April 2025 Special Feature

John Field Fly Fishing for Trophy Striped Bass

“Trophy-sized striped bass have different behaviors, habitats, and preferences than
younger, smaller ones. Large stripers have superior swimming and feeding abilities.
To make more informed decisions about how to fish for big striped bass, it’s
important to know their physical characteristics, abilities, and senses. You’ll need to
predict their general locations and when they will be associating with precise
locations throughout seasonal changes, lunar cycle, tide, if applicable, and specific
times of day. You’ll also need to know what the bass and their prey are doing and
why the forage is in a specific location.” “As with lures, fishermen will use flies they
thin will catch the fish they are hoping to catch. Their reasoning ranges from “it has
the best resemblance” or “the action triggers strikes or just the popularity of the fly
pattern. Like most commercial products a catchy name and advertising can motivate
people to buy and use some products more than others. The more accumulative
fishing hours in the water, over hundreds of anglers, the more success a fly will have,
even if it’s not the best pattern. This feeds into confirmation bias. A more obscure
pattern might be catching bigger or more fish per hour.” “Keeping the fly farther
away from the sound and sight of a boat can mean the difference between a hooked
and a scared fish. Being a little further away also prevents fish from seeing you and
your rod while casting. A long cast provides a longer swing in current, or a longer
retrieve before the fly reaches the boat. This can result in more bites from species
that often follow before striking. If you’re wading, anchored, or staked-up and don’t
have time to wade or move the boat closer to a fish, cast farther.”

Note: John Field was the guest speaker at a recent MHTU General Membership
Meeting. These paragraphs are pulled from his latest book, Fly Fishing for Trophy
Striped Bass and are used with his permission.