I have been going shad fishing at the rediversion canal near the fish lift. Recently I have caught quite a few undersized stripers there and would like to try to target them. Has anyone specifically targeted the stripers there with any success on legal sized fish? Striper are not a fish I target usually so any info would be greatly appreciated.
Never been there, but I would think throwing bucktails, a fluke or something like a 6" rebel/rapala in the areas you are catching shad should work.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
Large white/gray swim baits in current. Large, wake making surface baits (7" Cordel redfin,blue/silver)when they stop generating. Ocean run herring live. Sounds like fun. The river is full of stripers right now because of all the spilling at Santee Dam last fall and winter. Hope to see a positive report soon!
Thanks for the replies. I wasn’t able to catch any herring to free line but did manage 1 almost legal fish on a live white perch. I tried some other baits but no takers on the artificial baits. I have only fished bucktails for Spanish mackerel by reeling them as fast as I could. How do you fish them for stripers? Also the other short fish we caught were caught fishing for shad on ultralight tackle with the usual green jigs. Lots of fun but I want one big enough to take the ride home with me.
fish sleep repeat
quote:
Originally posted by MULLET1Thanks for the replies. I wasn’t able to catch any herring to free line but did manage 1 almost legal fish on a live white perch. I tried some other baits but no takers on the artificial baits. I have only fished bucktails for Spanish mackerel by reeling them as fast as I could. How do you fish them for stripers? Also the other short fish we caught were caught fishing for shad on ultralight tackle with the usual green jigs. Lots of fun but I want one big enough to take the ride home with me.
fish sleep repeat
I don’t use them a whole lot these days, but for years when I used to fish the Congaree in the spring, it was all I used. There, they worked best when you fished them slow and bumped the bottom with them. Cast a bit up current, wait till you feel the bottom and start working it back to the boat while lifting the rod tip every few cranks of the reel and let it drop back down. You want to keep the line taught as it’s dropping back down though as that is when they hit. Once you don’t feel the bottom as it drops any more, reel it back in and cast up current again. If I do troll them in the lake, I’ll put a curly tail on like most people do, but I always just used a regular worm tail in the river when working it like I described.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
what is a good size and color to start with?
fish sleep repeat
3/4 oz. Is good to start. White or yellow is what worked for me. Size depends alot on how much water is running.
Keep in mind though that I never fished there and I only replied due to no other replies at the time to give some general info that may help.
Bucktails are great for numbers, but since you’re looking for one for the table, you may have better luck with rasputen’s advice of larger baits, since it sounds like he’s actually “been there, done that”.
…especially if they are feeding on those big herring.
Either way, I’d still add a few to your arsenal in case nothing else is working. They’re alot of fun to fish.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
I appreciate all the info. I find a lot of good info on this site but its normally for areas I don’t fish and Stripers are a fish that I have never been able to target. When I get a chance to try it again (hopefully this weekend:smiley: I will post the results.
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Go crappie fishing. The almost legal ones love to tear through my crappie gear. The will eat crappie minnows all day long. When I target the Stripers I still catch only undersized ones by the boat load. I hope they make some adjustments to the regulations soon.
2013 Ranger Z21 Intracoastal 250 hp Yamaha VMAX SHO
Speaking of Crappie fishing is the crappie fishing any good in the rediversion I know closer to the dam is from time to time.
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quote:Best pre-bite and subsequent toilet flush and reel scream I've ever witnessed was on a planer board and large river herring.
Originally posted by rasputenscLarge white/gray swim baits in current. Large, wake making surface baits (7" Cordel redfin,blue/silver)when they stop generating. Ocean run herring live. Sounds like fun. The river is full of stripers right now because of all the spilling at Santee Dam last fall and winter. Hope to see a positive report soon!
“Living’s mostly wasting time and I’ll waste my share of mine”
quote:
Originally posted by Loonquote:Best pre-bite and subsequent toilet flush and reel scream I've ever witnessed was on a planer board and large river herring.
Originally posted by rasputenscLarge white/gray swim baits in current. Large, wake making surface baits (7" Cordel redfin,blue/silver)when they stop generating. Ocean run herring live. Sounds like fun. The river is full of stripers right now because of all the spilling at Santee Dam last fall and winter. Hope to see a positive report soon!
“Living’s mostly wasting time and I’ll waste my share of mine”
I would rather fish big bait all day and experience this only once during the day. Even if the fish comes off, I would take this experience over catch 30 avg fish in a day…I daydream daily of big baits getting blowed up and drags screaming and only thing you can do is hold on.
