While not always a solution, returning to the scene of a bluefish blitz after dark can often be the key to scoring good-size stripers. To take it a step farther, use a full third of the bunker, the head with a couple inches of trailing meat, to give a bluefish too much of a mouthful and entice only the largest bass. The theory is that the bony heads are less appealing to the predatory bluefish than the scavenger stripers. When chunking bunker, fishermen use the heads to avoid bluefish and specifically target larger bass. ![]() A short leader makes it easier to cast the bunker head and weight. While catching bluefish can be fun, knowing how to get an offering past the blues could nab you the largest striper of the season. We’d found a way to get past the bluefish and to the bass, and enjoyed steady action on stripers until the rising sun chased them off.Īt no time of the year is the adage, “the bass are under the blues” more true than in October when these two species move into the surf to fatten up on migrating baitfish. One of Alberto’s friends connected next, bringing in a 20-pound striper, then Alberto caught one of a similar size. ![]() The chunks were quickly forgotten, and everyone began throwing darters. A few minutes later, when I dragged the fish onto the sand and into the beam of Alberto’s headlamp, we saw that it was indeed a 35-pound striper. I set the hook, and the fish bolted over the sandbar with the heavy headshakes and slow, determined run of a big striper. I got hit on my first cast, a solid thump I assumed was another bluefish. This keeper bass hit a Daiwa SP Minnow, a good plug to use in moving water. Use larger plugs after dark, as large stripers and blues will continue to prowl the shores long after the daytime blitzes end. Leaving the bait to the other guys, I racked the stout conventional setup, and picked up my 11-foot spinning rod rigged with a Super Strike Darter. J.C.My last-minute addition meant the bunker would be divided by four anglers instead of three, a fact I only realized when I looked into the cooler after releasing a bluefish and saw three chunks left. A frog swimming across the surface isn’t going to make lots of noise, and the hawgs know it. Hair bugs hit the water more gently and bulge more water on the strip, creating a broad wake and more muted sound that larger fish often respond to better. Yes, hard-bodied poppers may make more of a commotion, but they also catch a lot of small bass. Looking for a big dog-day fly-rod largemouth bass? Skip the foam and tie on a hair bug. Gear Tip: Hair Tonic Hard-bodied poppers are perfect for catching a lot of small bass. Floured, flash-fried snapper fillets with a sprinkling of Old Bay is a flavor that will forever take me back to those Surf City summers, although these days it’s slightly more enjoyable because I can pair it with an ice-cold brew. Snappers, however, lack the oily flesh and dark bloodlines of the big fish. Perhaps one of the most overlooked perks of snapper blues is their quality on the table. Sometimes it would take a little while for the first snapper to find the bait, but once it did, that bobber would get sucked under on almost every cast. My rig was basic: a foam bobber and a cheap long-shank hook to prevent bite-offs. When I was growing up, my family would rent a house nearby in summer, and I’d spend hours sitting on the dirty wooden ledge with a trout rod, a reel filled with 6-pound-test, and a bag of frozen spearing. There is a bulkhead at the end of 13th Street in Surf City, N.J., that butts up against Barnegat Bay. Best of all, since you can make your approach as simple or as technical as you’d like, they are perfect sport for anglers of any skill level. Unlike their bigger relatives in the ocean, snappers are easy to find and easy to catch. A 10-inch juvenile “snapper” has the same wolflike attitude as an 18-pound “slammer.” Every summer, tiny snappers make their way into bays from Florida to Maine, and by August they’ve grown large enough to become worthy light-tackle opponents. This ravenous nature is fully developed at birth. That unquenchable hunger-coupled with a fighting ability that puts more coveted gamefish to shame-is what makes them such amazing targets. They’ve been known to vomit just to make room in their stomachs so they can continue to feed.
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