Although a lot of striper fishermen on the lower Roanoke River like to cast to cypress trees along the shoreline, those tactics may work well in mid-day after the sun has had a chance to warm the shallows. But for anglers on the water at dawn, the best idea may be to sit a long cast from the outermost cypress tree, cast toward the shoreline, then bump your lure off the bottom, paying particular attention as it falls over the edge of a creek channel.
Most stripers during winter will be in deeper water near channel edges and drop-offs.
“I’m throwing to blowdowns and stumps a lot of the time,” said guide Richard Andrews, “but the fish often will be in 10 to 20 feet of water off the banks where the ledges drop off to 15 or 25 feet deep.
“The stripers will be sitting right on the edges of the ledges.”
It may be that schools of alewives and herring follow channel edges as they move into creeks after being pulled out of the swamps by falling water.
“I know water temperature isn’t critical for stripers to feed,” Andrews said, “unless it drops to below 45 degrees. The key thing about cold-weather striper bites is you have to be really alert. If the water temperature is from 45 to 50 degrees, a fish will pick up a lure and mouth it, and you’ll feel this subtle ‘tick’ of your line. If you don’t set your hook right then, he’ll drop it.
“But if the water temperature is 51 degrees and higher, that’s when stripers really thump a lure and you won’t have any doubt.”
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