Awhile back, I sat down with my pals Ralph Dallas and Fred McClintock for a chat about giant stripers -- the haunts and habits of these bruisers, how they mess with our heads, that sort of thing. My article, based on that conversation, ran in In-Fisherman last year. Now, Editor In Chief Doug Stange, himself bitten by the trophy striper bug, asked me to explore this topic. Glad to delve into it further, I arranged for a follow-up.

After a day on the Cumberland River with Dallas and McClintock, and smelling of skipjack herring and funky bait tanks, we occupied a back booth in a nearby barbecue joint. By the end of our session, I'd gotten the nitty-gritty details about fishing livebait for the biggest, baddest stripers in Creation.

ABOUT BAIT

Wirth: Let's start with key baits for big stripers.

Dallas: Like most striper fishermen, I started out using gizzard shad, but I've gone almost strictly to big skipjack herring -- some of the baits I use are over 24 inches long. I firmly believe that for fish 40 pounds and over, they're just about the only livebait worth fishing. You can go through a river hole with gizzard shad and catch 20- and 30-pound stripers, but if you have a big skipjack out there, your chances of catching a monster fish go way, way up. When I first began using them seriously, I was amazed at the difference in the sizes of stripers we'd catch on skipjack versus shad. My clients have achieved many In-Fisherman Master Angler Awards from our region over the years on big skipjack, and I've caught two Tennessee state records on them, including the current record of 65 pounds 6 ounces.

Cast-netting in tailraces gathers shad for bait.

McClintock: I use both gizzard shad and skipjack. Availability usually dictates which one -- sometimes you can't get skipjack and can only catch shad, or vice-versa. Gizzard shad are abundant in our river systems and they run in big schools. You can usually catch all you need in one good cast-net throw around shoals and inflowing creeks. Skippies run in schools, too, but they're very fast and can be much harder to locate. They're easiest to catch below dams, as they favor turbulent water.

Dallas: We catch skipjack on a spinning outfit rigged with two or three crappie-size tube jigs tied up the line. Cast the jigs into the fast water and retrieve with a rapid jerking action.

Wirth: Do you ever vary your bait size according to conditions?

McClintock: Big skipjack are unbeatable in spring and fall. At spawning time, you can't fish a bait that's too big -- a huge cow striper engulfs a 26-inch skipjack with no problem. But after the spawn and through summer, I've found that smaller skipjack and big gizzard shad work about equally well on the river stretches I fish. When the stripers seem rather inactive, I make sure to bring medium and small baits in my tank as well as big ones. I downsize baits if the big ones aren't getting bit.

Continued -- click on page link below.