New Vibrato Jig. I can only describe the Vibrato as a wacky jig, with the line tied to the center of the long, slim metal jig's body, and a treble dangles off each end of the bait. On the fall, it flutters like a wacky worm, and when you lift it, it paddles hard, vibrating side-to-side with a throbbing resistance felt in the rod tip. There's really nothing else quite like it

New Spin Shad #1. We fished the smallest of the Spin Shad sizes from anywhere just below the surface to sixty feet deep, and caught stripers non-stop with it. The Spin Shad was also the most productive lure for smallmouth on this trip.

New Crankster SR (Shallow Runner). We didn't use this a lot, but when we did, stripers and smallies were all over it!

Slim Stick and Splasher Topwater Baits. These aren't new (although many anglers have yet to try them) - but it was too much fun for us not to toss them for stripers and smallies on top!

New Magic Swimmer Soft and new Stick Shadd Soft. We Carolina-rigged and dropshot these new soft lures, having success with smallmouth - but that's another story. Let's take it back to the big striper blitz right now...

Russ and Jay wax victorious again!

So there we were - battling schoolie-sized landlocked striped bass. At times on every cast all three of us were reeling them in - reveling in the world-famous beauty of the scenic southwest desert impoundment, Lake Powell.

After stripers schools had broken up the shad schools and pushed the remaining shad up against offshore reefs or deep cliff walls, then schools of smallmouth would come out to clean up on the left-over shad. That was when Captain Jay Withers, saltwater expert from Port Charlotte, Florida, would pop up a little smallmouth on the side with a Sebile Splasher topwater lure.

As the sun and temperature climbed quickly and uncomfortably, the stripers retired for the day to parts unknown. After the striper action subsided, we did try largemouth and smallmouth fishing, which was slow, but the poor cooperation from the black and brown bass didn't dampen our delight or tarnish our shared memories of catching the plentiful striped bass that were breaking the surface in an early morning feeding frenzy. At times they surrounded us in all directions for magical moments that didn't want to end. The barrages of feeding stripers everywhere were amplified and echoed off the cliff walls, seeming all the louder in contrast to the stillness of early morning.

When the stripers schools took breaks (which didn't last long) to let the dispersed shad regroup back into schools before charging them again, that's when smallmouth would come out from the nearby reefs, points and walls and blast anything that moved, including a blue chrome Sebile Crankster SR (Shallow Runner) fat crankbait waddled along the surface with a stop-and-go retrieve. Swim the Crankster SR barely below the surface for several feet and then let it pop to the top during pauses in the retrieve, which is when smallies love to smash it.

Differences Between Freshwater and Saltwater Stripers: People often ask if there are differences in the quality of the fight, the coloration, body tone, or if stripers taste different from fresh or saltwater. No, there really is no difference that I have observed. One thing though, is that freshwater stripers fixate or predate heavily on pelagic (meaning open water baitfish) in large impoundments like Powell. They do not normally pursue bottom fish, mollusks, panfish, crayfish for example, unless pelagic baitfish (like shad) become so scarce or inaccessible that the freshwater stripers really have no other choice but to scavenge for anything else they can find, which doesn't happen that often. Fortunately, they can usually find shad, shad and more shad. It's their mainstay on Powell.

A good time was had by all!

In contrast, in saltwater, it seems there is such a multitude and variety of bait available to striped bass, that they tend to feed on whatever's most plentiful at any given moment, which may vary widely. What this means to an angler, is that saltwater striped bass will often hit a wider variety of lures, especially colors that match whatever fodder's most prevalent at the moment. Sometimes that may be red-hued sand eels, golden yellow baby pollack, amber brown squid, black-striped mackerel, sheening butterfish, black eels, blue herring, not to mention shrimp, clams, crabs, worms, bottom fish (baby blackfish, porgies, flatfish) snapper blues, hordes of young-of-year weakfish and so much more. Now, it’s true that day in and day out (including night fishing for stripers), odds are you can't beat a white color lure for saltwater stripers - but since the menu is so varied in saltwater, other colors seem to be of more importance in the salt to match the almost endless menu in the seas. Conversely, since the menu is so limited in freshwater impoundments like Powell, basically to shad, the importance of a white color lure is absolutely essential, such as the Sebile White Lady (Q2) color in freshwater. Certainly have fun trying other colors, but white really is the "go to" color for freshwater stripers, plus shad-imitating silver-sided colors like Sebile's Holo Greenie (D9) and Natural Shiner (O) for instance.

With a action packed day filled with plenty of action that really put Sebile's lures to the test we finally head home, this was one of those great experiences on Lake Powell and truly a memorable and rewarding trip for Patrick, Jay and I!