Soft jerkbaits and hard jerkbaits will work well for striped bass. When they are up higher in the water column or in the shallows, most of the hard jerkbaits will work well with your typical jerkbait retrieve. When you need to go deeper, use a heavy jighead and combine that with your favorite soft plastic jerkbait. A jerk and pause retrieve is all it takes to get bites. Most of your bites are going to come on the pause.
Swimbaits definitely work well for stripers – whether it’s fresh water or salt water – stripers love to eat swimbaits. Some of the swimbaits that seem to produce better for stripers are the soft plastic baits in the 4 to 6 inch range rigged on a jighead. These are the baits that resemble a bait fish that they would actually eat. The real, big, bulky swimbaits that are made for catching big largemouth bass are not the swimbaits that you want to use to target stripers.
Many anglers prefer casting for stripers, but there are plenty of fishermen that troll swimbaits. Whatever your preference, get some of these baits in front of a striper and hold on!
