Seasonal Striper Movements
by Ken Sturdivant
Southern Fishing Schools Inc.
The striper stocked in fresh water
has never been in salt water.
It is a captive of it’s environment and it cannot leave the waters and seek better
conditions. Understanding some basics about striper movements the angler can
be more successful. Studies revealed that a striper can cover thousands of miles
during it’s life.
The striper movement is dictated by the forage. The stripers
must
eat constantly to sustain it’s existence. Stripers can cover a lot of water and
this fish does not relate to cover like it’s bass cousin. Wherever the
food goes the striper must follow. In big lakes that have a large population
of stripers
they were introduced because the shad in the lake were very plentiful.
Thread
fin and gizzard shad make up almost 90 percent of the stripers diet. If
the lake has blue back herring, stripers gouge themselves on these baits
all year. The
blue backs help the stripers carry over during the hot summer months by
living in the same deep water as the stripers. And the bigger the fish
the more it has
to eat. The basic rule is find bait fish and find stripers.
There are some
basics that anglers can use to find the stripers all year long. This
fish can chase
a school of bait into coves and creeks and then will eat as much as it
can. The striper is
a powerful swimmer and keeps moving almost all the time. It
uses it’s senses to find food at anytime of the day or night. As a cold blooded
creature it takes on the water temperature around itself whether hot or cold.
But stripers do not like
high water temperatures. Given it’s choice the striper will look for
any cooler waters in the dead of summer.
In the early spring these fish head up the rivers
to spawn. Whether the spawn is successful is still debated. But in the
spring there are a lot of fish in the shallows of any river. After the
spawning run
the stripers head to the main lake looking for food. Like any post spawn
fish it must regain the weight needed to get through the hot summer months.
In the
summer months the fish are deep in the main lake. The fish go through
a of stress in hot weather. Look again for the bait fish but keep moving
on the
lower lake.
During winter months, stripers travel to the backs of the creeks on
the lower lake. The reason is that the food moves looking back looking
for
any warming
water. Learn to follow the bait fish and the stripers are almost always
close by.
