Finding Monster Stripers Using the 15 Minute Rule

How to catch striped bass by applying the fifteen min. rule.

I utilize the fifteen minute rule usually when striped bass are shoaling, or spread out amidst a significant expanse of water. Perhaps I’m noticing striped bass which are suspended in deep water, or possibly they are hunting alongside a rather long stretch of beachfront. In any event, when striped bass are disseminated all over a substantial area, the 15 Minute Rule has proven itself as an useful tool for establishing a good trolling pattern. The rule is an essential component of an overarching strategy for finding and sticking with the striped bass biomass.

Upon marking just 1 bass I will then put lines in the water. I’ll get started trolling in a chosen course, nearly always parallel to the beach. In this way I troll along the depth at which I marked that 1st striped bass. In other words, I am hoping that there are many more bass cruising through the stretch of water in front of me. I’m in a way placing a bet that the one bass I marked on the sonar, is but one of hundreds of striped bass in the direct vicinity.

I’ll next begin to troll and if after 15 minutes I haven’t enticed a bite, captured a fish, or seen any more bass on the fish finder, I continue my search parallel to the beachfront along the same depth contour until I commence noticing striped bass once again.

If I do hook a bass during the first 15 minutes, lure a bite, or mark more striped bass on the sonar, then my 15 minute time clock is reset. Previously, a normal circumstance I have experienced is finding an expanse of ocean, up to a mile in total, which has had striped bass along the complete length. The water to the east, west, north and south of this expanse of water frequently have no striped bass in it at all.

The 15 minute rule allows me to identify the fish-filled stretch of ocean in the following way.

Let’s say I have already been landing bass frequently on the troll for the last 1/2 hr. For the duration of the previous 30 minutes I’ve trolled a somewhat straight line eastward through a half mile expanse of ocean. It has now been fifteen minutes since I have caught a striped bass, enticed a bite, and marked a single thing on my fish finder-suggesting that I’ve reached the last part of the striped bass-filled expanse of ocean.

The following move will be to reel the lines in, and motor west, to where I started marking, and landing striped bass, keeping a close eye on my sonar while cruising and noting any striped bass marks that may show up.

If I mark striped bass on my westerly journey to where I originally began observing striped bass then excellent, the striped bass are still hanging along the exact same stretch of water. This is the best situation, especially for folks just learning how to catch striped bass.

Without doubt there will be those instances when I do not locate striped bass during the cruise west. And after motoring more than a mile west of the first spot where I first commenced marking bass, I’ll still fail to mark any life on the fish finder. In circumstances like this I’d preclude that the biomass of striped bass has swum either shallower or deeper. I would then move into shallower or deeper water and commence a new search pattern. Hopefully after some searching around I will be able to once again locate the biomass and continue hooking up with solid striped bass.

Beyond a doubt, the ability to uncover striped bass with regularity is the very first stage to learning how to catch striped bass.

Captain Ryan Collins is a charter and commercial striped bass fisherman from Cape Cod, MA. His fishing blog, myfishingcapecod.com teaches novice and veteran fishermen the top techniques for big striped bass. Check out his blog for more secret tips, just click here today.