This means you can fish for them between the beach and three nautical miles offshore. Most fish are caught trolling, but jigging can also be successful. If you see birds diving in a concentrated area, they are probably picking up the pieces of a striper feast, and the edges of that area will be hot. You can troll the edges, cast lures and spoons into the melee, or fish live baits while slow trolling or drifting. Trollers use big Clark, Drone or bunker spoons, parachute lures, deep diving lures like Mann's Stretch series, and wire line rigs with buck tail jigs.
Some folks add planers or downriggers to the mix if the fish are feeding deep.
Live bait experts use eels or any other available live bait. Live bait can be hard to find in January and February, with the possible exception of the eels, which are becoming easier to find all year around. There is something about the way that deer hair moves in the water that stripers find hard to resist. The Ocean caught stripers have to be at least 28 inches long to keep. Each angler can keep 2 per day, but only one can be over 34 inches.