A dusting of snow remained in the parking lot—the last vestige, I hoped, of the February freeze. I leaned the rods against the truck and tugged on my gloves as Anthony rooted through his bag for chemical handwarmers to stash in our jacket pockets. I suspected he was beginning to regret joining me in observing this high holy day of the striper angler: March 1.All of New England—including where Anthony and I were fishing—enjoys a year-round striper fishery. Even New York offers its anglers the opportunity to catch and release stripers for 12 months a year, but in the backwaters of New Jersey, where I first pursued Morone saxatilis, striper fishing closes in January and February. It’s not such a bad thing as closed seasons go, and I never felt particularly oppressed by it, but every year, I’d eagerly await March 1, and hope for mild-enough weather to get the coldwater stripers biting.
Back then, I assumed those early March bass were fresh migrants, the vanguard of the northbound stripers that would soon be choking the inlets and overrunning sandbars all over the Northeast coast. In reality, most were the same fish I’d bid farewell to in December that had hunkered down and slowed their feeding without traveling very far.
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All throughout the Northeast, bays and estuaries host resident schools of striped bass, called holdovers by the anglers who pursue them. These fish, for reasons all their own, skip the long southward swim, rife with danger, and settle in for a long, lean winter in the north. They often hold deep inside the backwaters, far from the inlets, in holes or channels with moderate riverine or tidal current.
While fishermen can, and do, catch them right through the bitter cold of January and February, fishing for these pre-migration stripers improves dramatically in early March, even if the weather does not.
Extreme cold or one of those snow-dumping, “in-like-a-lion” nor’easters can still set the striper season back as our clocks spring ahead; more often, even when the winter lingers, other cues spur stripers into action. Since the winter solstice, we gain two full hours of daylight by March 1, and that increased daylength serves as a powerful signal that it’s time to get feeding; however, catching bass when the water is hovering around 40 degrees can require specialized techniques.
Lure Considerations for Coldwater Stripers
I almost always make my season’s first casts for stripers with a soft plastic on a jighead, choosing a bait with a slow sink rate that I can almost hover in front of still-lethargic fish. Straight- or fluke-tailed soft plastics provide the best control over their location in the water column, especially when swinging them down and across the current. I fish more paddletails—which plane toward the surface on the retrieve due to the added resistance of the kicking tail—after the water warms and the bass become more aggressive.
Snowmelt and rainstorms often stain the water at that time of year, which can impact how well stripers can see your lures. Year-round, southern New England striper fishermen Chris Lawton helps his jigs get seen by dipping the tails in chartreuse Spike-It, a scented lure dye used to add color to soft plastics. Chris has noticed a clear advantage to using lures enhanced with a fluorescent yellowish-green tail when casting in cold, dirty water.
Captain Rob Taylor customizes his hard baits to stay on the striper bite when water temperatures are at their lowest of the season. He begins with a floating, saltwater-grade minnow plug, like the Daiwa SP Minnow, and adds weight using Storm SuspenDots until the plug suspends. This requires at-home experimentation in the sink or a fish tank, but don’t forget to add salt, as a lure that suspends in fresh water is likely to float in salt water. By fishing these modified minnow plugs—much the way freshwater bass anglers use suspending jerkbaits for early-season largemouths—Rob is able to catch stripers that are unwilling to chase a faster-moving soft plastic.
Not all of the March striper fishing has to be “low and slow,” however. The same daylength cues that get the stripers moving also trigger the upstream movements of one of their favorite baitfish.
Gear Up for the Pre-Migration
Straight-tailed soft plastics provide a realistic, small baitfish profile and complete control over their location in the water column. Baits made from durable, supple materials like the Z-Man ElaZtech have the added benefit of being buoyant, which slows down the sink rate.
When rigged on a TT HeadlockZ Jighead, straight-tailed soft plastics, like the 5-inch StreakZ from Z-Man, provide a realistic baitfish imitation that is both durable and slow-sinking.
When spring rains strain backwaters, adding chartreuse to the tail of your soft baits with a dye like Spike-It Dip-N-Glo helps them get seen by stripers, leading to more bites.
Stick-on weights, like Storm SuspenDots or SuspenStrips, can turn a floating minnow plug into a suspending minnow plug that you can pause for several seconds to trigger a lethargic striper to bite.
Before the herring show up, 7-foot inshore rods with 4000-size reels and rated for ¼- to 1-ounce lures, are the perfect size for presenting finesse jigs to hunkered-down stripers.
After the alewives move in, bumping up to an 8-foot surf rod rated for ½- to 2-ounce or 3/4- to 3-ounce lures—like the 8-foot Jigging World Onyx Surf—will accommodate Danny Plugs and other larger swimmers, tempting herring-crazed holdovers.
As alewives begin to move in, an 8-foot rod like the Jigging World Onyx Surf is capable of throwing larger plugs and muscling in bigger bass. (Photo by Matt Haeffner)
The action of jointed swimbaits, like the Berkley Magic Swimmer 165, are near-perfect herring imitations, and the slow sink rate allows for better control of its location in the water column.
The action of a jointed swimbait like the Berkley Magic Swimmer 165 is a near-perfect herring imitation, and the slow sink rate allows for better control of its location in the water column.
Alewife Alarm Clock
Of the two species of river herring that run through the Northeast, alewives arrive first, sometimes as early as late February. The bass perk up at the prospect of their first hearty meal in months, moving about and feeding more regularly.
For Massachusetts surfcaster Calvin Toran-Sandlin, the return of the alewives marks a turning point in fishing for resident stripers. Before the herring arrive, Calvin says he might catch one or two fish a tide, usually by fishing small soft plastics slowly along the bottom. Once the herring are being pushing up the bays and estuaries, Calvin’s catch rate increases to as many as 10 to 12 fish a tide, and the effective techniques broaden.
Alewives, which sometimes arrive as early as late February, stir resident stripers to action regardless of water temperature. (Photo by Adam Eldridge)
Calvin recalled one early March trip, under stormy conditions, when he hit the water with a light-tackle setup. He was ready to finesse the lethargic holdovers, only to have his first fish take a scorching run and break the line. He returned with heavier gear and proceeded to have good-sized stripers smash Danny plugs right at the surface.
While most fishermen save their metal-lip swimmers for peak migration times, the return of the herring has resident bass looking for larger meals. Calvin also has succeeded using glidebaits and articulated swimbaits like the Magic Swimmer.
Among striper fishing’s most parroted advice is the notion that in the early season, the warmer water of the ebbing tide provides a better shot at catching fish. Calvin hasn’t always found that to be the case. Herring, he said, tend to follow incoming tides through the estuaries, and when those schools pass near staging stripers, the fish often feed regardless of tide.
Celebrating March 1
Any regrets Anthony might have had disappeared, like his soft plastic, down the maw of a striped bass. The surprisingly stout schoolie had a faint blue tint between the stripes that I’ve often noticed on cold-water bass.
Chunky striped bass, like this one caught by Anthony DeiCicchi, are feeding in chilly backwaters well before the spring migration begins.
Mine came soon after. The feel of the doggedly fighting schoolie radiated heat through my bones better than the forgotten handwarmers ever could. While we were a few states north of New Jersey, where delaying striper fishing until March 1 was symbolic rather than required, it felt good to be honoring old rites and to be on the hunt, once again, for the mighty striped bass.
