Every fall a huge number of striped bass migrate into Grand Lake to feed and hang out for the winter. And every fall a huge number of motivated anglers follow. these stripers onto Grand Lake; today we were these motivated anglers. Although not technically a guided outing because they’re family, I still treated it just like a guided outing, except for the part where I also picked a rod up for the day. Fall striped bass on Grand Lake can be tough to find and tough to pattern some days, so the goal for the day was mostly to cover water and hope to cross paths with a few schools of schoolies, smaller striped bass that are bunched up chasing baitfish and readily willing to bite a crankbait. We started at daybreak with some absolute silliness. Prior to setting Holden loose with an X-Rap, I dropped it over the side of the boat and with 4 feet of line out I was showing Holden the difference between a straight retrieve and a typical jerkbait retrieve. This schoolie striped bass came out of nowhere to smash the X-rap. I can’t even say it was my first cast, I hadn’t even cast the line out yet!

Luckily after I stole the first fish, everyone caught at least one striper in the mouth of the river before we fired up the big motor and headed out on the big lake. We hit a number of spots along the way, always doing a quick run through the area with eyes peeled on the Garmin Fishfinder, while everyone threw fast moving baits looking for active stripers. Holden picked up a decent fish in the mouth of the Shubie that was worthy of a photo op.

With everybody into a few fish and already happy with our morning we made the long run up the lake to Little Grand and this is when our day turned epic. I was throwing a swimbait, Caley and Holden were throwing jerkbaits and lipless crankbaits. We all hooked and landed decent fish.

Holden was definitely on a school of decent fish, but it was myself that managed the big bite on the day, I hooked and landed a 27.5″ “keeper” striped bass on a swimbait.

Holden followed up right after with his own big striper.

The day could not have gone any better, we had numbers of stripers all day, we caught a couple big ones, and we were able to send Holden and Caley home with some nice fresh striped bass filets for dinner.

Striped Bass are one of the most popular fish on the East coast, and for good reason. They will aggressively hit a bait or lure, they put up a great fight, and they make great table fare. Fishing striped bass on Grand lake takes all these fantastic attributes, but combines them with medium weight rods and typical smallmouth bass techniques. Throwing crankbaits for schooled up 14-18″ bass with the occasional 27+ fish is absolutely the most fun you can have on a fall day. Getting all of this with great company on a sunny warm day at the end of October absolutely cannot be beat.

I’ve set some high expectations now for Holden and Caley, I’m really going to have to step up my game the next time I take them out for a day on the water.