and best prepared to spawn. Anglers know that when they find bunker and herring coinciding with the striper migration, the opportunity for a robust outing exists.
But what about when the bait isn’t present when and where it should be each step of the way? Striped bass have certainly prowled waters that are seemingly devoid of the finest of forage; but how does the angler adapt tactics to overcome a particularly tough stretch when the bait just isn’t around?
It’s important to recognize and emphasize that anglers may encounter different “groups” of striped bass every spring, some which have wintered over locally in New Jersey waters, and those more traditional migratory stripers which traveled south during the winter months. Our first fish of the year in the Northeast often range from very small and young fish to those of keeper class proportions and sometimes larger; typically, these holdover stripers find deep holes within rivers to overwinter.
The white perch crowd frequently catch and release this segment of fish as an unintentional bycatch in January and February, until they’re targeted during the month of March. These bass often have a different, golden hue to them and lack the iridescent purple that fresh-from-the ocean fish boast. The other more prominent batch of bass are those silvery ocean fish which may winter offshore along the DELMARVA coast, returning to the Delaware, Raritan and Hudson to spawn. Since nothing is an absolute in nature, there are years when the larger schools of these fish can arrive two to three weeks earlier or two to three weeks later than predicted. One can only surmise the exact reasons, but the standard, driving forces are usually at play (water temps, moon phases, forage presence).
There are times that stripers are prowling the waters when the menhaden and herring are not yet present. Each of these bait species has its own migratory timetable and occasionally they are not in lock step. Again, nature does as it pleases and our beloved striped bass sometimes arrive on the grounds with a lackluster amount fish forage to eat. Raritan Bay anglers faced a little bit of this in the spring of 2024 when fishing did not kick in high gear until the bait showed up in more massive numbers a couple weeks into April. Then of course the nonstop rains that came later in the spring seemed to affect the salinity of local waters, thereby impacting the bunker numbers.
Suffice to say, as bait goes, so does the striped bass.
Bloods & Sands
The two main species of worm that fishermen can employ for the best success are bloodworms and sandworms. Both point to a striper’s ability to hunt what is available on the sand or mud. Striped bass have excellent olfactory senses and can pick up the scent released by each benthic critter.
Bloodworms, as the name indicates, are bloated with blood and when hooked promptly leak about the hands, and following that, the water. Scent brings the bass close to the bait, but its sight is what ultimately leaves the bait to be inhaled. Stripers have respectable eyesight and will root out the bait on or near the bottom. Sandworms may not be the bloody and expensive delicacy of the March fishery, but provide plenty of body length to work with when hooking bait.
Many anglers fish a worm on single-hook rig using a baitholder circle hook, but others will use a top and bottom rig in order to double the scent and visual detection possibilities. Considering the white perch anglers catch quite a few bass using small broken pieces of bloodworm, fishermen should note the considerable scent and sight an entire worm provides. After all, stripers tiny and enormous, will strike this bait. Bloodworms are carried in many tackle shops throughout the spring season, but sandworms might be more of a chore to locate depending on the region.
I’ve fished worms on the Egg Harbor, Mullica and Delaware rivers and caught on cold, nasty days where the water seemed lifeless other than ducks. Likewise, anglers to the north use them regularly on the East, South, Raritan and Hudson River bass. Last year shore anglers and boat captains used worms when bunker migrations were slow to show in the spring, though plenty of anglers use them religiously – up the Delaware River for example – no matter what.
Surf & Hard Clams
Clams as bait have had an interesting run since the striper rebound as they fall in and out of favor for different tactics. When the bunker doesn’t show, and with herring not legal to use even when available, clams can give a fisherman just what they need to get in the game. Fresh clams, of course, are the most efficient way to draw fish to the boat in the bays, sounds and rivers when fished at anchor on a circle hook. The shucked shell tossed overboard enhances the smell trail that leads fish to the bait. Without forage fish, stripers will truly nose around the mud looking for anything edible, and clams are a reliable local bait.
