Anyone have any experince flyfishing for hybrid striped bass? I would really like to go out for these fish but other that a magazine article I don’t know too much about them. I do know they don’t like the sunlight. Where would I start in a lake that has them in, other than looking for fisherman that are pulling them in. I do know they get like footballs and are excellent to eat. I don’t keep many fish but those I would.
I catch them occasionally from the bank in one of the lakes I fish when I’m fishing for LM bass. I use clouser minnows in olive or chartruese over white. They are terrific fighters and a blast to catch. They are open water fish and you will probably need a boat to target them. Lots of fun though…
Jim Smith
Your best chances when fishing from shore are to fish the downwind shorelines. If the wind is blowing STRAIGHT at the shore, and there are rocks along the shoreline, that seems to be just about perfect! But shallow points or sandbars that have the wind blowing onto them can alse be productive.
FishnDave is right on the money… they concentrate on those sort of areas because of the baitfish getting blown there. Get yourself some bigger baitfish patterns and HOLD ON.
Stripers and hybrids can also be found on the surface cutting up bait fish in the early morning and evening and sometimes even on cloudy days at other times. It’s really a question of being in the right place at the right time (ie. a lot of luck) but they often chase bait right into shore or against riprap and other stone work. They can be caught from shore when they do this. They often repeat this pattern serveral days in a row. 8T 
Someone lied to you when they said they were excellent to eat.
I fish for them all the time. You can find them off of sandy points in the mornings and afternoons, rip raps, and they are abundant below tail races. Use any fly that resembles shad, or fathead minnows.
They are excellent table fare. I have a freezer-full as we speak. But, like anything else, you need to know how to properly prepare them. Make sure you remove the red strip of meat along the lateral line from the fillets. They are great fried, baked and broiled.
Parrot,
Fresh water striper and hybrids are a fine table fish. Have you had some kind of bad experience with them? BTW, I am very happy to say that few and few stripers and hybrids are ending up on the table. Many guides and anglers now use a catch and release policy. 8T
Catch and release because they are a lot of trouble to mess with and make decent table fair. I just dont care that much for stripers and hybrids, small whites caught in the winter arent bad but this time of year dont care for them at all plus I just like to stir stuff up sometimes.
Sorry, I hope I am not hijacking the thread, but I just brought home some striper filets from NJ. I trimmed the red meat off, and then made a one gallon solution of cold water with 3 tablespoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of baking soda to soak the filets for an hour. I patted them dry, and then I used creole spices and drizzled a little olive oil before putting them on the grill. The fish held together and blackened just right. Fantastic fish and the first time I have had them. My wife and I loved the meaty texture and the flavor was great, not fish slime tasting at all, very mild and I think as good as walleye. And believe me, I have eaten a lot of walleye while living in the heart of walleye country from Lake Erie. I have however eaten white bass from Lake Erie and did not like them, so I don’t know how the wipers will taste. I would like to try white bass again using the solution soak first before cooking. By the way, with the solution soak do not add any more salt to the fish afterward. Good luck with catching the wipers, wish I had some advice but I’ve never caught one.
I’m on the bank or wading flats most of the time which means I do most of my white/wiper chasing in the early spring and late fall. shallow points that drop off into deep water are my favorites, with shallow bays between steep points being almost as good. Both are best with a good breeze blowing into them or heavy overcast. A box of Clousers in chartreuse/white, blue/white, and brown/orange are all you really need, but I also carry a few crayfish patterns for fishing riprap areas where the waves knock them out of their hiding places in the rocks. The white bass especially seem to like the crayfish patterns.
Might I suggest prowling the hardware fishing groups or going shopping at a local bait parlor to get the low-down from the bait and hardware guys?
I have no idea what the particulars are up that way but seeing how they are so varied in behaviour patterns lake to lake here in Texas I’d suspect that it’s the same up in PA.
They go where the food and water temps are right which changes as the year passes on. On Texoma there are certain times of the year when shore fishing, or wading out to where one can cast out to them, is great and then other times when you need a boat and some lead core to get to them.
That is my humble 2? which I hope sets your feet on the righteous path of stripers on the fly. Great fighters by the way. No idea why there is a B.A.S.S. Tournament when they could be hooking up with 20 and 30 and more pound rockets!
Sorry, I haven’t checked the post in a couple of days. Normally I don’t keep any fish I catch, I’d like to start keeping a few, namely crappie, walleye, and hyrid striped bass. There’s 2 lakes that have these type of fish within an hour of my house and I would love to get one on the end of my line. My back’s been out this spring so between that and another rental house I bought I missed out again. I have a canoe and a kayak but with my back the way it is right now neither of those are a option. I think a boat with a trailer is in my future. Sitting for any time destroys my back right now.
How much longer will the hybrids be in waters depths reachable by a flyfisher?
What we’ve found here in central Iowa, is that starting about the last week in August, and running right up through at least the end of October, white bass and hybrids tend to inhabit the shallows very frequently. In the reservoirs here, they are following the shad, and can often be caught in water less than 3’ deep, and sometimes literally inches from shore.
A fast moving shad imitator or large topwater popper (like a crease fly or pencil popper) can elicit some pretty exciting strikes.
We’ve also found that the hybrids have a tendency to try to exit the lake over (or through) the outlet structure, so if your lakes have fair-sized streams below them, you might consider targeting them.
Good luck!! 