Summer Secrets for Stripers
by Ken Sturdivant
Southern Fishing Schools Inc.
Stripers are biting already on the
summer patterns on southern lakes. These fish will relate to the deep
waters on and over the old river channels. The stripers are looking
for cooler
waters and the thermocline is their summer home. Once these fish make
the rivers over deep water home, anglers can pinpoint them all summer
long.
Reading a high quality depth finder makes the search easier. Adjusting
the power to 87 percent on the sensitivity will show not only the thermocline
but the fish. .
In many lakes the blue back herring live in the same
deep waters during the summer with the stripers. Stripers usually go
through
stress in the summer due to low food sources where they live. But
with the blue back herring in lakes, these stripers have a meal right
there
within easy reach. Trolling using lead core line and large buck tail
jigs and deep live bait fishing will get strikes. Lead core line
requires a
large salt water size Penn reel. This lead core line allows for deeper
trolling and it will allow anglers to get lures deeper to the tops
of the trees where the stripers spend their days. Live bait such as
bream and
shiners on down line can get a strike on deep creek points that almost
reach the river bed. Rig up three Mac Farr Super buck tails on three
rods with monofilament 17 pound Stren Magna Thin line. One rig
is a
one ounce
buck tail and pull it 60 to 80 feet behind the boat. The second buck
tail should be one and a half ounces and pull it 70 feet back.
The last buck
tail should be two ounces and pull it 90 feet back. All these baits
need to be pulled at two and a half miles per hour, just use the g
p s for
the speed. If the baits are ticking the tops of the trees, the
boat is going
too slowly, speed up.
One of summer rituals is night fishing. So
this summer, take a few night trips to a striper lake with live bait.
Find a shallow
hump close to the main river channel and spend the night. It could
be a trip of a lifetime.
