Launching a kayak into cold winter weather and water is not for the faint of heart. Unlike the warmer months when the “kayaking” part of kayak fishing is just as enjoyable as the “fishing” part, winter kayak fishing is a bit more challenging.
Not to suggest that kayak anglers can’t catch striped bass and other members of the white bass family year-round, but January is a great month to target stripers and hybrids, because unlike most other warmwater gamefish species, stripers love the colder water and feed regularly during the winter.
Striped bass can be found in both saltwater and freshwater in both Carolinas, but the majority of kayak anglers target the freshwater variety, owing to the safety of inland reservoirs and rivers.
Striped bass are thermally oriented fish. This means stripers thrive much better in colder water than they do in warmer water. Early winter months provide temperature ranges all over a lake that are in the stripers acceptable range. However, instinct provides them with the desire to feed and build up fat reserves for the winter, hence striped bass are going to be in the vicinity of baitfish. So kayak fishing for stripers means targeting the schools of baitfish they’re preying on.
Scout it out
The limited range offered by a kayak requires striped bass anglers to do some pre-scouting before deciding where to drop the boat in.
Fortunately, seabirds are also targeting the same baitfish schools, and sort of mirror above the water what’s going on below. During winter months, aquatic birds such as gulls, terns, loons, and a variety of fish-feeding fowl migrate inland. This migration may span hundreds of miles inland. An influencing factor in this migration is that baitfish normally abundant on the coast have retreated to the depths off the coast and are not as readily available to fishing birds. As inland baitfish move up in the water column and further in towards shore, freshwater bait provides an available substitute for birds willing to travel.
Striped bass play a role in this food chain as feeding fish push bait further up to the surface as well as disorienting the bait, making them easy prey for diving birds. As a result, many fishermen rely on these “aerial bait watchers” to give away the locations of both schools of baitfish and schooling stripers.
Some areas of a lake are better suited for targeting schooling fish. Long points, shoals, and humps, anywhere striped bass can corral baitfish, are going to be a potential target launch area.
Find the bait
While the stripers themselves may or may not seek out warmer water based on their current metabolism, forage fish definitely do. For this reason, shallow flats, the backs of creeks, warm water discharges, confluences with shallow creeks or streams, rocks, concrete; any factor that can cause water temperatures to be a few degrees warmer than the surrounding areas, will attract baitfish. And stripers will be close by. Add these areas to the list when deciding your kayak launch spot.
This also explains why sometimes the upper water column out over the deep water often holds stripers. Sunlight penetration will heat the first few inches of the surface water which attracts the bait. Bait may not be recorded on a depth finder because they are holding at the surface.
Powerboat anglers targeting striped bass frequently use blueback herring and gizzard shad to target striped bass and hybrids. Storing these baits for even a day-long fishing trip requires high-capacity bait tanks that are not feasible for kayak anglers.
If striped bass are keying on threadfin shad on your home waters, it’s wise to downsize your bait offering in an attempt to “match the hatch” for feeding stripers. One viable substitute for threadfin during this time is the use of baitshop minnows. “Minnows” cover a wide range of forage species but typically may include shiners, chubs, dace or even goldfish. Large minnows in the 3-inch range are typically much hardier and more available than using natural baits, be they herring, alewives, or shad.
If targeting winter stripers from a kayak with artificial lures, downsize your lure to accommodate the stripers diet. Effective winter baits include, 2- to 3-inch swimbaits, hair jigs, and bucktails, small crankbaits, inline spinnerbaits, and jigging spoons. Vertical jigging of jigs and spoons are especially effective for mimicking thermally stressed and dying threadfin shad. If air temps are near or below the freezing mark for an extended period, shad will die off in great numbers. A vertically jigged bait mimics the dying throes of a shad.
Depth is critical
When targeting winter stripers, depth presentation of your bait is critical. Even a hearty fish in cold water will be reluctant to take a bait unless it is right in its face and too easy to pass up.
Winter striped bass are more likely to hold anywhere in the water column where they are comfortable and baitfish are nearby. That way, when stripers do feed, they don’t have far to go which means less energy to expend. Recent advances in sonar technology make it possible for striped bass anglers to know the precise depth a single fish is holding, and can even chart the depth of a bait being lowered to the fish, so long as the bait is within the cone angle of the sonar unit’s transducer.
While targeting striped and hybrid bass from a kayak during the winter months, it’s very common to come across two smaller cousins to the striped bass – the white bass and the white perch.
It’s not uncommon to find hot striped bass fishing first thing in the morning until the fish turn off during the mid-morning, particularly on a bright sunshine day. At that point it might be worthwhile to target a little “cousin action” as both white bass and white perch are some of the most dependable of all winter species in the Carolinas’ freshwater reservoirs. Like striped bass, white perch and white bass feed extensively throughout the winter.
Kayak anglers choosing to target white perch will benefit from having a decent sonar unit attached to the boat. Other than the aforementioned water birds ear-marking feeding activity, look for white perch to stage on long points on the windward side of the lake.
Large schools of white perch will move frequently but tend to gravitate to points. Artificial lure anglers simply need to tie on a small to medium jigging spoon in flashy colors to tempt the fish into biting. Live bait anglers can drift or troll with multiple hooked rigs of minnows, worms or small pieces of cut bait.
Of particular interest to the kayak striped bass angler is a finding by biologists thru telemetry studies that members of the white bass family – stripers, hybrids, and white bass/perch exhibit a stronger preference for a particular “home range” during winter and summer than at other times of the year. What this means for striped bass anglers is that once a cold water pattern has been established, fish are more likely to stay in that area throughout the winter. This allows the kayak angler to enjoy repeated action without having to research every winter kayak fishing trip. ■
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