Striped Bass Bank Fishing Tips: How to Catch Big Linesiders from Shore

Striped bass are some of the most interesting bass out there. While they’re often overshadowed by the massive largemouth bass part of the sport, they provide an extreme challenge, heftier catch sizes, and unique experiences on the water. 

However, they’re also often considered to be a boater’s fish. After all, they tend to be out in the ocean, and one would assume that you need a boat to catch them. 

Well, you don’t. In fact, you don’t even have to go to the ocean, and it can be much like your average largemouth experience. 

Today, the team at BassForecast is going to go over all the stuff you need to catch big stripers from the shore!

Where to Catch Bass from the Shore

Like we said, a lot of anglers think that striped bass are the type of fish you really need a boat for. If you don’t have one, you’re just never likely to catch one. That’s not true. 

The key to making sure you catch plenty of stripers is to pick the right location. The way you do this is going to change depending on what type of striper you’re fishing for. 

1: Saltwater Striped Bass

Saltwater striped bass can end up fairly far off the coast, and you’re simply not catching those from the shore.

However, they do come in close frequently, and there are several key spots where you’re likely to catch them, even from a pier or secluded rocky outcrop. 

Start by going around tributaries and brackish waters instead of straight out to the ocean itself. The stripers do come through these parts regularly to get to freshwater spots, food sources, and more. The bank fishing experience is a lot like fishing in a river. You have access to both sides; the area is far less intimidating to cover entirely, and if you’re used to inland bank fishing, a lot of your skills will work in this type of environment. 

A pier, outcropping, or other spot that reaches out off the shore is another great spot to look for stripers if you aren’t around tributaries and other bottlenecks.

These let you get off the shoreline quite a bit without a boat, and your opportunities open up. Granted, piers are often packed. So, it’s often worthwhile to find more secluded outcroppings and overhangs to fish from. 

2: Landlocked Striped Bass

One of the things that makes striped bass so unique is that, while they are a saltwater fish, they also do just fine in freshwater. In fact, there are landlocked stripers that never get to see the ocean.

Finding these is relatively simple. Check out the lakes near you and see if they have striped bass listed. These lakes are mostly around the East Coast. 

Once you find a suitable lake, you’ll be best served fishing around the deeper areas in boat lanes, docks, and similar areas. As well as taking the traditional route of following the bait fish.

Striped bass might be bigger and have different behaviors, but they chase prey similarly to largemouth. 

What You Need to Catch Striped Bass from Shore

If you’re used to largemouth, like much of our reader base is, you’re likely going to want to upgrade your gear slightly. That is, unless you have a fairly well-rounded kit already. 

Striped bass can get massive. You’ll usually catch them in the 10–20-pound range, and in the best conditions, they can exceed fifty pounds. This isn’t like your average 5–8-pound bass, and you certainly don’t want to rely on underpowered gear when targeting them. 

On the low end, a medium rod can get the job done. However, if you’re in an area with larger bass, such as the south, you’ll want to go up to a heavy rod. The reel you use should obviously match, just like with any other setup. 

7-10 feet of rod length is recommended. Not only is this going to help you with casting, but it will also help you fight the striper since it’s so much larger than you’re used to. It’s extra leverage.

As for your reel, you don’t necessarily have to go with a spinning reel over a casting reel or vice versa. Both are viable, and both have put plenty of stripers in the hands of anglers. 

However, a good bait casting reel will give you more torque, and that makes it easier to wrestle these beasts. On top of the other benefits of casting setups, a casting option might be better in this situation. 

You definitely need a stronger line than usual. Your standard 10-lb mono, which a lot of beginners use, won’t stand a chance against a 30-lb striper pulling on the line like a tow truck.

We recommend 30lb braid for your main line, and any leader you use should at least be 15-20 lb. 

Your lure selection should typically come down to paddletails and swimbaits. It’s also really useful to keep some topwater plugs on hand, because the topwater bite can be extremely fun and productive.

You’re not going to rely on things like jigs and cranks nearly as much when it comes to stripers. However, they can bite on them every once in a while. 

Other than that, your normal terminal tackle is typically enough. Just remember to use a saltwater setup if you’re fishing in saltwater. You don’t want to destroy your good standard reels using them in the surf. 

How to Catch Striped Bass: Land-Locked & Saltwater

Since striped bass can be in two completely different environments, we’re going to cover both.

1: Paddletails in the Surf

If you’re fishing in saltwater, a larger paddletail swimbait can be your ticket to an exciting fight with a giant striped bass. 

The thing with fishing the surf is that you’re not able to pick out spots like you can with regular lake fishing. If you understand the layout of the bottom, you can target drop-offs and deeper pockets, though. 

