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There are several techniques that are productive for catching hybrids, with both live bait and artificials.
During the late spring, you can almost always find hybrids and stripers right below dams in the immediate tailwaters. Hybrids are aggressive and fight hard. In the swifter water where they tend to congregate, it makes for a lot of excitement trying to get them to the boat
Bait-fishermen use gizzard shad - 5-inch or larger shad - as their No. 1 hybrid striped bass bait. Like pure-strain stripers, hybrid stripers will hit both artificial lures and live bait, but the best fish-producer of all is the live gizzard shad. The shad can be drift-fished, fished below a balloon or a float, or hung straight beneath a boat on a tightline. Shad are very sensitive to handling, to water temperature stress and to water chemistry. Guides and avid hybrid and striper bait-anglers usually have large, well-insulated bait tanks aboard their boats. Some guides catch shad with hoop nets dragged through the water, but most use cast nets. It can be quite a challenge to keep the bait alive long enough to use it
Artificials will work as well for hybrids. Topwaters, crankbaits, slab spoons and jigs. Watch and listening for splashing or watch for diving, feeding seagulls.
Just about any shad-colored white or silver topwater plug will get hit when thrown into a school of feeding hybrids.
The crankbait may be the best artificial lure for hybrid fishing. It can be trolled or cast, fished in tailraces, rivers and lakes. . Crankbaits can take deep-water fish lurking near structure or cover and can draw strikes from open-water roaming schools. They can be used to catch hybrids prowling windswept shorelines where baitfish are stacked up near the bank.
They spook more easily than pure breds at the sound of trolling motors. They have been described as a "football with fins".
Bite when the weather is hot and calm
When hooked they will stay deep and pull hard.
They generally prefer open water, which means they're not competing with other predators like black bass, walleyes, catfish and crappie for habitat.
The best way to go, if you're planning to fish from the bank, is to rig one outfit for bottom-fishing and get it going. Once that's done, throw an in-line spinner or crankbait, or swim a jig on another rod
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