Striper Summer Patterns
By Jared Wood
July is upon us and the cows are beginning to take up residence in their local haunts. Last month we saw veracious feeds up and down the coast as the fish marched northward. The recipe for success in July is finding the magic window of when those bass want to feed whereas the month prior almost any stage of the tide you could find fish willing to take your offering.
This month I go through my prior years’ logs to formulate a plan to put myself in the best position to catch. My log is detail oriented with the stage of the tide, wind, water temperature, weather, location, size of bass, bait, and plugs used. All of these key details allow you to put a game plan together that will hopefully be rewarded with the fish of a lifetime.
When keying into the summer feeding patterns you can dial in productive times to be on the water. Some instances the window these fish come in to feed can be short lived and others it can be drawn out through the tide. Having multiple spots that you can hit during your time in the surf will benefit you. Finding these locations sometimes takes a few years of trial and error with a little luck thrown in to be able to have a few spots. Some areas have multiple spots that the fish will stage and take advantage of the tide and structure. Other spots are a spot within a spot such as an exposed mussel bed, a reef, a couple of boulders along a sandy stretch. Find that spot by reading the water and mapping it out. Watching how the current flows, the wave action, and plugs swim around it will help you decide the best spot to fish it from. These observations will aid you in packing your plug bag so that you are not too overloaded and have the right tools for the night.
The summer feeding pattern is like solving a puzzle. When you are putting the pieces together you can see the end result. The same holds true for striper fishing with figuring out if the wind is blowing south west on an incoming tide the bass will be staging behind the boulders tucked out of the current and if I cast my darter digging it into the current it will sweep right over the boulder to bass looking for a meal. Every time you hit the surf it is a new puzzle to solve. Don’t just cast blindly in hopes of hooking up. Use the details laid before and make a well executed cast that you expect to have results with. Granted not every cast is going to catch a fish but having the confidence that you are throwing your best presentation into the right scenarios is going to increase your surf success.
Fishing at night or the early morning hours before the sun comes up will benefit your success in the surf during the summer. When the sun is high the water close to shore heats up quickly. As soon as the sun sets the water temp will drop. Even a degree or two in temperature change will entice the bass to come in tight to shore. Big bass use the cover of darkness to pick off unsuspecting prey in the shallows. They will use the cuts, troughs, sandbars, and rocks as ambush points. The best time to find these areas is during the daylight hours scouting out your location. At low tide you can find the structure to come back and focus your efforts under the cover of darkness.
The full moon July 13th and new moon July 28th are times to devote to your time in the surf. Fishing 3 days prior through the new or full moon phase to 3 days after will put you in a position to find fish. These tides are stronger and move a lot of water, opening different structures for the bass to take a position to crush unsuspecting prey. Use a couple of vacation days to spend some quality time on the water. Make the most of the time that you have fishing during the month around the moon phases.
Be mobile the best that you can. Lay out a plan to hit certain spots during certain phases of the tide. Working your way around a boulder field can be difficult at night but those bass love the boulders. Dissect the section of water in front of you making sure you have covered every boulder or hole that you have found. If nothing happens, move down and repeat the process. Fishing the incoming tide covers up those boulders allowing the stripers to come in and hunt the shallows. I have seen the bass come in and out weaving through the boulders and weeds searching for food with barely enough water to cover them.
The open sand beaches are great areas to target when the sun has gone down. Working your way along the cuts, troughs, bars as you walk is a good way to find the bass during the moon phases. Under the cover of dark the bass move into the shallows feeding on sand eels, crabs, and any unsuspecting fish seeking refuge tight to the beach. Fishing the sand allows you to cover a lot of ground. I will work in an area for 15 minutes and if nothing happens I will make my way down the beach. Watching how the water is moving and listening to it can reveal where you should make your next cast. Try to keep the use of your lights to a minimum. If you need light shine it away from the water or use a red light. When the bass are in tight to the beach even a brief blast of light on the water can scatter the fish ending any chance you might have had.
Packing your plug bag for the moon phases and areas you fish can sometimes be stressful. Keeping simple with plugs you have confidence in as well as matching the forage in the area is a start. My plug bag for July always has two Super Strike darters at opposite ends of the color spectrum. I always have a danny plug because those nights when bass want a slow rolled danny on the surface it is a violent hit. Needlefish are great fish catchers and you can fit 3 or 4 in a tube in your bag allowing you to have a few color options. Minnow plugs are great fish catchers. They have a tight wiggle, hold pretty well in the current, and match a wide variety of baitfish. Rounding out the plug is a smattering of bucktails and rubbers on lead heads. By keeping your bag light and simple it will allow you to focus your fishing efforts and not change plugs as often. There are multiple retrieves to each of the plugs in the bag. Just changing the retrieve allows for different presentations for each plug.
When it comes to the month of July switching from fishing to night time you will see an increase in the size of the stripers you are targeting. Those daytime surface feeds are fun and fish them until your arms fall off. If you really want to target large stripers, switching the time of day you fish puts you into a better position to tangle with the fish of a lifetime. Forgo staying in that nice comfy bed and put some miles on your boots.
Jared Wood is a surfcaster who fishes from Maine to Connecticut. Targeti Striped Bass, Bluefish, Albies, and Bonito in the surf. He can be found on Instagram as surfcaster_jared. For any questions he can be reached at jaredwood25@gmail.com.