Variety is the spice of life, however, many anglers limit themselves to one or two favorite tactics. Striped bass can be a tough quarry, particularly if you’re after the bigger, elusive, mature striped bass, so trying different approaches may improve your chances for a great photo with a fat and sassy pinstriped guest of honor.
Some of the following tactics are best suited to surf anglers, while some are better for boat anglers. Others work equally well for both.
1. Wireline trolling with bunker spoons — Bunker spoons are deadly. They’re fished deep and are a known big-fish tactic. You won’t hook up with many small fish this way, so the action usually isn’t going to be fast, but your odds of picking up a trophy are very good. 300 feet of Monel wire, a couple of wireline outfits, and some bunker spoons are what you’ll need. The spoons should be trolled slow and deep, within 5 feet of the bottom. Wireline trolling may not be the most exotic way to catch striped bass, but it’s one of the most effective.
2. Live eels. Live eels are unbelievably effective on big striped bass, particularly at night. Wading anglers can fish them from the surf or jetty, or they can be drifted along the bottom on a three-way rig under a boat. Night is usually the right time for eels and big bass, but surf anglers have been successful casting eels during the day under low light conditions. Many anglers feel that eels are better in the fall than in the spring, but, from June on, you can start taking some very healthy bass with eels.
As far as I’m concerned, the biggest trick to catching bass with live eels is finding the bass. Big striped bass can be very particular about where they are holding and finding the hump, depression, or other cover is the key. Dropping an eel in front of a big striped bass is like dropping a T-bone steak in front of a junkyard dog.
3. Live-lining bunker — This tactic catches a lot of big fish every year. One of the best things about live-lining bunker is that if you’re within reach of a school of bunker making their presence known, they’re easy to snag. Even better, it’s almost a sure thing that there are big striped bass and/or bluefish harassing them.
Many times, anglers snagging bunker for cut bait end up catching a big bass in the process as it engulfs the live bunker before it can be retrieved. If a school of bunker is going crazy, get out the snagging rod, hook up to one, and let it do its thing. You can let it swim around with the weighted treble hook in it or you can retrieve it and re-rig it. Either way, your chance of hooking up to a quality fish is very good with this technique.
4. Spring estuary fishing — Sometimes in the spring, the best striped bass fishing is far up the rivers at the first obstruction. In some cases, you can reach these hot spots by boat. At other places, wading or fishing around the dam will be the key.
The Housatonic River, for example, produces numerous large fish around the Derby Dam in the spring. Sometimes the action is so good that it is unbelievable with numerous hookups on some very big fish. Anywhere inside of rivers can be good in the spring and it’s often much better than the open water. It’s the best chance for most shore-bound anglers to catch a big striper of 20 pounds or more.
5. Trolling tubes and worms — Trolling a surgical tube on a flat line or a weighted set-up is a hot tactic. The key is to always tip it with a sandworm, troll it slowly, and be ready for very fast action.
This trick works well for striped bass of all sizes and, when the bass are around in plentiful numbers, the action is usually very fast. This technique is easy to use and requires no special equipment, except rigged tubes.
6. Chunking — Using chunk bait can be messy. It pays to have a wet towel handy to keep your hands and gear clean when you’re cutting up mackerel or bunker and slinging the pieces into the surf. It’s not necessarily gentlemen’s angling, but it’s an effective way to hook up with some big fish.
The right time for chunking is practically any time. I particularly favor this tactic in the rivers. A lot of happy snapshots are hanging in the tackle shops, compliments of anglers who don’t mind breaking out the chunking knife and tossing fish parts into the water.
7. Teasers — Any angler who loves to use artificials for striped bass is seriously handicapped by not using teasers at least some of the time. Teasers of either bucktail, feathers, Flashabou, or some other material are a good way to give the finicky fish what they’re looking for while you’re tossing those big lures. Many times, you’ll catch more fish on the teasers than you will on the host plug. Experiment. This technique won’t alter the way you fish your plugs or tins very much, but it will definitely increase your cast-to-strike ratio.
8. Fish The Race — For those Anglers in search of big bass, The Fishers Island Race is about as good as it gets. There are a lot of fish of 50 pounds or better pulled from The Race each year and 30-pound fish are very common. If you’ve really been anxious to tie into a big striper, this is the surest way to hook up that I can think of. Jigging bucktails, trolling, bouncing eels off the bottom, or chunking, The Race is a fishery that produces extraordinarily well. If you’ve never fished The Race, I’d advise signing up on a charter and doing it this season.
Make sure you take a camera with you. You’ll have ample opportunity to use it.
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