Early season striper fishing can simply be monitored by the amount of sunlight that drenches the shallows by day, followed by an outgoing tide that coincides with evening...

Story by DJ Muller

After a ridiculously cold and brutal winter the warm spring breezes, the longer days, and buds on the bushes will be very welcome all along our coast. As the ice melts off the sod banks and the sea grass begins to sprout again, the water warmed by the spring sun will soon throw our Jersey fishing into gear. Everything will quickly come out of its winter's slumber while the water that was just ice cold and frozen for the last couple of months will now welcome the return of the bass, bait and ecosystem. The time for us as anglers to be tortured by the old man we call winter, will be gone. As the Yankees and Mets get ready to break camp and head north, the stripers are also getting ready to make their move.

The Early Warming
Early in the season everything related to stripers and catching them comes down to water temperature. Water temperatures drive the striper feed. Water that is in the low 50’s can give the bass a serious case of lockjaw, while warmer water can throw bass into a bigtime “gut stuff”.

Early season striper fishing can simply be monitored by the amount of sunlight that drenches the shallows by day, followed by an outgoing tide that coincides with evening in Jersey. I like to look for spots where stripers hold…river and creek dumps and shallow water with dark muddy bottoms close to backwater tributaries. Those are the spots that produce the small life forms that attract bass and provide them with a food source. Yes…that is what I said…the bays hold the keys and those early season stripers will usually be very hungry and anxious to fatten up.

Blood and sand worms have long been a go-to bait for early season bass. However due to rising prices on worms, many have turned to tossing sea clams to early bass and that fits the bill very nicely.

Early Strategies
Blood and sand worms have long been a go-to bait for early season bass. However due to exorbitant prices on worms, the majority of bass fisherman have since turned to tossing the lowly sea clam to bass looking for a meal and that fits the bill very nicely. There are endless target areas for you to fish all along the bays and backwaters from Cape May to Bergen County, most of them being the backwater bays as things start to percolate. Here, armed with a rod and reel set up for throwing bait and a sinker, an angler can curtail their early season thirst for the pull of an early season striper. The rig is quite simple and can be found at your local tackle shop. Try to use no more than a 2-3 ounce sinker. That weight should do the trick quite nicely, as the water will be fairly slow moving where you fish early season.

The plan that I have always adhered to is finding suitable water that holds early season bass (as I’ve already discussed above). Next, is to fish at the end of sunny days where the tide is going out as it gets dark. The last thing you need to do, is to execute your plan. That means to hit the beach or bayside with determination, and try to be patient. Go in with a level head, don’t get too excited or over optimistic. Just do your thing…that way if you don’t catch anything, the letdown won’t be too much for a mortal man to bare. My tip is when you have the tides and optimal conditions, be persistent and your rewards will come.

As Things Warm
As the water warms, more variables are introduced into the surfcaster’s world and the momentum begins to build. One of the big additions to the warm up is the appearance of the menhaden, which most of us know as bunker. When the bunker show up, they add a dynamic that can be very exciting. The other big addition that spruces things up in the early season is a fish called the bluefish, a voracious eating machine that fights like few other. At a moment’s notice bunker can and will show up and when they do, it would behoove you to be ready. The best thing you can do, is have what it known as a “bunker snagger”. This is simply a weighted treble hook you can pick up at your local tackle shop. When the bunker come by, just cast out and “rip” it back in until you snag one. What you do next with your “gift” is up to you. You can either let it sink and wait for it to be consumed by either a nice sized striper or possibly a big bluefish. This technique is known as “snag and drop”. The other thing you can do is reel in your bunker, and cut it up and then use it as bait, a technique known as “chunking”. Both techniques will assure you some added action and in most cases they will produce much bigger fish than the early season “shorts” which dominate the early scene. Everybody everywhere likes catching big fish!

Fresh bunker (menhaden) can be snagged off the surf as the water warms. Bunker chunks or especially a fresh bunker head can be a very effective bait for larger striped bass.

The Ocean Catches Up
Come mid-May, the ocean temperatures will be much warmer. As they get into the 60 degree range, the entire saltwater ecosystem of New Jersey will round into form. The landing of bass and blues will become much more wide-spread along the Jersey Shore, bringing much happiness to the local surf anglers and tackle shop owners alike. The early season bass hunter can then switch over from stinky hands to throwing artificials such as big metal-lip swimmers, pencil poppers, paddletail shads and bucktails. All favorites of the mighty striper. One of my favorite corollary enjoyments of the early season striper fishing is just being out there. The fresh air, the salt brine and the absolutely astounding sunsets all attribute to forgetting about a brutal and cold winter and moving forwarding to warmer, happier days.
Be good to your fish! See you on the beach.