The striper stocked in fresh water has never been in salt water. It is a captive of it’s environment and it cannot leave the waters and seek better conditions. Understanding some basics about striper movements the angler can be more successful. Studies revealed that a striper can cover thousands of miles during it’s life. The striper movement is dictated by the forage. The stripers must eat constantly to sustain it’s existence. Stripers can cover a lot of water and this fish does not relate to cover like it’s bass cousin. Wherever the food goes the striper must follow. In big lakes that have a large population of stripers they were introduced because the shad in the lake were very plentiful.

Thread fin and gizzard shad make up almost 90 percent of the stripers diet. If the lake has blue back herring, stripers gouge themselves on these baits all year. The blue backs help the stripers carry over during the hot summer months by living in the same deep water as the stripers. And the bigger the fish the more it has to eat. The basic rule is find bait fish and find stripers.

There are some basics that anglers can use to find the stripers all year long. This fish can chase a school of bait into coves and creeks and then will eat as much as it can. The striper is a powerful swimmer and keeps moving almost all the time. It uses it’s senses to find food at anytime of the day or night. As a cold blooded creature it takes on the water temperature around itself whether hot or cold. But stripers do not like high water temperatures. Given it’s choice the striper will look for any cooler waters in the dead of summer.

In the early spring these fish head up the rivers to spawn. Whether the spawn is successful is still debated. But in the spring there are a lot of fish in the shallows of any river. After the spawning run the stripers head to the main lake looking for food. Like any post spawn fish it must regain the weight needed to get through the hot summer months. In the summer months the fish are deep in the main lake. The fish go through a of stress in hot weather. Look again for the bait fish but keep moving on the lower lake. During winter months, stripers travel to the backs of the creeks on the lower lake. The reason is that the food moves looking back looking for any warming water. Learn to follow the bait fish and the stripers are almost always close by.