Yesterday at about noon, I got a call from a buddy of mine asking if I wanted to go out on his boat and try to fish some striped bass.  I never miss a chance to get out on the water and of course said I'd love to.  The day before we had actually gone out on some brackish water early and didn't have any luck period.  So we decided that we would try it out later in the evening this time around.  

We got to the dock around 5 (ended up leaving later than noon) and quickly set out on the water.  Checked a few areas he had caught things in the past and we had no luck.  We went to the channel area and threw on some rattling baits and trolled around a while, still no luck.  That was, until we stopped.  He actually tangled his line and in the process of him fixing it I switch over to a 1/4 ounce rattling crankbait in a Sexy Shad coloring.  Wham!  Fist cast, fish on!   ;D  Got him to the boat and even though he was a little guy it was a fish and due to what I learned about stripers being schooling fish, meant there were going to be plenty around that night.  

That was around 5:40pm.  We trolled around a bit and passed by a more shallow area than we had been previously fishing.  Again he got tangled, in my line this time.  In the process of me reeling the tangle itself in, I hooked another one!    We went back and forth letting him untangle and me reeling the fish in.  Fish number 2 was a keeper!  We cast around a few more times and nothing much.  

We ended up moving a little further into the shallower water (by shallow I mean about 6 ft of water as opposed to the channel which was 14-20 ft) and that was when the fun began.  We found one of those "schools" and it was like every other cast for a while netted a fish in the boat.  They are awesome fish to catch and it was an extremely satisfying trip.  Especially since we haven't had much luck lately, it was nice to see things turn around.  I never did take that crankbait off all night.  Poor guy is pretty beat up now too.

In the end we caught 17 fish total.  He picked up 4 stripers (he was having problems with a few of his crankbaits) and I picked up 12 stripers (4 keepers) and one gar   8-).  This was also the first time I picked up a gar as well.  All in all it was a great night and I recommend to anyone who hasn't gone fishing for striped bass, that they should.  

I hope to have a picture up soon of 2 of the keepers I caught, the picture was on my buddy's cell phone so I'll probably get it when he gets around to it.

The rattling crank-bait you refered to , was it a rat-l-trap or a crank bait with a bill ?

Strike King Pro Model Crankbait with a bill, 1/4 ounce I think.  The one I used dove 2-5 ft and it has "free-floating rattles".