Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Anglers
But first, shop news
Have you heard there is a new technique to legally snag & drop fish for striped bass using with a circle hook? We had the rigs from Maitai, but they sold out within 24 hours. Here is how you can tie your own. First, tie a barrel swivel attached to a heavy mono leader (50 or 60 pounds). It doesn’t have to be long, 2 to 3 feet will work. Halfway down that leader tie a large dropper loop. Attach a large inline circle hook to that dropper. Anywhere from 8/0 to 10/0 for the adult bunker we have around, smaller for peanuts. At the bottom end of the leader tie a loop to attach a weight. How do you use this? Attach a 2 to 3 oz sinker to the rig and cast into a school of bunker. The denser the school the better. Snag a baitfish with long sweeps of your rod. Once a bunker is snagged, just let it sit and hang on for a striped bass to find your bait. The bait is already hooked on a hook legal for bass, so you don’t need to immediately reel it in and redeploy like when using a normal treble snag hook. And with the way circle hooks work, the bait is usually hooked around the back or the belly by the tail. Occasionally they will be hooked in the nose. Rarely will they be hooked in the side like a regular snag normally does.
For our female anglers, we now carry waders for you. We heard you that you were tired of waders not built for you that didn’t fit properly, so you can now check out the Frogg Toggs AMPHIB neoprene BTFT Waders. The bootfoots will be perfect for the sand beaches around here, and the neoprene will keep you really warm on those colder days.
For those who like to fish swimbaits like the Kaitech shads or Z-Man DieZel Minnowz, we have a new swimbait hook for you to check out. The Core Tackle TUSH Swimbait hook is a weighted hook that, when rigged, will have the weight inside the rubber bait, giving a more natural presentation than a standard jig head. It also changes the action of the swimbait to something with a little more side to side belly roll, which will catch stubborn fish’s attention. These can also be used with soft stickbaits like Sluggos or Hogys and curly tails like Gotcha grubs.
So the fishing is still very good for large striped bass. There are no hotspots, you have to move around and find the active bunker schools to be successful. Live bunker have been the ticket on the new Maitai Legal Snag & Drop rigs, or for those tying their own. Rubber shads, metal lipped swimmers, and plastic swimmers have taken fish also.
There is a bite in the dark too, and those fishing at those times are finding success on bunker chunks. Those fishing lures at night are doing well with plastic swimmers, shads and bucktail jigs.
Don’t forget, the tog are still chewing around the local rockpiles. With all the attention on bass, people are forgetting about these. They are taking green crabs or sand crabs on tog jigs or tog rigs.
Here are some recent notable catches:
Our cover shot and the photo above is Shell E Caris with a beast caught Tuesday on a metal lipped swimmer.
John Spence with a nice double caught using bunker. A 29.5inch,11.40 pound striper and a 26.5 inch, 7.75 pound bluefish.
@joegray83 said “I have to thank you guys for the tip on that legal snag. It was lights out fishing for me tonight. Thanks a lot.”
@jacccxs didn’t let the boys have all the fun! Here she is with a nice bass from the surf.
Fuzzy just sent us this BIG one caught down in the park on a bomber overnight.
Our own Scott and David Eurell went out front in plastic tubs and found some bass! Live-lining, big metal lipped swimmers, and big pencils were the ticket. When you come into the shop, please remind Scott how good a friend he has in David since David let him hold one of David’s fish for a picture.
Mike McCarthy fooled this bass on a homemade plug.
Teasers getting the job done too. Here’s @a_pebble_in_sand_ with nice fish on a Shell E Teaser.
Anthony David with an early morning slob.
@tyler_crank5 found this 30” bass on a Tsunami shad Thursday night.
We have a public service announcement. When you go fishing for blackfish, you tend to get snagged a lot. It comes with the territory. To get your rig/jig back, be careful. Don’t pull really hard to loosen it. Or if you do, be prepared to duck. Ray was not prepared to duck…
