. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. THE CATCH The Season for Stripers By Jeannie Faris Norris P .ack the poles and the lures — it's time to head for the breakers off the Outer Banks. The striped bass gather there in the fall to overwinter, and they're just a cast away from the beach. The autumnal cues of shorter days and lower temperatures propel stripers into the rough waters of inlets and breakers from Hatteras to Virginia. The fish will stay in this "staging area" from late September to March, says Jim Bahen, a fishery agent for
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. THE CATCH The Season for Stripers By Jeannie Faris Norris P .ack the poles and the lures — it's time to head for the breakers off the Outer Banks. The striped bass gather there in the fall to overwinter, and they're just a cast away from the beach. The autumnal cues of shorter days and lower temperatures propel stripers into the rough waters of inlets and breakers from Hatteras to Virginia. The fish will stay in this "staging area" from late September to March, says Jim Bahen, a fishery agent for North Carolina Sea Grant and an avid recre- ational fisher. Angling for these big, silvery fish — named for the long, black stripes that run from head to tail — is typically best in the waters off Buxton, Bahen says. "That's usually an area close to where they come into shore," he says. "They feed on bait that congregates around those areas. They're a big deal in Dare and Hyde counties, but they're also a big fishery in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Rockfish (another. November at Cape Hatteras is prime time for catching prize stripers Scoit D. Tavbr name for striped bass) are the number- one recreational fish up ; Off the Carolina coast, anglers can cast for stripers from the beach or toss a line off a charter boat. The best way to catch striped bass is to "sight fish" — to spot a school by watching for the gulls that flock as the fish prey on gray trout or speckled trout, a couple of their favorite meals. "When I go fishing for rockfish, I'm looking for gulls," Bahen says. "Gulls tell us what's going on just below the surface of the water. When we see them hovering over or diving into the surf, there are usually fish feeding underneath ; Bahen recommends using a 9- to 12-foot-long rod to throw the lure far into the breakers. Rig up with artificial lures because schools of striped bass are on the move.
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