Winter Striper Fishing and Holdover Striped Bass Secrets

Today is the first official start of winter in the northern hemisphere, and while most people in our neck of the woods are content with staying inside where it's warm, I know at least a few anglers are chomping at the bit to do some winter striper fishing.

In this post I am going to share with you some ideas, tactics and secrets that I think will help you experience success winter striped bass fishing much quicker than I did!  If you are looking to learn about how to catch holdover striped bass during the winter, then this blog post is for you.

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How My Winter Striped Bass Fishing Obsession Got Started

When I was younger, the winter was just too long for me to handle.  I would lay awake at night during January and February, conjuring up new ideas and fishing tactics to use during the next season.  The stretch from December through May felt like nothing short of an eternity.

During the 90's I would sometimes hear stories about winter striper fishing and people catching holdover striped bass during the winter on Cape Cod. Being just a kid at the time, and not having tools like Facebook at my disposal, these stories remained just that - unconfirmed stories about winter striper fishing opportunities that alluded me.

Then one day I came across an old copy of On the Water Magazine.  On the cover stood a man with a striper while snow fell around him.  "Was this some sort of a cruel joke?" I remember thinking to myself.  "Could it be true that this guy is fishing the Cape and catching striped bass during the winter?"

I read the article with such vigor that my eyes hurt.  According to the article, it was possible to catch stripers fishing on Cape Cod during the winter.  "If this guy can do it, so can I!" I recall thinking.  And so started my next Cape Cod fishing obsession-learning how to catch striped bass during the winter.

The Winter Striper Fishing Learning Curve

I quickly discovered that fishing the Cape for stripers during the winter  is easier said than done.  I recall dragging my Dad for hours through sub-freezing temperatures looking for signs of life.  I tried plugs, swimmers, jigs, and shad bodies of all sizes and shapes.  I tried different estuaries and many obscure locations, each time hoping that this spot would be the winter striped bass fishing hot spot that would finally produce a bite.

Fortunately I had a mom and dad that understood my intense curiosity with winter striper fishing. They continued to take me to places where I thought I might have a chance of catching a winter striper, and sometimes they would watch from a heated car as I froze my butt off!

Learning something new requires a fair amount of time, effort and energy.  If something is worth learning, it is not going to be learned instantly, and this holds true with winter striper fishing. 

Maybe I am a little slow, but for me 5 years seems to be the right amount of time to really learn something new.  Said another way, if I am hoping to tackle something brand spanking new (like catching a striper during the winter) I am most likely going to have to put in 5 years of effort before I really experience any significant results.

Thus I spent 5 years in the marshes during the winter, trying my best to figure this darn holdover striper thing out.  I had a bunch of fun, but I will admit that my hopes of success began to dwindle after the 5th winter striped bass fishing season passed by without a bite.

Yet with all this time logged in, I found it impossible to give up, and thank God I stuck with it, because I would finally crack the code the very next season.

My First Successful Holdover Striped Bass Fishing Trip

The year it finally happened I was 19 and home for the Holidays after my first semester of college. It was mid-December and the sun was shining nicely during an abnormally mild afternoon. I had high hopes as always, but no real expectation of hooking a fish. Nevertheless I set out on foot to a virgin Cape Cod fishing spot I had not fished during the previous 5 years.

I walked for a long time that day, bypassing many good looking fishing spots for no apparent reason. Maybe I had a hunch or maybe I just didn't feel like logging in anymore "casting practice" as I had been the previous years.  I forget the reason why but I just kept on walking until I stumbled upon a section of water that looked just too nice to pass up.

And then it happened. For a moment I thought I was actually hallucinating.  Was that a swirl or just my eyes playing tricks on me?  Are there really fish breaking the surface, way back here, in the middle of December-or am I experiencing some post-college freshmen party/drank too much cheap booze and now I don't know what the heck I'm looking at syndrome?

