Casting
Fan casting is a great way to target striped bass. If you are using artificial lures, you’re going to want to cover some water to find these fish. By fan casting spots, you can cover more water and hopefully find some feeding stripers.
Drifting
Drifting is a good technique when the wind starts to blow or when you’re fishing saltwater and you can use the current to drift along. Drifting allows you to present your baits in front of more fish and it will help you find schools of stripers. Casting and trolling may be better techniques for finding schools of fish, however, you won’t always get bites with lures, so at times, drifting live baits will be the much better technique for catching a lot of fish.
Drop Shotting
Drop shotting is a popular technique for anglers that like to use live baits for striped bass. You can rig a variety of soft plastics on a drop shot rig too. When using soft plastics, twitch them and pause them or hop them along the bottom. Both techniques will work. When using live baits, all you have to do is get your bait down to the appropriate depth and hang on.
Jigging
Jigging isn’t the most popular way to target striped bass, but it can be effective when you find schools of fish in deeper water or on structure. Hair jigs, soft plastics and live bait can be used and they all can be effective.
Trolling
Trolling is one of the most popular techniques for targeting striped bass. This helps you cover more water and find more fish. Live bait is the preferred bait of choice most of the time. Anglers will rig shad or large minnows on a spread of lines and they will use planer boards to help cover more water. With 2 to 3 anglers in the boat, you can easily fish 4 to 6 rods (depending on your state’s fishing regulations) with planer boards. A slow troll works best with live bait. Some anglers prefer using their kicker motor while others will just use their trolling motor to troll. You can use a variety of lures such as spoons, swimbaits and crankbaits if you choose to go the artificial route.
