This was a topic brought up by someone, and i wanted to give you some ideas on how to do this, while this fishery is going on at this time of the year. Its one of the simplest ways to catch stripers in our area.
I have to say that Togmaster was the first to discover that the striped bass would stack up behind the clamboats while they were towing their dredges. In the early 90s, Mike was running a fellows boat from Freeport to the Rockaway reef area, during July. They would seabass fish on the eastern portion of the reef and notice that they would catch a number of stripers once they moved a slight distance from these little hangs. He also noticed balled up readings in this area, but always would run back to the hangs to pick up some very nice sized seabass that happened to be in this area, that year. The next day he was running out to a seabass spot with his machine on. He saw the same readings that he had the day before, and dropped onto them. Well he was suprised about the amount of striped bass that he would catch... just following and dropping on the readings, which were stripers following the clam boats. I must remind you, that NO ONE was doing this fishing at the time. Their were no boats in the area, and Mike thought this was just a one shot deal, and got lucky. But after running a few more seabass trips, he would stop behind a clam dredge, and catch a number of stripers. He refined his technique down, so that he would plan his trips when the clam boats were working, which was in the morning, then he would hit his seabass hangs later on. These trips were a blast since, you got a shot at two great tasting fish, and could use basically the same tackle for both. We later realized that the striped bass would stack up in the morning and follow the clam boat, getting easy meals from the dredges...after the clam boats went in later in the day, the striped bass would move onto the reef. It was a continuing cycle that Mike had all to himself. Later on a sharp Freeport charter boat picked up on Mike fishing around this area, and this is how a bunch of fishermen from Freeport to Sheepshead Bay, started to fish 'the clam boats' for bass. The big thing with this fishery, was that you could catch the stripers during the summer, close to the beach, when everyone else had trouble catching any amount of keeper sized fish during the day. The amount of fish you would catch, would easily range as high as 50, a man! It amazed us that the body of striped bass in this area was so high. It turned out that the clam boats had concentrated a big body of fish, which like routine, would follow the clam boats while they worked.
Ok, now we have the background on how this fishery started, lets get to what you need.
TACKLE>>>
Reels...this is shallow water fishing with fish running from shorts to the rare occassional 20lb bass...a newell 220 with 50lb power pro is my perfect setup, but a newell 229, or 322 would be a excellent choice. Penn 145 and 146 reels are also be another choice for this fishing. The Jigmaster 501L with a 99 pinion making the reel 3.75 to 1 would be one of my favorites for this type of fishing. Shimano trinidad, 12 and 14, Diawa SLX 20 & 30 would also be a good choice of reels.
Line...i found power pro 50# to be perfect but you can use power pro 30# since most fish run from 24-36 inches. For mono, 20-30lb test is all you need.
Hooks...You can use a standard beak hook from any hook manufacturer in sizes 3/0-6/0, with or without slices in the shank to hold the clam. We use Gamakatsu octupus hooks, from 3/0-6/0 with 4/0-5/0 the preferred size. We have found that in a pinch you could use blackfish Virginia hooks in sizes 3 and 4, and they work fine. I have found the VMC steelhead bronzed hook in 4/0 size sold by GOFishing.Com to be just right, for those looking for a good alternative to the other above listed hooks.
Rods...i have found that a number or blanks work fine for this fishery...you are fishing shallow water from 25-45 feet and you are just dropping your bait down to the bottom. I prefer a BMB963M Lamiglass cut black slightly from the tip. Lamiglass 1143F cut to 10 tips, work just fine. I also use a original Sabre 1660 which is rated for 20 (30) 50 and found that it has the perfect action to fish from a small boat. The newer graphite blanks like a GBT841M or the lighter GLB90 1M would be fine. Contact Capt. Neil for ideas on different blanks for this fishing. Just remember you can use anything rated from 20-50lb and would fish fine.
Sinkers....4-6oz is all you need...
The Rig....their are two types. The FISH FINDER where you use a slide with a piece of mono that is about 8 inches in length, to your sinker, and then attach a 3-4 foot leader of either mono or flurocarbon leader from 20-30lb test, or a 3 way. The 3 way we make is a little different that what you have seen. Since we sometimes fish for sea bass with the same tackle, we came up with a rig that makes switching from one to another simple and quick. We use a small split ring where we attach 3 small swivels. You can use 30-40lb split rings, and 30lb-75lb black swivels. You can pretie you leaders, like i said early in 3-4 foot sections and put a swivel on the end and the hook on the other. The one you make up for your sinker is 2-3 feet long. You rarely lose sinkers with this type of fishing, so you do not have to make up many setups going from the sinker to the keyring. Now depending how the fish are biting you can fish with preemade rigs that have 20#,25#(preferred), 30# test. If the fish are extremely line shy which happens, just make a dropper hook rig without any swivels and tie a 3 section of fluro to you hook. But this is very rare, that the fish do not bite. Getting back to the sliding fishfinder rig, it works fantastic, so you can experiment with what you find fishes best. Just remember that with a this fish finder rig, you want to have your bait off the bottom, which is why we make the 8-10 inch lengths of mono we tie to the slide.
