Please forgive me for saking this...

[titanxt]

Hello and Happy 4th of July!!!

I am all about walleye fishing, please do not get me wrong. I love this site and have received some very good information from the members here. I do have a question that hopefully won't roll too many eyes...

There are some decent striper lakes around me and my father and I would like to give striper fishing a try once in a while. Is there a striper version of Walleye Central out there?

Thanks!

Andy

[Juls]

I'm pretty sure there are several Striper anglers that visit this site and can help you with your questions. I would just make sure to get "striper" in your title, so the people that do striper fish know you are asking about that particular fish.

Juls

[titanxt]

Thank you for the advice! Changes were made!

[Juls]

Originally Posted by titanxt

Thank you for the advice! Changes were made!

You'll need to repost it all together since even though your title is changed when the thread is open...for some reason it still shows your original title in the forum listing.

At least it is showing that way on my end.

Juls

[Hawker]

Where are ya located, maybe names of the Striper lakes nearby you, and whatcha want to know??

[titanxt]

I live in north/central Indiana. I am about equal distances from Freeman, Raccoon, and Monroe Lakes. Since I have never caught a striper before I do not know where to begin. I have been readig all that I can off of the internet and watching Youtube videos, but I still have a few questions once in a while.

How about this... I plan on going to Raccoon Lake next week. What kind of bait and techniques work well this time of the year. I do have a couple of Line Divers Lite Bites, a 8.8 horse trolling motor, and rod holders just no experience.

Thanks! Andy

[Stripehunter]

Fishing hardware, it's just like walleye trolling. I pull crankbaits or spoons on planer boards all the time. There ain't many walleyes in my parts, if you didn't know any better and saw me on the lake, you'd swear I was walleye fishing.

Reef Runner 600s and 800s are great cranks to troll, along with large fat free shads, etc. Match the forage base.

Other alternative is fishing live bait, in which case I like to slow troll it around 0.8 mph. Usually you'll need to catch bait from the lake which will normally be alewife, shad, etc. That's what they are looking for.

They need cool, oxygenated water. I wouldn't troll a bait running any shallower than where the water is in the low 70's.

Hardest part is finding them. They are generally pelagic, not relating to anything except cool water and/or bait. Good targets are main lake points where the depth intersects cool water.

There are striper forums around, but most are focused on saltwater fish, which in my experiences are quite different fish from those in freshwater lakes.

[Hawker]

Originally Posted by Stripehunter

Fishing hardware, it's just like walleye trolling. I pull crankbaits or spoons on planer boards all the time. There ain't many walleyes in my parts, if you didn't know any better and saw me on the lake, you'd swear I was walleye fishing.

Reef Runner 600s and 800s are great cranks to troll, along with large fat free shads, etc. Match the forage base.

Other alternative is fishing live bait, in which case I like to slow troll it around 0.8 mph. Usually you'll need to catch bait from the lake which will normally be alewife, shad, etc. That's what they are looking for.

They need cool, oxygenated water. I wouldn't troll a bait running any shallower than where the water is in the low 70's.

Hardest part is finding them. They are generally pelagic, not relating to anything except cool water and/or bait. Good targets are main lake points where the depth intersects cool water.

There are striper forums around, but most are focused on saltwater fish, which in my experiences are quite different fish from those in freshwater lakes.

+1, couldn't have said it better!! One other thing to consider is that if there are any Striper guides in the area, you might consider hiring a guide for a day or half day trip which will really help you speed up the learning curve and give you a good idea on how to rig, areas to fish etc!

[Rod Holder]

The three bodies of water you mentioned have the hybrids in them: "wipers", half white bass and half true striped bass. There is one body of water in Indiana which has true striped bass and that is Brookville Reservoir. I have fished both Monroe and Brookville but I target walleyes. I have never landed a striped bass at Brookville though I had one on once. You can tell in an instant that you have a wiper or striped bass on your line because your drag will start singing. Both true striped bass and hybrids are powerful fish and hit hard. One way to spot where wipers/stripers are in action is to look for lake surface which almost appears to be boiling or roiling. These fish are open water baitfish "herders". If you see little fish jumping out of the water for no apparent reason, most likely they are fleeing from the predator fish. One significant difference between trolling for walleyes and trolling for stripers is not putting a bait way down deep, at or near the bottom as one would for walleyes. If you can find a school of baitfish, chances are wipers/stripers aren't too far away. I took an 80 year old friend out one evening on Monroe strictly trolling for wipers. We were pulling Lil Rippers behind planer boards, I think 80' set back behind the boards. The Lil Rippers were probably only running 4-8' down. He caught a wiper over six pounds which put up a nice fight, made his night.

[titanxt]

That is excellent information! Thank you very much! Does the amount of line out change the depth of crankbaits past a certain point? For example, does 50 feet of line out versus 100 feet of line out cause a crankbait to change running depth?

Also, does anyone use something like the Dipsy Diver to get baits down farther in the summer where the cooler water is located?

Last question... Why do they stock the hybrids in Indiana? Not that it means much to me. I did read where they cannot reproduce up here for some reason...

Thank you again!

Andy