Does A Striped Bass Eat Eel?

by Ed

Does a striped bass eat eel? I have been told a striper never actually eats an eel. They consider an eel a predator and when we fish using eel, the striper actually kills the eel and spits him out. I hear that you will never find an eel in the striper stomach when you cut him open????

Answer for striped bass eating eel:

Thanks for your question Ed.

Whoever told you about stripers seeing eel as predators must have been pulling your leg a little. I mean, the size comparison itself should be a good telling sign of who's boss in the water, right?

Yes, striped bass absolutely do eat eels. Eel are probably a stripers' most favorite food supply. There's a reason why eel are widely known as "striper candy". They simply go nuts for it!

You can use eels for bait either dead or alive. Although, live eels are more productive for catching the bigger trophy striped bass.

You can use them successfully day or night. However, it usually depends on where you fish at to get better results. During the day, you'll find that other species of fish will often strike your eels. If that becomes a problem, then you may want to wait until the sun sets and then start tossing out those eels.

Never find eel in a striper stomach? You can do an image search of say, "eel in striped bass stomach". You should be able to see a few results there.

You can also check out What Do Striped Bass Eat? to see what else stripers feed on.

There are striped bass fishing books and instructional videos that talk about bait fishing with eels. Here is a DVD that I came across at Amazon that you can have a look at...



Hope all this helps.

If you have any other questions about using eels to catch striped bass, feel free to post them here.

Legal to use eel for striped bass?

Can you use eels for striped bass in fresh water in California?

Answer for using eel as bait for stripers:

Yes, you can use eel as bait for striped bass freshwater fishing in the state of California.

Bait shops even sell eel here in California. The times that I have bought eel, it has been frozen, but I suppose that you might even get lucky enough to find some fresh. Or you can catch your own.

I would suggest to call around to various bait shops beforehand to find out if they have some in stock or even if they carry eel. Sometimes eel can be hard to come by or kept in the bait store long enough, so you might see if they would be willing to hold any on reserve for you.

Hope this helps you out. Best of luck freshwater fishing and have fun nailing those striped bass!