“All fisherman lie. And if they say otherwise, then they’re lying”
“Sea~N~Stripes”
21’ Hewes Craft Custom
115 Evinrude
Are you fishing from a boat or the Bank? Bucktails catch all types of fish but to make them seem larger try a worm trailer in white or chartruce! Like Striperskiff said cast it up current and feel the bait along the bottom till you get a strike or out of the strike zone! If at all possable try large live bait freelined or on a cork or board. Boards can be fished off the bank with a little practace. Good luck, you should be able to hook a good one there!!
Thanks. I’m fishing from the bank for now. The motor on my boat blew up last year and hopefully will have a new one soon. Bucktails and redfins are on my grocery list tonight for sure. I’ve never used boards before or tried to but then again I never targeted stripers before either.
fish sleep repeat
quote:
Originally posted by Big ShrimpinWhen I target the Stripers I still catch only undersized ones by the boat load. I hope they make some adjustments to the regulations soon.
2013 Ranger Z21 Intracoastal 250 hp Yamaha VMAX SHO
Quite honestly the size regulations are fine.
Females don’t spawn until they’re in the ballpark of 28" long. No sense in frying them up before they’ve even spawned the first time.
quote:
Originally posted by pitcherQuite honestly the size regulations are fine.
Females don’t spawn until they’re in the ballpark of 28" long. No sense in frying them up before they’ve even spawned the first time.
I will admit that I may only target Stripers a small percentage of the time bc I mostly fish for crappie when fishing freshwater these days. Back in the day I targeted Striper plenty and and caught many much larger than the legal size limit; admittedly, the size limit was several inches less (18 inches then). Fish greater than 26 inches were quite normal with targetted fishing pressure that was at least fifty times greater than what it is now. It has been proven that it was the warm water and fishing combination that depleted the fishery. Most striper fishing was done in the Summer months which is now banned. As long as striper fishing remains banned during the summer months, there will be very little fishing pressure on them for the remainder of the year. It has been quite some time since the changes have been made to the regulations. While the changes may have been right when they were made; they may not be right for right now; the population of underslot fish has grown exponentially. I catch the same sized just-barely-under-the-limit fish whether I am crappie fishing or striper fishing using large baits. There should be several year classes of fish over twenty-six inches now. Where are they? I have not ran into one. I have caught at least fifty of them in the 23 to 25 3/4 inch range as bycatch fishing for crappie in about a handful of trips just last month. The logic you are using seems sound, but you would have to assume that if a slot were introduced, while maintaining the ban during summer months, that fisherman would catch all the fish before they grew out of the slot size
quote:
Originally posted by Big Shrimpinquote:
Originally posted by pitcherQuite honestly the size regulations are fine.
Females don’t spawn until they’re in the ballpark of 28" long. No sense in frying them up before they’ve even spawned the first time.
Back in the day I targeted Striper plenty and and caught many much larger than the legal size limit; admittedly, the size limit was several inches less (18 inches then). Fish greater than 26 inches were quite normal with targetted fishing pressure that was at least fifty times greater than what it is now. It has been proven that it was the warm water and fishing combination that depleted the fishery. Most striper fishing was done in the Summer months which is now banned. As long as striper fishing remains banned during the summer months, there will be very little fishing pressure on them for the remainder of the year. It has been quite some time since the changes have been made to the regulations. While the changes may have been right when they were made; they may not be right for right now; the population of underslot fish has grown exponentially. I catch the same sized just-barely-under-the-limit fish whether I am crappie fishing or striper fishing using large baits. There should be several year classes of fish over twenty-six inches now. Where are they? I have not ran into one. I have caught at least fifty of them in the 23 to 25 3/4 inch range as bycatch fishing for crappie in about a handful of trips just last month. The logic you are using seems sound, but you would have to assume that if a slot were introduced, while maintaining the ban during summer months, that fisherman would catch all the fish before th
If you are targeting stripers for the table, then 23 to 25 inch stripers are a waste of time. If you are fishing for any other species and cannot escape the stripers (which I experience from time to time), then they are a waste of time. The fishery has been in this same state four about four years now. I will agree that it was rebounding but has hit a lull and it dang sure isn’t due to over fishing. I do not remember a striper population, as far as numbers go, ever being what we have today. And while I agree that we are not in danger of overpopulation, at the rate of speed the legislature moves to change regulations, I think that it would be fine if they started the ball rolling.
2013 Ranger Z21 Intracoastal 250 hp Yamaha VMAX SHO
The NUMBERS have rebounded, but the size as compared to the past has not! It has turned into the same thing as Lake Murray; a put and take fishery with a larger size limit. If they wanted the trophy fish to come back, they would adjust to a slot limit with very few 30+ inch kept. The Congaree and Wateree are loaded right now, but a bunch of p-nuts on average.