Let 'er Rip: fly-fishing tidal rips for stripers

Choosing Rips

However, for the angler who lacks the time to motor from rip to rip, professional advice is the best alternative. If you have more fun fishing without a guide, try buttering up your local tackle shop owner. He may be willing to put you onto spots that are annual favorites, which though heavily fished, are popular for a reason.

If like me, you relish attacking angling challenges with raw logic, some variables which distinguish rips from each other are: the existence of bait, the strength of the current, and distinctive physical properties.

The most productive rips are in currents which drain a body of water that holds bait, such as a tidal estuary or flat, or even a larger bay. Fishing this type of rip on the ebb tide will give the prospecting angler a greater chance of finding concentrated bait and game fish. Once you've looked at a map, and isolated a rip that may have bait, remember to watch the water with Polaroid's when you are on the water. Are schools of sand eels visible against the bottom, or silversides fighting against the current? Look for terns diving, or showers of bait on the surface. Try to distinguish any difference in the smell of the air. You would be surprised at how many clues are offered by the ocean, many of which are ignored or missed entirely by most anglers.

Another distinguishing feature is the volume of tide flowing over a rip. Not unlike trout, stripers will tend to hold close to currents where they see a lot of helpless bait. Thus the faster the rip, the more likely it is to hold bass. Look for rips where a bottleneck of land squeezes a large amount of water over a drop off, or where a tidal flow is forced around a point of land with a sand bar.

A third factor which may separate rips, or sections of rips, from each other concerns their unique physical features. Although they sometimes appear to be long straight lines in the water, rips often have micro-traits that will attract fish. These traits, which result from slight irregularities in the shape of the bottom, sometimes produce irregularities in the rip line, such as "points" of breakers into the smooth water, or "pockets" where water is funneled by a channel through the bar. Especially shallow spots may result in violent "nuckles" of turbulence, or even breakers. Any of these irregularities can hold more bass, or sometimes even a school, and this water merits extra attention.

Finally, be sure to maximize your prospecting time by fishing a rip with your eyes. As in trout fishing or flats fishing, just put on a good pair of polaroids, stand on the bow, and look into the water. Especially on sunny days, you will be surprised how often stripers will be visible in up to 0 feet of water. With practice, you will learn to distinguish bass from bluefish and sand sharks just by how they swim. Watch the surface just in front of the rip for as far as you can see. Aggressive bass swirling on the surface for several seconds are a beacon to the vigilant angler, but are often missed by trollers and bottom fishermen. Just be sure not to point your fingers at them when you see them, for this is sure to attract other boats!