Leader material....anything from Hi Seas, Ande Clear, and Berkely COILED leader material work fine in 20-40lb test... I would just pick up a coiled length of 25lb test if i had to pick one lb test. Fluro in 20-30# test, but we have noticed that you really do not have to use fluro with the way the fish bite. We keep it available though for those few days when the fish are picky.
Bait...FRESH SKIMMERS! Period...no salt, no two day old mush. These fish want fresh skimmers!
The Technique....locate the clam boats which will be working close to the beach, and motor up behind them...DO NOT get in their way...watch out for their dredges and outriggers. You should read fish on your bottom machine behind the clam boat...Drop your baited skimmer clams down, and hold on...these fish will take you bait like a codfish does, so hold on! There is no finesse, just a nice yank. You will notice many times that crew memebers on the clam boats will be fishing when the clam boat is pulling up their dredges, and catching fish. This gives you a idea of how comfortable the striped bass are when the clam boat is making this racket with their dredges. You can approach the clam boats pretty close, but like i stated earlier, keep out of their way when they work, and watch for lose lines that the vessel may have in the water.
The season...We usually see the clam boats coming out of Debs/Jones, all times of the year. But it is when the Striped bass set up off our east beaches during the time period from June to September that we do this type of fishing. They will be towing in the same area everyday, as long as it is not nasty out. Some work tight to the beach and some work slightly off the beach....some tow straight lines east to west, or vice versa, while other tow making circles. Watch both of them and see which ones you are comfortable to fish behind.
What happens when the clam boats go in later in the day?
Thats when you can switch your rigs and put your seabass rigs on...High-Low or just one hook that runs off that split ring with a 40lb leader, is all you need. Just get onto the reef, look for a piece and make drifts. Along with the sea bass, you will hook a occassional striped bass.
We have found this to be one of the most fun ways to catch a decent amount of stripers in our area, without needing exotic tackle, refined techniques, or having to hunt to find the fish. It is a daytime fishery, where you do not have to wake up extra early in the morning to beat other fishermen out to the area. Just take a look for the clam boats, have your fresh skimmers ready, and setup behind them. Good luck and remember the regulations concerning the amount of fish that can be kept per person in NY waters. I hope you enjoy doing the clam boat striped bass fishing, as much as i do....
EC NEWELL MAN>>>>
I have to say that Togmaster was the first to discover that the striped bass would stack up behind the clamboats while they were towing their dredges. In the early 90s, Mike was running a fellows boat from Freeport to the Rockaway reef area, during July. They would seabass fish on the eastern portion of the reef and notice that they would catch a number of stripers once they moved a slight distance from these little hangs. He also noticed balled up readings in this area, but always would run back to the hangs to pick up some very nice sized seabass that happened to be in this area, that year. The next day he was running out to a seabass spot with his machine on. He saw the same readings that he had the day before, and dropped onto them. Well he was suprised about the amount of striped bass that he would catch... just following and dropping on the readings, which were stripers following the clam boats. I must remind you, that NO ONE was doing this fishing at the time. Their were no boats in the area, and Mike thought this was just a one shot deal, and got lucky. But after running a few more seabass trips, he would stop behind a clam dredge, and catch a number of stripers. He refined his technique down, so that he would plan his trips when the clam boats were working, which was in the morning, then he would hit his seabass hangs later on. These trips were a blast since, you got a shot at two great tasting fish, and could use basically the same tackle for both. We later realized that the striped bass would stack up in the morning and follow the clam boat, getting easy meals from the dredges...after the clam boats went in later in the day, the striped bass would move onto the reef. It was a continuing cycle that Mike had all to himself. Later on a sharp Freeport charter boat picked up on Mike fishing around this area, and this is how a bunch of fishermen from Freeport to Sheepshead Bay, started to fish 'the clam boats' for bass. The big thing with this fishery, was that you could catch the stripers during the summer, close to the beach, when everyone else had trouble catching any amount of keeper sized fish during the day. The amount of fish you would catch, would easily range as high as 50, a man! It amazed us that the body of striped bass in this area was so high. It turned out that the clam boats had concentrated a big body of fish, which like routine, would follow the clam boats while they worked.
Ok, now we have the background on how this fishery started, lets get to what you need.
TACKLE>>>
Reels...this is shallow water fishing with fish running from shorts to the rare occassional 20lb bass...a newell 220 with 50lb power pro is my perfect setup, but a newell 229, or 322 would be a excellent choice. Penn 145 and 146 reels are also be another choice for this fishing. The Jigmaster 501L with a 99 pinion making the reel 3.75 to 1 would be one of my favorites for this type of fishing. Shimano trinidad, 12 and 14, Diawa SLX 20 & 30 would also be a good choice of reels.
