Striper season opens at Santee Cooper

Appreciation of the outdoors is not dictated by a calendar date, but sometimes, a specific calendar date increases an angler’s anticipation.

One highly anticipated opening date at the Santee Cooper lakes is the opening of the striper fishing season on Oct. 1.

According to the SCDNR, the closure is designed to protect the striper population during hot weather when the mortality of stripers released is high. By October, the falling water temperature typically has reached the temperature where catch-and-release is a viable option. The slot-limit regulation of the size of stripers typically ensures plenty of fish outside the slot will be caught and then must be released at most times of the year.

Early October striper fishing is characterized by anglers finding sporadic schooling action, usually early in the morning and again in late afternoons. Topwater schooling occurs, but much of the productive action will be targeting schools of suspended stripers.

And anglers catch them with many different methods.

The fall forage patterns and weather means schools of stripers will surface at times, and that can mean topwater action rules.

The right stuff

Topwater lures cast into a surface-feeding school of stripers are often mauled by the line-sided fish. But the right lures must still be worked correctly. Fast, darting action lures like walk-the-dog plugs often excel and attract attention from big stripers. Poppers are good, and even floating dart-and-dive type lures will produce vicious bites from stripers. The key is to not rely on just a single bait. Be prepared with several options and feed them different lures, and work different retrieves. Stripers will let you know when you’ve got it right.

But just like professional guides, you need a good backup plan because stripers don’t always school on the surface, and when they do, it is often temporary.

A second method that works well is to use artificial lures that sink, and heavy spoons, like Berry’s Flex-It spoons, and Live Target’s Erratic Shiner and Flutter Shad, can be lethal.

If you see stripers school, but they’ve sounded before you get to the spot, vertically jigging on that target will regularly generate quick hookups with stripers.

They’re generally still in the area so you can pick up a few fish if you’re prepared.

Also, you can employ electronics to literally hunt big schools of subsurface stripers. When you locate these schools, often found around some major bottom contour changes such as ledges, humps, or channels, you can employ the same spoons and vertically jig for stripers.

Try live bait

Work right at the depth stripers are marked, or just above that depth. Stripers usually don’t go deeper to hit a lure, but will usually move up.

If you have a live bait tank, this is a prime place to employ live bait, such as blueback herring, available at many bait shops and landings around the lake. Or you can catch fresh, live bait using a cast net. Shad in the 4- to 6-inch range can be lethal on stripers.

Using a small, sharp hook and a 2-ounce sinker rigged above a 3-foot leader, you can lower the bait to striper eye level by watching your electronics.

The fishing can result in incredibly fast action, and it may be a good idea to deploy only as many rigs as you have fishermen aboard the boat. Multiple hookups are very common in this scenario.

Use electronics to find the schools of stripers in a specific area, then drift the live bait at the depth you’re marking stripers, especially when the fish are scattered, but in a general area.

Other lures are effective. The old standby, a one-ounce white or yellow bucktail, will work in most any of these situations. If stripers are schooling, simply cast and retrieve it near the surface. Also, casting and letting it fall a few seconds, then retrieving will allow it to drop deeper and tempt bigger stripers to bite.

On suspended fish, use the ‘count-down’ method to let it fall to the depth fish are marked, then retrieve.

The same goes for shad-imitating swimbaits as well as umbrella rigs. Umbrella rigs are lethal on suspended or schooling stripers.

And finally, some anglers have success simply by trolling, especially around ledges and humps. Use lures that work different depths of water until you get a depth pattern for where you’re fishing. Also, employ electronics to first find areas where forage and stripers are located. That will improve your odds of success when trolling.

Drift away:

Drifting live bait is a great way to fill a cooler with Santee Cooper stripers during the fall. It helps to have electronics in order to pinpoint the depth stripers are holding.