I made a cast towards the swirls/hallucinations and hoped for the best.  Nothing.  I made another cast.  Nothing.  As I made my third cast I was indeed starting to believe that I was seeing things.  Then my line went tight.  What the hell is happening.  My rod bent.  What is this.  Something splashed the surface.  Is that a fish?  Is this really happening?  Is it healthy to be this excited about hooking up with a striper the size of shoe?

Yes it is.  And yes, I was actually hooked up with a striped bass!

That day ended up being nothing short of epic as far as winter Cape Cod striper fishing is concerned.  Final tally, according to my 2004 fishing log, was 34 stripers between 12 and 24 inches.  I was astounded.  It was true, some bass really do spend the winter here on good ole Cape Cod.

Since that day I have returned each season to particular winter Cape Cod fishing spots with hopes of repeating that day's success.  Some winters are better than others and some Cape Cod holdover fishing spots produce while others shoot blanks.  I've enjoyed days of double digit catches while snow pelted down from above, as well as many days with nothing as much as a sniff.

Each winter is different, that is for sure.

Yet if you are hoping to mix things up this winter and head out on your own for a chance at a winter fish, then I do think you may have a pretty darn good chance.  More than likely you will have to log in some time and effort in order to find and catch these elusive winter specimens, however the information in this post will surely help you cut the learning curve.

Once in a while while growing up, I would hear a story about someone catching a big striped bass (over 40 inches) on Cape during the winter, and I would be willing to wager that right now there are at least a few huge winter stripers swimming somewhere on Cape.

However, schoolies are a much more common catch than big striped bass during the winter. The general consensus is that small striped bass are able to deal with the cold better than their larger brethren.

Nevertheless, over the past 5 years I've caught a handful of holdover striped bass in the 30 to low 40 inch range.

I once caught a 38 incher while striped bass fishing on Cape Cod during January. In 2016 I caught this 40+ incher (pictured below) while holdover striped bass fishing in late March.

Striper fishing in winter can yield surprise big fish, but most of the fish will be on the smaller side. However I don't recommend using super light tackle because there is always a chance that you'll run into a rogue big holdover striper.

Also, in some spots you might have to lift a striper up a marsh bank. If you're using very light line then you will risk snapping the line while hoisting the striper up the bank.

With this in mind I would recommend outfitting yourself with a 7-9 foot spinning setup with 30 pound braid and a 30 pound leader. You won't be making long casts from a wide open like those of Outer Cape Cod. A shorter rod is more appropriate for the estuary and back bay areas where winter stripers live.

A few years ago a member from MFCC was walking along the cold, wind and snow whipped shoreline of an exposed Cape Cod beach when he stumbled across a freshly dead striper in the sand. It was just a few days before Christmas when he found the bass.

His guess was that the striper had succumbed to the brutally cold ocean temperatures. Yet what was the bass doing out in the exposed ocean to begin with? After digging in deeper I discovered that the fish had washed up just a half of a mile away from the opening to an estuary.

Now the story began to make more sense.

Perhaps the striper had ventured from the relatively safe confines of the estuary and been caught in the unexpected cold water temperature of the open ocean? Or maybe the striper had died in the estuary, and been carried out to the open beach by the current?

The moral of the story is that you will be hard pressed to find any striped bass along the open beachfront during the winter. You need to be ok with venturing  into the Cape's estuaries in order to find holdover stripers.

Estuaries are the only place where I have ever found striped bass during the winter. One winter in particular I was fortunate to stumble across a portion of an estuary that contained hundreds of striped bass, all stacked up throughout a 200 yard stretch.

Marshes and estuaries on Cape Cod are safe havens for many different species of fish. My Dad likes to refer to estuaries as "nurseries" for striped bass and I have to say that he is spot-on.

I think holdover striped bass on Cape Cod spend their time in estuaries because estuaries offer protection from the hazards of the open ocean. So far some of the most productive estuaries I have located on Cape Cod for winter holdover striper fishing include...