With the new Striper regs in effect I would much prefer (2) 25 plus fish to (5) less than 20 fish. Many say cut bait is the way to go, but it has not worked for me. I may not be doing it right or Im not patient enough. What I have been trying is when fishing live herring near the bottom and catching smaller fish, I move toward the main channel/deeper and try for bigger fish. This has not always worked, and sometimes I come up empty. So Anyone want to share How to target big fish?
Wish I knew…lol… but I will say the last 5 8#+ fish I have caught this month have been suspended around 35-40’ in 50-60’ feet of water. Don’t think they are eating any of my chum up there. But I have noticed when trying to draw up bait there are always two pods. One at the top and one 20-30’ off the bottom that won’t come up. And these bigger fish have all come by hanging live baits right below the bottom pod. I know that all is really basic Striper fishing tactics but I guess sometimes you gotta where your Lucky underwear to get the big ones to bite…
Steve, for me , my biggest fish have been trolling at night in the summer or cut bait in the spring. With that said, it’s been exactly 3 years since I’ve had one over 20 and I’ve never had one in fresh water over 25…but lately I am feeling lucky and plan on getting a big one trolling at night this summer 
Since you have the time to do it, I would try and catch a few decent size bream and at least keep one down while you are live bait fishing. There was a guy at our old employer who used to drift the big water with bream during the summer and did well getting big fish on them.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
Edit: Guess I should have read your post better before replying. I was on the phone at work when I quickly browsed over it and I thought you were asking about targeting fish over 20 lbs. lol
I haven’t really been able to figure out lately how to specifically target larger size keepers. Some days it seems to be smaller fish doing the same thing in the same place that was producing decent size keepers just a couple of days earlier.
Don’t know how you edited your post, but to clear up my post, I was looking for fish over 25 inches, and not less than 20 inches. A 25 pounder would be nice. Can’t use the inch symbol.
Hope to have you an answer in the morning…lol. heading over to the ramp now to go out with my grandsons
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
The best guess is that you need to be at the right place at the right time with the right bait and presentation. This is what we do to give ourselves the best opportunity to do just that…In the spring we use cut bait and live bait around 20 feet or to the bottom down to 35 feet. We troll lures that run 20feet or less. Bigger fish are in this water column in the spring along with the smaller ones. Its sort of like pot luck this time of year. I really like bucktails and other similar type lures in the spring as I think the bigger fish are enticed to hit these sleek gliding lures. Umbrella rigs work good in the spring too down to 15feet at 2.5 mph GPS and will entice the bigger fish to strike with all the commotion that these lures present… In the heat of the summer we down line cut bait and live bait usually at a minimum of 50 feet. The bigger fish seem to school at these beginning depths. Also keep in mind that stripers generally school at given depths with similar size fish…If we are only catching smaller ones we go down another 10 feet and so on till we catch the bigger fish and then hold that depth in every location we try while skipping locations that you can’t reach that depth in. Deepest we fish is 90 feet. WE Use the 4 foot green light down lining… Trolling in the summer, July, August and September is always with minimum 11 inch lures at a depth of 55 feet or more. Hope this helps. We have caught some big fish over the past five years using these tactics.
Thanks iamfishing, your post is a big help, and one of best Ive seen. Well written, and covers a lot. Hope to put your suggestions to good use. Best of luck to you your next time out.
Trolling wise, my best lure was a Ledgebuster with a 10" grub. May draw a blank, but some of my best artificially caught fish have come on that. A 9" swimbait is a stud bait as well.
Or go to the Hill…
I’ve always followed the theory that big bait catches big fish; it’s worked well for me in the Lower Saluda for a long time. Not sure if this applies on the lakes but I bet it does. If you could get some large gizzard shad (8-12 inches), or drift large bream, crappie or white perch I bet that would up your chances of catching a a trophy considerably.
The thing to keep in mind, though is that with really big baits you won’t get nearly as many strikes, but when one takes it you know she’s a good one. I’d set out one rod with a big live bait & the rest with bluebacks & see what happens.
Funny you mention crappie. I dont know how many big crappie, but its been a bunch that have been in a big fishes mouth…you can see it plain as day, will almost look like herring do when they got that scales stripped look. Granted could be big cats but i figure alot are big striper also…