We highly recommend hitting those deep spots, too. The stripers will often go there for more space to move around, ambush prey in the shallower sections, and more. 

That produces a bit of a challenge, though. If you’re fishing from shore, you might wonder how you can locate those things. Especially since dragging a weight on the bottom to feel it out is far more difficult.

Well, there are sonar bobbers that give you all the sonar capabilities that a boat has, but from the comfort of the shore. If you have one, use it.

Otherwise, you can cover a ton of water with a paddletail. 

A larger paddletail in a color that’s appropriate for water conditions can be a killer in saltwater.

Get it out there, give it a brisk straight retrieval, and keep casting it in a fanning pattern until you’ve covered everything. If you don’t get a striper, change up your presentation a bit.

This can be used in any water where striped bass are found, and it’s a common tactic, but it’s especially useful in surf conditions where you don’t have the advantage of targeting things such as weeds, boat ramps, downed logs, and other things that you’re used to fishing in a lake. It just looks like open water. 

2: Topwater Plugs for Landlocked Stripers

Topwater plug lures can be killers in a lake setting for landlocked striped bass. In practice, this is a lot like targeting largemouth with a topwater lure.

You’re going to cast it around where you think the bass are, use a basic pop and pause retrieval, and make sure the bass gets it into its mouth before you set the hook. This is exactly like using a topwater frog or anything you would use for largemouth. 

The main difference is that you’re more likely to find striped bass out in the open. 

Usually, when you’re fishing for largemouth, you’ll use a topwater around weed lines and structures. You’re actually more likely to be successful tossing it straight into the open when you’re targeting striped bass. They swim quickly around the open water, enjoy deeper areas, etc. 

3: Soft Plastics

Soft plastics, the same ones you toss for largemouth, are good enough, too. There’s a lot of overlap between stripers and largemouth when it comes to what they eat.

The main difference is taking into account where they’ll be, and that they usually hit a moving target more.

So, don’t be afraid to tie on a trick worm and Texas rig it, move a creature bait around in the deep end, etc. 

4: Umbrella Rig

This is one that you might not actually be allowed to use, depending on the area you’re fishing in.

An umbrella rig is a wire frame with lots of lure attachment points, and it lets you swim a little “school” of lures around. Just like the bait fish. 

Using this is simple. You typically toss it, reel it in, and toss it again. That, or you can bank troll with it. That’s when you cast it down at one end of the bank, walk as far down the bank away from it as you can with the spool free, and then reel it back against the entire bank line. It’s the closest you can get to trolling without a boat. 

Like we said, this might not be legal where you’re at. A lot of fisheries have hook limits. If it is, it also has the drawback of being a bit snag-happy. So, you definitely want to keep it in open, deep water without any hazards to get caught in. 

However, it does catch striped bass reliably. 

What to Expect When Catching Striped Bass from the Shore

While there’s a lot of overlap between your typical largemouth experience and stripers, there are some new things you’ll have to get used to. 

1: You’ll Get Largemouth Too

When you’re fishing for landlocked stripers, you’re going to find it a little harder to dial in specifically on the stripers. There’s so much overlap in their behaviors and preferred lures that you’re very likely to hook up with a few largemouth along the way.

Now, we love largemouth. So, that’s not a problem. However, if you’re targeting a new record or otherwise just want the striper experience, get ready for a more multi-species experience.

In saltwater, you don’t have to worry about largemouth, but there are plenty of species that will go after the same lures. It’s not like going for bass in a farm pond where you simply use a standard bass lure that’s too big for everything else in there. 

2: They Fight Like a Tow Truck

We briefly mentioned this earlier, but the fight is different. When you go for largemouth, they’re all about acrobatics and flipping around.

That’s one of the reasons they’re so popular. They put on a show. A striper is far more likely to dive and run. When they do that, they feel like you’re fighting a tow truck in top gear. 

If you’ve ever gone catfishing, it is somewhat like that. Except, a striper isn’t going to hunker down and make you wonder if it’s off. It goes 0-100 in an instant and keeps tugging. 

3: More Movement is Required

With your regular old bass fishing, you usually want to take things slow. Some of the most popular advice are to leave long pauses between twitches, keep the lure in the water as long as possible, or even dead stick your lure. 

You want to keep your lure on the move with stripers. They want a moving target, and the way they hunt is a bit different. 

For many anglers, this makes it a bit more interesting. Slower presentations do test your patience sometimes when you’re bass fishing. 

Find Some Stripers and Enjoy a Tough Fight

Striped bass are powerful fighters and often much larger than most freshwater catches.

If you haven’t chased them yet, download our fishing app, explore our detailed maps, and get ready to experience the thrill for yourself!