If my life depended on catching a large bass on an artificial, I'd grab my bucktails and head for the nearest South Shore inlet.
From May to December, the inlets seem to hold a constant supply of quality fish. The life-filled jetties, varied bottom structure, deep channels, and turbulent waters are magnets for big bass. These fish are rarely observed feeding on the surface. They tend to hold tight to the bottom while they intercept baitfish swept their way by the strong currents.
The ability to rapidly descend a lure to the feeding zone and have it swim properly in turbulent water, makes the bucktail an excellent choice for anglers fishing the jetties that border these inlets.
Although the inlets hold plenty of fish, catching one with a hair-covered leadhead isn't always easy. Where you cast, how you retrieve, what size bucktail you use, and how well you are equipped to convert the strike into a landed fish all come into play.
Bucktailing is somewhat of an art form. The right way to do it is wide open to interpretation. I've seen many different bucktailing styles and techniques that produce fish. I don't make any claims that my approach is the best, but it's what works well for me.
When I'm bucktailing an inlet, I focus primarily on the section of water delineated by lines drawn roughly from where I'm standing to the 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions. Many hours of doing this kind of fishing have convinced me not to spend too much time on the downtide part of the retrieve that forces the jig against the current. While it is possible to catch fish further downtide, I have found the part of the retrieve almost directly in front of me to be by far the most productive. Therefore, I choose to maximize the amount of time my jig spends in that zone.
Another advantage of keeping the jig in front of me as much as possible is that it minimizes the impact on anglers fishing downtide of me.
I view the water in front of me as many different spots. Some examples are a rip line, the area very close to the rocks, different edges of a bar, a trough between a bar and the jetty, and boils caused by obstructions. In order to work these the way I want, I vary my casting distance accordingly.
Because these different pieces of water often move at different speeds, I change bucktail sizes to compensate. In most cases, I rarely cast as far as I can when bucktailing an inlet. The water at the end of my casting range sometimes moves faster than I would like, and decent structure and rips often exist closer to the jetty.
After I make my cast, which is always upcurrent of where I'm standing, I allow enough time to let the jig sink to what I think is very close to the bottom. Of course, this varies depending on how much water I'm fishing. If I'm not sure how deep it is, I'll cast and make a mental note of how long the jig took to hit the bottom.
I use a steady retrieve with maybe an occasional short and gentle lift. My goal is to keep the bucktail gliding near the bottom. Although some anglers do so successfully, I never bounce my bucktail on the bottom. I used to do a fair amount of diving and have observed many more fish "gliding along" than I have bouncing on the bottom.
Any stage of the tide might be hot on any given night, but it has been my observation that the period of about 2 hours on either side of slack tide is often the best. Since this is a period of changing current speed, I often end up working through three or four different bucktail sizes in the 1.5- to 3-ounce range to accommodate the current.
Almost all anglers bucktailing the inlets tip their jigs with a strip of pork rind. Uncle Josh seems to have the market cornered on this product. The most commonly used strips are between 5 and 7 inches long. I usually use Uncle Josh #56 or #70.
As far as colors are concerned, a white bucktail with red pork rind seems to be the most popular, and you can do just fine using this combination all of the time.
When I used to spend a lot of time bucktailing the Orient Point rips from a boat, we did extremely well using wine red colored bucktails. This past spring, I started using them at night in the inlets and now rarely find myself using white after dark anymore. It's definitely worth experimenting with color.
Close attention must be paid to the sharpness of the bucktail's hook. I often check and touch up all of my jigs before a trip, and continuously check the sharpness while I'm fishing.
When choosing tackle for this kind of fishing, one must keep in mind the potential for fish in excess of 30 pounds, the strong currents, and the fact that landing a fish from the high and irregularly shaped jetty rocks can be pretty tricky. The strong current not only increases the pressure exerted by a hooked fish, but also causes a belly in the line that makes setting the hook more difficult.
For this kind of fishing, I use a fairly stiff graphite rod (Lamellas GSB 132 1M) and a Penn 706 spooled with 30-pound-test Berkeley Fireline.
Fireline has very little stretch. Fishing it from a graphite rod gives excellent sensitivity and makes drilling an 8/0 hook into the mouth of a large bass much easier. Since the line also has high abrasion resistance, it decreases the chance of having a fish cut off in the rocks.
Using a Palomar knot, I attach a 42-inch length of 50-pound test monofilament leader to the main line with a barrel swivel on one end and a heavy duty snap on the other. The leader is long to make landing a fish on the rocks easier. It's important to avoid grabbing Fireline barehanded with a fish on. Due to its fine diameter, it can cut your hands with minimal pressure.
Another piece of equipment that is required for any type of jetty fishing is a long-handled gaff. The one I built for this type of fishing has a rather small hook to make lip-gaffing easier.
A word of caution: Jetty fishing can be dangerous. This is particularly true if it is dark, rough, or you're alone. Always wear something on your boots, such as Korkers, to increase traction on the rocks.
It's also not a bad idea to have on some sort of floatation device in the event that the unthinkable happens and you find yourself in the water. While it's easy to think this will never happen, safety is not always the first thing on an angler's mind when climbing down to the water's edge to gaff a big bass.
The period from now through early December will see all kinds of bait moving through the inlets and a healthy population of bass waiting to intercept them. If you're looking for a trophy bass to add a memorable note to this 1997 season, bucktailing a South Shore inlet just might be your ticket to success.
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