Bad weather good for striped bass

63 Weight in pounds of the Georgia state record striped bass.

2 million Striped bass stocked in Georgia in 2014.

The recent cold, blustery weather that has blanketed North Georgia is a discouraging factor for most of the region’s anglers. Temperatures in the 30s to low 40s, winds of 10 mph or more and overcast or rainy skies make fishing uncomfortable. These conditions also turn off the bite for many species of fish.

That rule doesn’t hold true for striped bass. These fish are noted for being most active when the weather turns foul in their native saltwater habitats.

The land-locked striped bass in the reservoirs of our region behave similarly. Stripers are saltwater fish that run up freshwater rivers to spawn. Some were trapped inland when dams were placed across rivers and were found to survive in the freshwater environment.

The fish ordinarily don’t reproduce in freshwater lakes because their eggs must float freely down rivers for up to a hundred miles to hatch. Georgia and many other states stock striped bass in lakes to control populations of shad and provide added fishing opportunities.

The stripers retain their saltwater instinct to roam open waters. Most often they are found in cool-water to cold-water portions of a reservoir and constantly on the move. That movement generally entails following schools of bait fish.

Anglers use electronic depth finders to locate schools of gizzard or threadfin shad during winter months. It is a sure bet that those pods of bait will have striped bass lurking nearby. Slow trolling with live shad is a good tactic for hooking these fish that can run from 3 pounds up to the 30-pound range.

Allatoona and Carters lakes in northwest Georgia are noted for being the state’s best winter, foul-weather destinations for tangling with stripers. Clarks Hill, Hartwell, Lanier, Jackson, Oconee, Russell and West Point are other major reservoirs in the region that hold striped bass.