Ohio river stripers

mklazer20

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Going to be fishing the willow island dam tomorrow morning for some stripers. All I've got on the bigger side is a variety of large muddlers anyone got a go to when it comes to fishing rivers for big striped bass?


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ejsell

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Going to be fishing the willow island dam tomorrow morning for some stripers. All I've got on the bigger side is a variety of large muddlers anyone got a go to when it comes to fishing rivers for big striped bass?


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Never tried stripers myself but maybe deep clousers. The ones with big heavy dumbbell eyes. I like to swing them with a fast retrieve in deep heavy current for steelhead. It's an amazing feeling when they get slammed.

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Rip Tide

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I fish for striped bass in the salt all the time and I'm a big fan of "match the hatch"
Now I'm not talking about an "exact" match like is sometimes needed in trout fishing. It's far more basic than that.
What's important is matching the length and profile of the prominent baits, and I think where you are that might be gizzard shad and minnows.

Low profile minnows are easy. Clouser minnows, deceivers, blonds .. your basic bucktail streamers.

Shad have a high profile and shad streamers are often tied "high /low style" from synthetics.
Store bought ones look fancy and are priced that way too.



The ones I use are simple to tie and really all you need.
The Hi-Tie is the basis of all hi/low style streamers and is just a few stacks of material lashed on the top of the hook shank. One in front of the last
But I'll most often use a Tabory Snake Fly which is a muddler variation.
A tail of ostrich herl or saddle hackle, a little flash, a few stacks of marabou tied on top, and a muddler collar and head.
Simple and very effective.

 

bigjim5589

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Depends on what you mean by large. Most flies that I used were at least 4" long. Stripers are opportunists, aren't usually picky, but can show preferences at times.

I agree with everything that Rip said, and the flies he & ejsell suggested are what I used most. As Rip said, it's best to try to match the local forage in profile & length, and somewhat close in color. Although, they'll take attractor flies too sometimes. Chartreuse is usually a good bet, and particularly in combinations with some other colors. Chart./white, chart./pink, chart./ yellow, etc. Black & purple is sometimes a good color combination. Not a bad idea to have a range of colors from light to dark, with most intending to match natural forage, at least generically. The light to dark variety will help with both light conditions & water clarity.

My most used, most successful colors are white, black, and chartreuse. I tie baitfish patterns often in gray shades, shades of olive, tan, or black, all over white with varying amounts of flash. These can imitate various baitfish species no matter where I'm fishing.

I would add Seaducers, Flatwings, Half & Half's & Murdich Minnows to the list. Also some topwater flies: poppers, sliders and Gurglers. As Rip, said, match the hatch generally, and all these various styles of flies because of the materials used in them have some different motion & profile. I've even tied some, like the Seaducer or Deceivers with saddle or neck hackle in the tails, still the same basic fly, but each type of hackle has a slightly different action.
I like Half & Half's tied with hackle or rabbit strips in the tails. Again, each has a different look & movement.

If possible, as the rods you may have will limit the sizes you can cast, have some variety too for the sizes. It's great to have 10 different fly patterns or styles, but if they're all the same size that too very much limits your possibilities. Flies in the 3" to 8" range are very common for Stripers.

Basically, larger flies that will allow you to cover the water column top to bottom and generically match the local forage is all you need. ;)
 

mklazer20

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Didn't get any stripers but got few of these and some small mouth


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