[Savvy18]

OK fellas, I'm looking to do some research on what color and size spro bucktails have been working best for you in your neck of the woods for fluke.

Be specific. What ounce? What color? When is it best? Does sunlight (or lack of sunlight) play a role? What are you tipping the jig with? How much water is it working best in? Are you employing a teaser above it? How high up?

The fluke season is almost upon us and I need to pick your brains. My goal is to catch a 10 plus fish this year on a jig using my lightest tackle. I fished last year next to a guy that did it, with an 11.4 ounce doormat. I was VERY jealous. Now it's my mission for the 2008 season.

This post edited by Savvy18 12:21 AM 05/04/2008

 

[DCBASSIN]

Eddie I like any thing with green or pink in it.I don't do alot of bucktailing,but I would think anything over 3oz would be a little big on the hook end.When I do bucktail I put just a spearing on it.



Donald

 

[ckonkol]

For me my most successful colors were blue shad and green shad in sizes 3/5-3/4 oz attached like a hi lo rig with a sinker below. I noticed my catch ratio was much higher on this rig as opposed to using the small spro on a dropper and a bigger one on the bottom. I believe I lost many fish on this rig due to the larger hooks on the 2+oz spros

 

[Dizzy24]

Colors: green, white
Weight: 1-3 ounces
Water Depth: 25-60'
Bait: Spearing, peruvian smelt

I fish the south shore of Long Island primarily. Montauk on occasion and the North Shore too. Get a few trips done out of Shinne**** and some from the Captree area. I find that the spro jigs are most effective in shallow water less than 50 feet.

 

[Bigkeepers]

I fish Smithtown Bay in 10-20 feet of water usually. I go with 3/4 and 1 oz white spro bucktails. If its a cloudy day or it rained the day before I'll use chartreuse. I always tie a teaser of the same color 15" above the bucktail. For bait I'll use spearing or sand eels depending on what the hatch is at the time. If I'm using the 1/2 oz bucktails I use squid strips cut real narrow to mimic sand eels. I don't cut wide triangular pennants with my squid. I like to taper it more like a fish. I picture Long Island in my mind when I cut up squid.

 

[Slick56]

FLukin, I fish Raritan bay, Ambrose, keansburg, the ammo pier and had the most success with:

Spro White 1-3oz
Spro Green or Pink 1-3oz

We fish shallow water a lot more than deeper water. Sunny days white, Cloudy days or murky water Pink or Green. I always use a high low rig, teaser is always matched with the jig, white seems to be the top dawg in my area all the time though no matter what the conditions. I usually try out spearing squid combo. If I dont get larger fish a whole squid will do the trick. On some other occasions I will use a Berkeley Gulp white Minnow grub or pogey and that will usually get em. In my opinion the gulp baits work best to land larger fluke.



This post edited by Slick56 10:01 AM 05/03/2008

 

[Savvy18]

I "try hard" to never fish more than 40 feet of water when jigging. Thus, I am generally jigging a spro, smiley Bill or bullet of no more than 3 ounces. Depending how the fish are biting, I will employ a teaser between 12" & 15" above the bucktail.

Baits are usually, spearing or squid strips. However, I have tipped my jigs with fluke belly, p-nut bunker, killies, smelt, sea robin strips, bunker strips and bluefish strips. Ya never know what a fluke will eat.

My favorite colors are white, blue & chartreuse green. White seems to be a killer wherever you go in all lighting conditions. My favorite jigs are spro 1 1/2 ounce spearing blue. Especially, when I can fish shallow water less than 20 feet. Pink for some reason has worked for me out east in Montauk and north.

Over the winter I bought and designed a ton of new smallish (3/4-1 1/2 ounce) jigs to fish the shallow areas. Hopefully, they will pay off on some big flatties!

 

[kenscot]

color: white,chartreuse and pink on darker days
size: 3-1 oz 1.5 being the favorite
water depth: 10-35
On the north shore I like a plain hook teaser at 14 above te spro tipped with a single spearing.
Of late I found I like tying a tandem rig. A 1.5 oz spro tied right behind the head on the hook to the eye of a 1 oz spro
Another word on color. Two years ago the shops were out of white and the closest they had were glow. I always thought of it as gimmick but I'll be damned they have become my go to color.

This post edited by kenscot 12:03 AM 05/05/2008

 

[Bigkeepers]

I like to use bluefish strips or better yet, snapper strips in late summer when the bigger fluke are feeding on the snappers that are all over. If I'm lucky I try to liveline a snapper. Hasn't worked yet for fluke but the blues love em.

 

[Azaiter]

Best Bucktails

Edd I do the same, love to tie my rigs in winter,I fish all over NY and NJ for Flukes and my favorite colors are the same that yours,but I found that I was catching more fish last year using the white glow Spro from 1/8 to 3 oz.also the glow bucktail make by Profishco.com they are very good another great bucktail is the Carolina lures they come whit a plastic tail that I replace by a Gulp pearl minnow and it's a killer and course the one and only Smile Bill in white or Green tie must of my rigs High and low or Mom and Son combo(3 way swivel biguer one as sinker and smaller one with long liders) this rig it's a killer went the drift it's to fast.I'm going to include some pictures,best luck for you and all the Noreaster in the incoming season...Fredd

 

[aFineCatch]

Huntington/Pt Jeff - 1/2oz-1.5oz. Somedays lighter makes all the difference. Somedays all white is mandatory, while green beats white on a few other days.

RI - 1oz-2oz White is all you need.

