Tell someone where to catch a Chesapeake Bay striped bass and you may help them for a day, but teach them how to identify specific seasonal patterns, and you’ve put them on the express route to becoming an elite fisherman. The fall migratory run is on.  This is the time of year when the learning curve drops significantly and stripers feed voraciously. They aren’t too picky about the kind of baits they’ll take and they aren’t as choosy about lure presentation. It’s a great time to learn how to cast lures for big fish.  It’s also the time when I step up on my “think patterns, not places” soapbox.  Ask any accomplished angler their secret to repeated success and they’ll tell you it’s the ability to identify specific feeding patterns.  I believe that you can drop a good fisherman into any body of water in the world and he’ll catch fish as long as you give him enough time to recognize prevailing patterns.  Pattern recognition is especially important on the Chesapeake where conditions change quickly.  Fortunately, fish are creatures of habit and we can identify predictable characteristics in their behavior.

I fished this past Saturday with a new fishing buddy, Jeff Little.  You may have heard of Jeff because he’s well-known in the kayak fishing world for his instructional DVDs and videos about smallmouth fishing. Fortunately for Chesapeake Bay fishermen, he’s been bit by the striper bug. I’ve teamed up with him to produce some videos that illustrate my most successful techniques.  Stay tuned because we’ll soon be posting one we shot Saturday about striper fishing in the fall on the Chesapeake Bay. We’ll launch a short preview first.  If you like it, you can watch the action-packed 30-minute version for just $2.49. Read More!