Striped Bass: What They Eat

Striped bass of the Atlantic coast are predators that feed on a wide variety of prey inmany different environments. They can be very aggressive when hunting in largeschools corralling shoals of small bait fish to the surface and attacking with recklessabandon. Stripers can also feed with the grace comparable to a trout sipping on a dry.In the spring when various species of herring, including alewives and blue backs, spawnat the headwaters of many tidal rivers stripers can be caught as they try to interceptthese large baits. Adult menhaden also arrive in the bays and rivers in large schools andsome very large stripers are soon to follow. Bass will often hold under or down river ofthese bait fish and take the stragglers or wounded head first in their large mouths. Bymid spring the squid begin to show and striped bass can be found feeding on the surfacein front of reefs, in salt ponds and around the mouths of tidal rivers. These are theadults and can be in excess of twelve inches. When being chased they can jump clearout of the water trying to escape these “squid hounds”. Throughout the season striperscan be found in many tidal rivers feeding on an array of prey. These rivers are thebreeding grounds for many species and the striped bass know this fact. At night theycan be heard sipping and popping on silversides, grass shrimp, tiny crabs, clam wormsand many other preys both large and small that are carried along with the tidal flow. Thiscan be a fly fisherman’s paradise as the bass are set up in the current like trout. In thesummer tiny critters fill the estuaries and salt ponds and await their time to exit intoopen water. The rocky shorelines attract species like mullet, scup, black fish, needlefish,crabs, lobsters and other prey trying to find places to hide. But stripers thrive in thepounding surf and turbulent water, moving in and out with the greatest of ease. By fallsilversides, juvenile menhaden, anchovies and a host of other small baitfish can befound along the beaches and out on the reefs getting attacked by large schools ofstriped bass. These can be all out feeding frenzies with diving birds and boiling fishchurning the surface to a froth. Striped bass are very diverse in not only what they eatbut also how and where they feed.