Clams fish well in salty waters and with the temps hovering in the 40s and 50s depending on tide and location, and one can expect the bait to endure on the hook longer early in the season. If the tide is running hard, I like to change out my baits every 10 to 15 minutes as the smelly innards wash out and leave only the tongue. I try to never be cheap with the bait after putting forth so much effort to go fishing. Moreover, clams will work in the freshwater portions of a river, but they lose color and scope out like stretched bubble gum when fished in fresh.
While Atlantic surf clams have been harder to find in recent years, the standard back bay hard clam of the chowder size can also fit the bill. They’ll catch, but they require frequent replacement and perhaps some doctoring on the hook. I know anglers that have caught extremely well with clams on the Delaware River just below Philadelphia. They started using clam for bait even before herring were eliminated as an option.
The Amazing Live Eel
It’s amazing how many bass can be taken on American eels when no bait is in sight or on the sounder. Their lifestyles and procreation patterns involve crossing great many miles across the Atlantic on a pilgrimage to spawn and then return to salt, brackish and freshwaters. Because of the migration and the stops along the way, striped bass are familiar with their presence in the rivers, bays and ocean.
Eels have been successful in so many a watery arena that they are definitely a go-to when the bunker are MIA or have not shown up. Bass expecting giant schools of bunker are perfectly happy to strike an eel. Drifted along bridge pilings, sod banks and rips created by acute depth changes prove deadly. Moreover, eels that are fished within artificial reef debris fields or natural rocky bottom, regularly catch cow bass when forage is not present.
Chuck Many, elite striped bass angler, seminar speaker, fish tagger and contributor to The Fisherman, has made an art form out of using eels under planer boards on the ocean. The eels are so effective that bass that are not on bunker at that time will find and strike the eels he presents. Most tackle shops carry live eels so procuring this bait is fairly easy.
Shrimp
| TROLLING & CASTING |
| When bait hasn’t shown up in your favorite waters, trolling can assist by virtue of covering water. In the absence of visual bait or marks on the sounder, it can be difficult to decide where to set lines. Blind trolling is something expert captains despise doing. But a spring where the bunker and herring aren’t on the scene can require some tweaks in tactics by skippers. Therefore, begin trolls where fish are most likely to stage and feed.
In the rivers, trolling small plastics along the sod banks and river’s edge will produce lots of short to occasional keeper bass. Good presentations include paddletail prototypes on 1/8- to quarter-ounce jigheads or bucktails. Fished in 5 to 10 feet of water, anglers can catch fish orienting to the contours of the river. Anglers can cast the same lures to the aforementioned spots. Anywhere grass shrimp or bay anchovies are spotted will might have higher odds of success. In the deeper channel waters, anglers might try SP Minnows or bunker imitations. |
When the dense bunker schools are amiss and fishermen are looking for methods to catch, novel baits take on an even more prominent role. There’s been plenty of times that I recall backwaters showing the sparsest of bait even when quality-sized bass were prowling for a hearty meal. Certainly, the stripers take every opportunity to eat what’s creeping around the bottom.
Younger stripers are more apt to fill up on the grass shrimp positioning themselves along the sod marshes. Many anglers that probe a fish’s digestive system find hundreds of baby crabs and grass shrimp. Obviously, they aren’t the big meal that a bunker or herring supplies, but stripers must eat what’s available and in volume. From the Carolinas to the south where larger species of shrimp are common, anglers use them as a primary striped bass bait.
Under popping corks and bobbers, fishermen catch well with live shrimp, but fresh dead catching also. Therefore, anglers that want to try a more novel, non-Jersey style of striper fishing can try shrimp meant for human consumption in absence of bunker. Seafood stores carry shrimp whole and in-the-shell which is perfect for trying on a high-low rig on the bottom with the appropriate match hook size.
Let’s hope the herring, menhaden and accompanying striped bass show in all the places they are supposed to as spring progresses in 2025. But when things aren’t in perfect alignment, anglers that alter and adapt their strategies will most often prevail.
