Opening Day Is Tomorrow
It’s actually two opening days tomorrow. The back bays open for striped bass, and winter flounder season opens. This is for New Jersey. If you are reading this from another state, your mileage may vary.
We have everything you need for opening day. For winter flounder, we have the flounder rigs you are going to need, plus we have blood worms, salted clams, and fishbites for bait. And don’t forget to pick up some clam chum to bring the fish to you.
For striped bass, you have a choice to throw bait or small lures this time of year. Bloodworms and salted calms will be the baits of choice this time of year. Remember, if you are fishing for bass with natural bait you need to use an inline circle hook.
For lures, you have a number of options. Last year’s hottest lure was a kettle creek shad on an S&S Bullet head jig or a Kalin’s bullet or ultimate jig head. We suspect this year will be no different.
A very close second to those were small swim shads, in the 3 to 4 inch range, such as the Tsunami Holographic Swim Shad, the Storm Wildeye Swim Shad or the Vudu Shads.
Last year a couple of anglers from the shop were testing out Vudu Shrimp. While very popular and proven in more southern states for redfish, sea trout and snook, we wanted to see if our local fish would like them. They loved them. They worked well on early season bass. As summer rolled around, they also worked on fluke. Don’t overlook this lure.
For those who like fishing swimming plugs, the Rapala X-Rap is tough to beat. The X-10 size is the most popular in early spring, but sizing up may get you some larger fish.
If you were lucky enough to pick up some Scabelly Gliders when we had them in, now would be the time to use the smaller ones. Or, like the Rapalas, size up and go for a bigger fish.
It’s worm season at Grumpys. Ray’s favorite time of year. He loves worms. We do, however, have to keep an eye on him around lunchtime…
