TOLERABLE TECHNIQUE AND TIPS
Find stripers and you can usually catch them. Hot spots include chokepoints that channel bait like piers, seawalls and points and tidal "irregularities" such as rips easily spotted by the water's color change or their floatsam. Swirling gulls and pelicans almost always mean stripers: terns, that can catch their own minnows without working fish, aren't as reliable a key. Flocks of migrating black brant, that signal the end of summer at the beach, tell you it's time for the Giants to lose another pennant. Sans birds look for dark bait schools elevated outlooks. A flock of cars with empty rod holders keys action too.
Fish when you can, but realize days with maximum differences between high and low water improve your percentages.. On the flats and in most other places the last hour or two of the incoming tide is best when green, as opposed to brown, water helps stripers spot bait. Only a few spots peak points when outgoing tides drain stripers off into channels. If you've good tidal movement and you know fish have been in the area , stay put and cast or drown bait as the current moves the fish to you. The last person to catch a striper driving down the highway snagged a 20 pounder that fell out of a buddy's trunk back in 1958!
Except on the beach, don''t cast for distance unless you see swirling fish. Then cast just past the swirl, and finger or thumb your line to remove cast slack so you don't lose an "instant hit." Then let your lure sink for a three or five count and retrieve.
In most shore hotspots present your bait or lure in the 30 to 40 foot band next to the bank that holds most fish. Do vary depth with "count down" casting with lures. Don't be afraid to change lure sizes -- start small and work up as an inch variation between bait and lure can cut changes in half!
