Quote Originally Posted by Rob1678 View Post
Ok guys... Help a brother out! My son and I braved the rain last night from 1:30-5:00am. Not a bite. Saw 3-4 come up and hit the surface really hard. We put in at the dam and fished our way to the buoys. Marked lots of bait... I think. We threw a Redfin and a rapala husky jerk. Tried slow and steady retrieve! Rip and pause, reel and stop...nuttin'. But the rain was fun...almost comical after a while. Went to several points heading to Indian creek and back into Indian creek and nuttin. Did catch four shad. Guess I was in the bait. What's ur thoughts. Technique, front, rain, lure, area ...where did I go wrong.
Therein lies the challenge of nighttime striper fishing. A guy can do everything right and still not get fish. I think this week's cold front slowed the bite down. Not as many blow-ups have been heard since then. Find the shad and one would like to believe fish would be with them, but it is not always the case. As the season progresses, the bite gets later (and shorter). Nighttime bite USUALLY is pretty much over by the time water temps get 74-74 degrees. Tips would be is to find calm banks where the shad are working. Toss Long A Bombers, slivers or redfins(or thundersticks) right ON the bank. Sometimes you can be 2-3 feet off the banks and the fish won't hit(go figure). Last 3 trips out we went to banks with LESS shad, yet those shad were right on the bank. We could almost target individual fish. That being said around 4:30-5AM, as the shad numbers lessened and no fish busting the top, my partner boated four off one point on a Long A. Had we not been hanging around waiting for topwater smallmouth we may well have had the boat on the trailer. Even a few shad generally keeps our interest. If the shad are both on and off the bank, try a bucktail or a sliver. Don't be afraid to try other areas, knowing full well you may zero. It can actually be like deerhunting, in the fact that nearly any place can be the right place, but have to be there at the right time. My best spots are those that I gambled in a search for good banks.