I have wanted to get after these dog day stripers for several years now.I'm only wanting to know about tackle and technique not folks fishing spots. Is live bait the only way to go? Will bream catch them almost as good as shad? I've got a couple of spring holes in mind way up in the creeks I'm going to try. What is the basic rig for fishing them with live bait? I'm thinking a couple of rigs with bream out and throwing some kind of lure at the same time. What would be the best thing to throw at them? Thanks for any help or tips.

Bream may actually be better than shad in a lot of cases. If you dont have a good bait tank with good circulation, I think I would prefer bream. I believe that liveliness is more important than what kind of bait. I have fished with bream while my buddy continued to use shad with lipstick [red lips]. I was outfishing him about 3 to 1 until he put on a bream.

A Rapala j-13, a Redfin, Top Dawg, have produced a few good ones. As have Sassy-Shad. I usually use a variation of a Carolina rig with live bait. Sometimes I use a three way, freeline, or a ballon rig.

You are gonna want some braid with a 2-3' mono or flouro leader on a rod with plenty of backbone so you can turn them before they wrap up in the treetops. Most of the ones up in the creeks this time of year will likely be 10-20 lbs.

They should be up in the paintrock about now but I dont know where.

I love to fish for Stripah's but tfd1224 seems to do a little more of it, and catches a bunch. Maybe he can expand on this.

Thanks good to know on the bream.Probably going to get my medium action rods broke Lol. The two holes I'm going to try are about 20 ft deep is the bite best real early in the day?

Early morning and late afternoon are usually best.

On the bait thing, If you have a good bait tank and can keep them healthy, The shad will be better, but if not, I'd have some bream handy. Dont try to keep too many shad. 10 lively ones will catch more stripers than 30 with red lips. A little rock salt and a little ice will help keep them healthy. A round tank or rounded corners at least, in the bait tank is highly recommended. Good luck.

before you go and waste alot of money on trying to make a filtered aerated and insulated bait tank just break out the wallet and go get you a super bait tank II i spent about 300 bucks and about 2 weeks of trial and error on making a bait tank that would keep shad alive for 3 days or so and then i got a grayline bait tank because it had the best reviews on the internet and i didnt like the first one i got so i sent it back and they sent me another one and after i used it for a week or so i sent it back because it wouldnt keep my water clean and i couldnt tell if i had 1 shad in there or 200. then i sent that piece of crap back and i got a 50 gallon super bait tank II. i could put 50 gallons of the muddiest water you could find in that sucker and it would be gin clear in 1 hour or less.and i have kept shad alive for up to a week in it before i threw them back in the lake to catch new shad. i can put a shad in there that has been hit by a striper and is floating belly up and in 20 minutes it will be just as lively as it was when i caught it. all the other info is useless if you dont have a good bait tank. i have pulled up beside people using 55 gallon drums with fresh lake water flowing in the bottom and the old water flowing out the top through a hose using the same size shad and outfished them 10 to 1.

So your bait tank has some magic, shad impregnating secret sauce?

It is a good looking bait tank though!

when I moved back to Bham in 92'I wanted to start fishing Logan Martin for stripe, salts and hybrids, again. I started asking who was catching fish and talked to all of them.

One guy would say three turbines running, first light, white jigs, middle of the river. Next guy said one turbine, daylight, near the bank, jig. Another said no turbines, at night, redfin slooooow fished on top, well below the dam. All of em swore their way was the only way, funny thing they all caught fish.

My favorite was at night well below the dam, no turbines with a redfin or, better yet, a slow retrieved deer hair bass bug on top. Nothing like a 5-20 pound stripe blasting a top water at six feet at night!!!! We caught some damn big spotted bass also, several over six pounds.

oh yeah, winter time right above the dam at the water intake with a fly rod and saltwater streamers. We landed several salts over 20 pounds doing that....

if you want to call it that, but most people would call it 50 gallons of tap water, 5 caps of dechlorinator with aloe, 5 cups of rock salt, 5 ounces of hydrogen peroxide and so much dissolved oxygen that the water in my bait tank fizzes like a cup of sprite, oh yeah and its also handy to keep a spray bottle of foam-off on hand. just because your shad are swimming right side up doesnt mean they are "alive."

I'm phucking with you man

It was the same when I used to free line for Spanish. Most would catch a bunch of bait and throw it in their bait bucket. I would sabiki my bait one at a time and use the most lively shad I could. The spanish would hammer the ones that went wild in the water. Fun times.

oh i know you are messing with me. its just amazing that people think that because their bait is swimming it will catch fish. no one believes that they need a 600 dollar bait tank, they think if they can keep their bait from going belly up for 2 hours they have accomplished something. i am also very methodical about my striper fishing and i believe that small subtle variations can mean the difference between boating trophy class stripers all day and not getting a bite.

I agree with all the bait tank advice 100%. I started taking care of my minnows alot better crappie fishing and they are supercharged when they hit the water. I'm stuck using bream on the stripers just not able to get the shad.

Great info! The treatment of the water is interesting. We used old methods, salt, ice and foam away but never hydrogen peroxide. How or what do you use for the dissolved oxygen?

Dissolved oxygen comes from good aeration.

I went & bought all the ingredients listed for this super tank water. I figure in the morning I will just stop at the local store & pick up some frozen shad & throw them in there. By the time I get to the lake they should be kicking pretty strong.

^^^^^^

Is that similar to rape?

Well we didn't have any luck. It took us to about 7:45 to find bait & we finally got 2 runs. One took the bait the other I got a hook in but my rod doubled over & my fluorocarbon leader broke. Don't know if it was a bad knot or if he had me over something. My tank wasn't quite up to snuff. The salt really made the shad frisky but my sprayer knocked the scales off. I tried to keep some over night but about half died. I looked at the super bait tank & added a restriction & a air line to do away with my sprayers & finally got it rite. Now it lets loose under water & mine fizzles with small bubbles so we shall see.

^^^^now that's funny^^^^