Hyannis - The only reason that I buy the $$ 6ozers. 2oz-6oz. Mostly white, but some chartreuse.

I don't fish SS, the ocean or Montauk. Not sure why, but I don't.

I rarely lose jigs to fluke, maybe the hair comes out, but blues and dogs I hate.

No weird rigs. I tie one jig to a 30# leader, to braid, attached to a Daiwa Capricorn and an Ugly stik or an Abu 5500 and Loomis Bass rod. Short squid teaser. I like the fight on light.

If you have a 3/4oz and a 2oz white, you will catch fish 80% of the time and places IMHO.

 

[Savvy18]

Hey Fredd-

Did you come to my house in the middle of the night to take those pics

? Looks like my arsenal

Love those rigs you posted. I'm gonna try them. Whatever catches fish is good for me.

aFineCatch-

You got that right. There are days when scaling back just 1/2 an ounce makes all the difference between whaling 'em and picking at 'em! I like that one.

BigKeepers-

Ahhh, snapper strips. You too huh? That is good stuff. Porgy strips are EVIL too. Give it a shot. LEGAL porgy's ONLY PLEASE!

kenscot-

Sorry about those Rangers buddy! Maybe next year. We'll talk in the lounge! The white glow spro is an awesome bait. I used to think they were a sales gimmick too. Until I caught a 6 lb. fluke on it. I believe now!

This post edited by Savvy18 12:28 AM 05/06/2008

 

[plugginaway]

Hey Bigkeeper get out of my brain!!
My dad taught me to cut squid and that is exactly what he told me.
"Think of a map of Long Island".That was over35yrs ago!!
Savvy, I agree w/all that has been posted,and all i will add is come
prepared, and always switch spots/rigs if u r not catching. Experiment
and keep a detailed log.
Now back to u bigkeeper, Snappers are my favorite fluke bait. All of my large late season fluke come on live snappers.If they die I split the tail carefully and use that whole,keep the dead ones in good shape,mouth closed if u can, or close it w/hook, or as u stated use strip bait.
Good luck Savvy and all,
Plug

 

[NanbayFluker]

I find the white spros work the best for me. Other than that, pink and green are good for second choices. I have found tipping the jig with a strip of squid is killer. I normally jig in 40'-15' like this. What ever you do, don't use the squid strips the tackle stores sell... they are not nearly as killer as a whole squid bought or caught (caught definitely better) that is cut into strips. Although you might have the urge, I would avoid using strips that are tremendously long. I cut my squid so it only hangs back from the bend about a maximum of 3". Any more, and large fish will have enough squid to hang on to the without getting hooked. Hope this helps...

NanbayFluker

 

[MyBonni]

Jigging Fluke

I sometimes use 2 - 1/2oz Spros in either pink or white with a Fluke Ball on the bottom. Just tie 2 dropper loops on a 4ft florocarbon leader and a loop for a Fluke Ball at the bottom. This method works well because you can adjust to the tide. In heavy current you'll use a heavier Fluke Ball and still be able to jig. Let me know if you have any luck

Capt. Rick Cohen

 

[657126]

1 once on bottom with a plain hook as the teaser. Ive got more fish on the plain hook then any other setup that I have ever used. I fish out of Port Jefferson. I fish very light in somewhat shallow water, if I end up going deeper I drop the plain hook and do a 1/2-3/4 ounce white spro as the top.

 

[kenscot]

Well as I expected a lot of votes for white followed by green and pink with some catching on to the glow spro.
I am curious to what you guys have found to be dog colors.
For me it was the spro sand eel. When it came out I thought it looked like a real winner but for me and those I have talked to it was the complete bomb.

 

[dardyle]

Hey Fredd, on the first and fourth pictures, what are the measurements between the bucktails and swivels, also what size bucktails are they?

Darrin
Azaiter wrote:
Edd I do the same, love to tie my rigs in winter,I fish all over NY and NJ for Flukes and my favorite colors are the same that yours,but I found that I was catching more fish last year using the white glow Spro from 1/8 to 3 oz.also the glow bucktail make by Profishco.com they are very good another great bucktail is the Carolina lures they come whit a plastic tail that I replace by a Gulp pearl minnow and it's a killer and course the one and only Smile Bill in white or Green tie must of my rigs High and low or Mom and Son combo(3 way swivel biguer one as sinker and smaller one with long liders) this rig it's a killer went the drift it's to fast.I'm going to include some pictures,best luck for you and all the Noreaster in the incoming season...Fredd


This post edited by dardyle 09:38 PM 05/06/2008

 

[tunafever]

I'm sure you guys do well with the simple bucktail with one piece of squid and I sometimes use that method when I'm not getting hit. But what I've witnesses in the last 2 years is that using more bait you will get more aggressive, sometimes bigger fish. Fluke are opportunistic feeders and are RAVENOUS, and even the smaller ones can inhale multiple pieces of bait. I don't want to step on anyone's toes or give anyone's tips away but I had to chime in here. You can use multiple pieces of bait on the bucktail, LARGE strip of squid, bluefish, sea robin, fluke belly, herring, and others such as bonito strips, freshwater yellow perch woops. Then I'll top off with a sandeel when available, or multiple pieces of spearing, then if I use a trailer, I'll put bait there too. With the dropper, or teaser, we use a lot of bait there, multiple spearing sand eels etc. Now, I'm not saying my way is any better but give it a shot this year and see how it works, then PM a thank you.

 

[Leprechaun]

Would you accept a thank you on this board instead?

Lep