Scott laughed with me and held his smile as he savored the memory. When the talk turns to inland striper fishing in America, most fishermen start thinking about large reservoirs with schools of fish chasing bait over open water a good way from land. Tackle and tactics include a party boat, a bunch of poles, a fish finder and a hundred gallon bucket full of shad or herring. While this image is certainly real enough, and many fish are caught this way, river fishing for stripers is, to my mind, a far more exciting way to fish for them. The fish tend to be larger, are closer to the surface, and use the current to create spectacular runs that often leave you wondering how a fish that size put up such a fight.
Striped bass are large aggressive fish that fear nothing.
Once a striper reaches the weight of a pound or so, he has no natural enemies in fresh water save man. In the saltwater, stripers will feed in the breakers next to rocks, in powerful tidal rips and right up next to jetties washed by swells. These animals love a challenge, and southern rivers offer many of the same challenges of the salt. Many reservoirs suffer die offs in the summer as fish go below the thermocline in search of cooler water. There is no oxygen below the thermocline, so the fish suffocate.