I pull again the throttles briefly to admire the early-summer solar rising over Monomoy earlier than motoring the Skeeter SX2550 towards the constructing rips extending off the tip of the island. As soon as upon a time, I’d have by no means made this journey with out buckets of eels tucked right into a stern nook however, immediately, no eels will probably be harmed within the making of this episode of On The Water’s Angling Adventures. As a substitute, the rods are rigged with a wide range of tender plastics, baits designed to fish in every single place from the floor to the underside.
I’ve gained a brand new appreciation for tender plastics over the previous few seasons, particularly whereas fishing with a number of the striper coast’s sharpest captains and seeing how they take advantage of these versatile striper lures.
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Working and Gunning with Paddletails
Bait Changed: Reside Bunker
Lures: Al Gag’s Whip-It Fish, Z-Man DieZel Minnow
Boston’s finest big-striper fishing is fueled by an abundance of Atlantic menhaden. I’ve had many memorable journeys in that “soiled water,” and virtually all of them started with making bait. That was not so on my first time fishing with Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sportfishing Charters. We set out previous the harbor islands, with Brian locked on his electronics, in search of faculties of what he calls “pelagic stripers.” These teams of huge fish roam via the center of the water column, searching bait over water as deep as 100 ft. They transfer shortly, and getting on them requires coordination between the captain on the helm and the angler on the bow.
His most well-liked bait is the Al Gags Whip-It fish, a deep-bodied soft-plastic paddletail rigged on a jighead. So as to add motion and bulk to the lure, Coombs provides a silicone skirt to the jighead.
I used to be stunned on the jighead’s weight, contemplating the bass may very well be inside 10 ft of the floor. The explanation Brian opts for 2- and 3-ounce heads is for casting distance and in order that the lure sinks shortly to get in entrance of fast-moving fish earlier than they’re gone.
As soon as an correct forged has been made, the retrieve is aggressive. Brian desires the paddletail to appear like a panicked bunker fleeing from the striper college. He adjusts the retrieve velocity primarily based on how the fish react, however a moderate-fast retrieve usually will get the chunk. When a 30-pound bass hits a type of quick-moving paddletails, it practically wrenches the rod out of my arms.
In a morning of operating and gunning with the heavy paddletails, Brian and I caught fish to 40 kilos, and I started considering of all the opposite locations the place this method would work. Wherever faculties of stripers cruise via open water seeking bunker, reminiscent of Cape Cod Bay, Narragansett Bay, the South Shore of Lengthy Island, and off New Jersey, the mix of side-scanning sonar and fast-sinking soft-plastic paddletails means an thrilling day of fishing.
Deep Drifting with Lengthy, Slender Stickbaits
Bait Changed: Reside Eels
Lures: JoeBaggs Block Island Eel, JoeBaggs Block Island Patriot Fish, Gravity Sort out GT Eel
I’d by no means been to the legendary big-striper grounds off Block Island with out eels till final summer time with my good pal Captain Joe Diorio. Years earlier than, Joe and I had fished Block Island from the midnight to late morning, throughout which we caught bass to 48 kilos whereas drifting eels over fish-holding construction. For final summer time’s journey, Joe left the eels on the dock to point out me the tactic he’s been creating the previous few seasons that makes use of 11- to 14-inch-straight or paddletail plastics as a substitute of dwell bait.
As with Brian in Boston Harbor, Joe leans on his electronics to search out the fish, however that’s the place the similarities finish. Whereas the Boston Harbor fish chased bunker via the center of the water column, at Block Island, they have been hugging the underside. Fairly than run and gun, Joe motored forward of the bass and drifted down on them, utilizing lengthy casts to maintain the lure within the strike zone longer.
The retrieves have been refined and gradual, with the occasional twitch. Joe didn’t bounce or drag the bait alongside the underside, however hovered it, dangling it in entrance of the bass lengthy sufficient to set off a strike. The lengthy tender plastic, a JoeBaggs Block Island Patriot Fish on a 1-ounce jighead, undulated and kicked on the gradual retrieve, and the stripers couldn’t resist. Whereas it took me just a few drifts to regulate to this finesse method, as soon as I acquired the dangle of it, I joined Joe in hooking stripers to 40-plus-pounds.
The flexibility to regulate the place the plastics are within the water column and what they’re doing can usually make them much more efficient than dwell eels. The hot button is discovering the appropriate measurement jighead for the drift velocity, which normally finally ends up being between 3/4 and a couple of ounces.
The identical techniques Joe confirmed me at Block Island have potential in Lengthy Island Sound, at Race Level, round Raritan Bay, and wherever that stripers arrange over construction in 10 to 50 ft of water.
Again to that morning at Monomoy, I pull as much as the rip and maintain the boat barely in gear, holding its place so I can forged out a 7-inch fluke-style plastic on a ½-ounce jighead behind the boat. With one hand on the wheel and one other holding the rod, I twitch the bait in place, simply forward of the curl of the rip. Inside seconds, a 32-inch pot-bellied striper strikes, the power of the assault sending the fish midway out of the water. The rod bends and I launch the throttle, permitting the boat to float again as I battle the fish, marveling on the versatility of those lures. Whereas I don’t suppose I’ll ever completely quit my eels or dwell bunker, I’ll definitely use them much less usually, changing them with a rising arsenal of soft-plastic techniques for giant striped bass.
Watch new episodes of On The Water’s Angling Adventures on OTW’s YouTube Channel beginning in February.
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