3 Tips for Catching Striped Bass on a Fly Rod | Gear, Flies, and Strategies

With: danielroberts_ar

We caught up with Daniel Roberts, a guide and rep who’s hooked on chasing striped bass with a fly rod. From his first encounter on Lake Ouachita to Mastering his approach over the years of hunting Strippers. Daniel shares his journey, top tips, and go-to setups for targeting these challenging yet rewarding fish. Whether you're a seasoned striper chaser or just getting started, his insights might help you land your first or next big Stripper.

Daniel, how did you first get into chasing striped bass on the fly, and what keeps you hooked on targeting these fish?

The first time I got to experience stripers on a fly rod was in high school after a failed spring break trip to Florida with my dad because of a major hurricane. We came back up to Arkansas and fished Lake Ouachita for two days. On one of those days, it was cloudy and calm, the perfect conditions, and we had Fish blowing up around us for an hour or so. That was the first time I caught a nice-sized striper on my fly rod, and I was addicted from then on. I keep chasing them because they’re equally the most frustrating Fish to chase and the most rewarding at the same time. They’re unbelievably unpredictable and frustrating at times, but when you finally catch a 15-pound fish on a freshwater lake, you know that it’s worth it. 

Striped bass can be challenging to catch on the fly. What are your top 3 tips for anglers looking to improve their success rate when targeting stripers?

1) My number one tip is pretty obvious but just be on the water as much as humanly possible. There’s nothing that can replace the experience spent on the water fishing for them.

2) Second, try and cover as much of the lake as you can. Stripers are often spread out all across a lake and just because you can’t find them in one section doesn’t mean you won’t find them fired up somewhere else. 

3) Third, pay attention to your surroundings. If it’s windy, look for places out of the wind first. Find as many shed or bait fish as you can and then also be looking up in the air for birds that could be feeding on Chad close to the surface.

When it comes to fly selection, what patterns or styles do you find most effective for striped bass, and how do you adjust depending on the conditions?

This is completely dependent on the type of bait fish that are in your lake. Whether it’s blue back herring, thread, Finn, shad, or gizzard shad. Ultimately, you just want to try to match the same size of the forage fish that the stripers are feeding on. Once you figure out the size, then you need to figure out how deep the fish are and that will help you determine if you need to be throwing heavy flies or weightless flies.

The behavior of striped bass can change throughout the season. How do you adjust your tactics when targeting them at different times of the year?

This, again really has to do mostly with what the shad are doing. If the shad are closer to the surface, I might be using an intermediate line with slow-sinking flies because the fish will be closer to the surface, but if the fish are feeding much deeper on suspended bait fish then I will use a heavier sinking line with heavy flies. I will also change up the colors eventually when they start to move up the river into the muddy water and move towards chartreuse and other bright colors with bigger profiles.

What gear do you rely on for chasing stripers—rod, reel, and line setup—and why do you prefer that particular setup?

I like a nine-weight fly rod typically; I’ll throw a Scott sector nine-weight with an eight or nine-weight reel and a sinking line in the same size. I’d like to have two or three different sink rate lines on a couple of different rods. That way, I can fish at different depths at different times of the day. I like a nine-weight because it still makes a five or 6-pound striper a fun fight, but it will also handle the occasional 20 or 30-pounder that you might find.