Line...i found power pro 50# to be perfect but you can use power pro 30# since most fish run from 24-36 inches. For mono, 20-30lb test is all you need.
Hooks...You can use a standard beak hook from any hook manufacturer in sizes 3/0-6/0, with or without slices in the shank to hold the clam. We use Gamakatsu octupus hooks, from 3/0-6/0 with 4/0-5/0 the preferred size. We have found that in a pinch you could use blackfish Virginia hooks in sizes 3 and 4, and they work fine. I have found the VMC steelhead bronzed hook in 4/0 size sold by GOFishing.Com to be just right, for those looking for a good alternative to the other above listed hooks.
Rods...i have found that a number or blanks work fine for this fishery...you are fishing shallow water from 25-45 feet and you are just dropping your bait down to the bottom. I prefer a BMB963M Lamiglass cut black slightly from the tip. Lamiglass 1143F cut to 10 tips, work just fine. I also use a original Sabre 1660 which is rated for 20 (30) 50 and found that it has the perfect action to fish from a small boat. The newer graphite blanks like a GBT841M or the lighter GLB90 1M would be fine. Contact Capt. Neil for ideas on different blanks for this fishing. Just remember you can use anything rated from 20-50lb and would fish fine.
Sinkers....4-6oz is all you need...
The Rig....their are two types. The FISH FINDER where you use a slide with a piece of mono that is about 8 inches in length, to your sinker, and then attach a 3-4 foot leader of either mono or flurocarbon leader from 20-30lb test, or a 3 way. The 3 way we make is a little different that what you have seen. Since we sometimes fish for sea bass with the same tackle, we came up with a rig that makes switching from one to another simple and quick. We use a small split ring where we attach 3 small swivels. You can use 30-40lb split rings, and 30lb-75lb black swivels. You can pretie you leaders, like i said early in 3-4 foot sections and put a swivel on the end and the hook on the other. The one you make up for your sinker is 2-3 feet long. You rarely lose sinkers with this type of fishing, so you do not have to make up many setups going from the sinker to the keyring. Now depending how the fish are biting you can fish with preemade rigs that have 20#,25#(preferred), 30# test. If the fish are extremely line shy which happens, just make a dropper hook rig without any swivels and tie a 3 section of fluro to you hook. But this is very rare, that the fish do not bite. Getting back to the sliding fishfinder rig, it works fantastic, so you can experiment with what you find fishes best. Just remember that with a this fish finder rig, you want to have your bait off the bottom, which is why we make the 8-10 inch lengths of mono we tie to the slide.
Leader material....anything from Hi Seas, Ande Clear, and Berkely COILED leader material work fine in 20-40lb test... I would just pick up a coiled length of 25lb test if i had to pick one lb test. Fluro in 20-30# test, but we have noticed that you really do not have to use fluro with the way the fish bite. We keep it available though for those few days when the fish are picky.
Bait...FRESH SKIMMERS! Period...no salt, no two day old mush. These fish want fresh skimmers!
The Technique....locate the clam boats which will be working close to the beach, and motor up behind them...DO NOT get in their way...watch out for their dredges and outriggers. You should read fish on your bottom machine behind the clam boat...Drop your baited skimmer clams down, and hold on...these fish will take you bait like a codfish does, so hold on! There is no finesse, just a nice yank. You will notice many times that crew memebers on the clam boats will be fishing when the clam boat is pulling up their dredges, and catching fish. This gives you a idea of how comfortable the striped bass are when the clam boat is making this racket with their dredges. You can approach the clam boats pretty close, but like i stated earlier, keep out of their way when they work, and watch for lose lines that the vessel may have in the water.
The season...We usually see the clam boats coming out of Debs/Jones, all times of the year. But it is when the Striped bass set up off our east beaches during the time period from June to September that we do this type of fishing. They will be towing in the same area everyday, as long as it is not nasty out. Some work tight to the beach and some work slightly off the beach....some tow straight lines east to west, or vice versa, while other tow making circles. Watch both of them and see which ones you are comfortable to fish behind.
What happens when the clam boats go in later in the day?
Thats when you can switch your rigs and put your seabass rigs on...High-Low or just one hook that runs off that split ring with a 40lb leader, is all you need. Just get onto the reef, look for a piece and make drifts. Along with the sea bass, you will hook a occassional striped bass.
We have found this to be one of the most fun ways to catch a decent amount of stripers in our area, without needing exotic tackle, refined techniques, or having to hunt to find the fish. It is a daytime fishery, where you do not have to wake up extra early in the morning to beat other fishermen out to the area. Just take a look for the clam boats, have your fresh skimmers ready, and setup behind them. Good luck and remember the regulations concerning the amount of fish that can be kept per person in NY waters. I hope you enjoy doing the clam boat striped bass fishing, as much as i do....
EC NEWELL MAN>>>>
