Striped Bass - Morone saxatilis

Also known as: Greenhead, Rock, Rockfish, Squidhound, Striper



The striped bass closest freshwater relatives are the white bass (Morone chrysops), the yellow bass (M. mississippiensis), and the white perch (M. americana). The striped bass is easily recognized by the 7 or 8 prominent black stripes that run along the scale rows on each side of its long, sleek, silvery body. One stripe runs along the lateral line, and the remainder are about equally divided above and below it. The first dorsal fin has 8 -10 spines and second, 10-13 soft rays. The anal fin has 3 spines followed by 7-13 soft rays. The dorsal fins are completely separated. The striped bass is longer and sleeker and has a larger head than its close and similar looking relative, the white bass. The striped and white basses have been crossed to create a hybrid known as the whiterock or sunshine (in Florida) bass. Striped bass can be distinguished from hybrids by the regularity of stripes while the hybrid usually has interrupted or broken stripes.

A voracious and opportunistic predator, the striped bass will consume all types of fishes. A wide variety of fishing methods are successfully employed, including trolling, jigging, bait fishing, surf casting, fly fishing, and spinning. Baits and lures include mullet, squid, eels, crabs, clams, bloodworms, plugs, spoons, flies, and casting lures.



Baitfish and schools of larger fish can swim so close together they actually change the color of the water. Train your eyes to look for these moving patches of color, and you will be rewarded for your efforts. Cast ahead and let your bait float to the school.

Ripples, Currents, Swirls and Sprays

Call it what you will, but it might be a fish. It might be baitfish feeding. It might be baitfish trying to jump out of the water to escape game fish. Or, it might be bubbles and rings from a big fish that just went down to eat a minnow. Cast quickly, and you might get lucky.

Coastal Waters




The calmer waters between the place where big waves crash and calm water starts are called breakers. The crashing waves create a sort of trench in the shore. Food settles in the trench, bait fish come for the food and game fish come for the baitfish. This provides an ideal location to find fish but anglers must understand that fish that come to feed in these areas will feed very briefly in one location and move on to continue searching for food.


Birds fly above slow-moving baitfish. Get close and try to figure out if the baitfish are dead or alive. If they’re thrashing around, you should fish shallow. If they’re wounded, fish deeper.

Outsides of Bends


Backflow (backwaters)

When the tide moves into a small inlet, or point, it slows down and moves in a different direction than the main flow for a short period of time. Fish will feed where the backwards flow slows down and the food settles.

Jetties and Breakwaters

Waves crash up against jetties and breakwaters, and create ‘holes’ as the wave recedes and carries sand out with it. Since the hole is deeper than the ocean floor, it attracts small shellfish and baitfish looking for calmer water and a place to hide. These hiding spots create ambush spots for predatory game fish. Man-made structures like jetties and breakwaters also give shore anglers better access to deeper waters.

Current Edges


Night Fishing

Many fish are nocturnal feeders and become more active after the sun sets. When fishing during the night hours, natural baits, such as cut bait and live bait are great choices. Be sure to let the baits soak, and be patient for a bite.

Merging Currents - Feeder Brooks, Stream or Creek Mouths




Rock and Boulder Pockets




Dams and Falls


Small Pointed Waves


Bays and Estuaries



Rivers and Streams







Ocean bays don’t have much freshwater influence. But because they are protected from severe ocean conditions, they become ideal nurseries for many species of baitfish and shell fish, which can draw bigger saltwater fish into the bays to feed.

Channel Entrances


Man-Made Structures

It’s only natural, baitfish and other marine creatures gather around piers and pilings because they’re looking for food and protection from currents. This attracts larger game fish species like snook and tarpon that feed on the bait surrounding these structures.



Standing Waves


Surf and Shore

Surf and coastal shore fishing can be done right from the edge of the ocean, from man-made structures like jetties and breakwaters or from a boat. Some surf anglers actually wade right into the waters to cast to fish that may be lurking under the waves.

Surf and coastal shore fishing is challenging. There’s very little structure to attract fish. So surf and shore fisherman must be able to read the waves, look for color changes in the water, monitor water temperature and understand migration patterns.

Fishing Methods

Drift Fishing


Fly Fishing



Jigging lures, or “jigs”, are some of the most versatile lures in that can be used in just about any place you find fish. Jigs comes in all shapes, colors, styles and weights and can be fished in a variety of different manners so that they mimic baitfish. The two most common jigs are probably the bucktail jig and the vertical jig.

A bucktail jig will typically consist of a lead head, that can be a variety of different shapes and sizes, which is molded onto a hook and has hair-like material tied to the bottom of the jig head. This hair-like material is where the name “bucktail” comes from because many bucktail jigs are made using hair from a deer. The bucktail hair and jighead come in a variety of different colors. These bucktail jigs can be fished by themselves or they can be rigged with a rubber worm, live shrimp or other natural baits like strips of fish.

A vertical jig, or speed jig, is made of a long and slender piece of lead or metal that cuts through the water mimicking an injured baitfish. Vertical jigs will have one or more dangling hooks attached to a split ring which can be attached to the top or the bottom of the jig. Vertical jigs range anywhere from 1/8 oz. up to 14 oz. and are also referred to as “butterfly jigs.”

When fishing with jigs, it is important that the angler constantly jig the lure up and down by constantly lifting the rod tip up and down. A good method for jigging is to drop the jig all the way down to the bottom and with a very rapid retrieval, twitch the rod tip erratically until the jig comes to the surface and repeat. No matter which type of jig you are using, it is important to match the weight of each jig to the depth at which you are fishing. Deeper water will require heavier jigs to reach the bottom. It is also important to take the tides and current into consideration when choosing your jig weight.

Still Fishing


Surf Casting

Surf casting is perhaps one of the easiest methods of fishing the ocean without access to a boat. Fishing off the beach does not come without its challenges, though. Surf casting requires large and bulky equipment. Rod sizes can be as large as ten feet. Special rigs are used in surf casting in order to combat the strong currents and sometimes large waves. This allows the bait to remain suspended or at the bottom of the water column. The simplest of the rigs consists of a terminal egg weight with a hook attached to a loop knot six or seven inches above the weight.



Bait & Lures


If clams or mussels are native to your area, you can use them to catch the native fish.To keep them fresh, gather the mussels and clams from shallow waters before or while you fish. Crack the shell open, cut out the clam or mussel and allow the bait to harden slightly in the sun so it stays on the hook. Tie mussels on to the hook with thread, taking care not to pull too tight.


Hard-shell, soft-shell and peeler crabs are all good bait for saltwater fish. You can pull them apart or use them whole. To hook a whole crab, bore the hook through the shell like a drill. Work the hook through the pointed part of the shell on either side of the body. Hooked this way, the crab will live pretty well and provide some action to attract fish.

Cut Bait








Saltwater Live Bait





Just about any fish that lives nearshore or in the open ocean can be caught using cut or whole squid. Use them whole by running the line through the inside of the mantle (the outside body shell) and hooking the squid in the head. The mantles of larger squid can be cut into vertical pieces for strip bait. You can use squid for trolling and for bottom and floating rigs.