Rec and Sports

Striper Fishing With Live Bait

Before the November ice makes fishing from your boat’s deck a problem you may want to consider heading out for a day of bass fishing with a three way rig.  These rigs can help you catch huge bass (over sixty pounds) in broad daylight or at night.  Standard bait found all over New England such as porgy, hickory shad, cup and eels can help you land a striped bass that could wind up being more than forty inches.  Just think of the great tales you’ll have to tell your friends and family.  The East coast is rich in big stripers and the methods and tackle to land them are numerous.

Just think – the biggest challenge facing you fishing in this area is where the fish are housed.  Bass fishing is so simple that with a few pointers, your grandmother if she’s got enough strength could land a huge fish!  A seventy-six pound bass was recorded in Montauk Point, caught by Captain Rob Rochetta. This was one of the heaviest bass ever landed and was as a result of the use of a three-way rig.  In New Jersey, a record breaking striper was landed by Al McReynolds at a jetty.  This striper weighed in at a staggering seventy eight lbs and also was landed with a 3-way rig.  Valiant Rock, Sugar Reef, Plum Gut and the Sluiceway all boast catches between 55 and 70 lbs and each time a three way rig has been the choice of the fishermen who claim these prizes.

A 3-way jig is actually very simple. The jig gets its name from its starting point: a 3-way swivel. One swivel goes toward your main line, obviously. The second is designed as a dropper loop (which is exactly what it sounds like: a piece of line with a loop used to attach a heavy enough lead sinker to bounce on the bottom in a running tide). In some cases, a dropper loop needs a sinker that weighs as little as 4 to 6 ounces, while other rips and reefs may call for 16 to 20 ounces to keep your bait in the strike zone during your drift. Swivel three holds a 4 to 5 foot length of fluorocarbon leader material. The measure of the leader is questionable, since some use heavier line when they fish around hazards, like lobster pots. Some prefer 50 lb., as it is a good balance between sneaky and strong. There are days of clear water that make the bass line-shy, and on days like that some use 30 lb fluoro. Terminal tackle is pricey now, and between Seaguar Fluorocarbon, Spro Swivels and Gamakatsu hooks, your rig can get rather expensive. A successful means of avoiding losing countless rigs to the bottom is to employ a lighter line for your dropper loop than the leader. This way, if you get caught, you can snap the dropper loop, losing just your sinker, and still reclaim the rig and your bait. For instance, if your main line is 55, your leader is 50, and that makes your dropper loop around 30 lb.

The measure of the leader is questionable, since some use heavier line when they fish around hazards, like lobster pots. Some prefer 50 lb., as it is a good balance between sneaky and strong. There are days of clear water that make the bass line-shy, and on days like that some use 30 lb fluoro. Terminal tackle is pricey now, and between Seaguar Fluorocarbon, Spro Swivels and Gamakatsu hooks, your rig can get rather expensive. A successful means of avoiding losing countless rigs to the bottom is to employ a lighter line for your dropper loop than the leader. This way, if you get caught, you can snap the dropper loop, losing just your sinker, and still reclaim the rig and your bait. For instance, if your main line is 55, your leader is 50, and that makes your dropper loop around 30 lb.

For the main line, use naught but braided line. Using braided line has a few distinct benefits for this application. One is that its smaller diameter offers less resistance against a moving tide, letting you use less weight to keep the bait in the strike zone. Possibly an even bigger advantage is that braided lines offer minimal line stretch. With monofilament, you can typically expect up to 10% line stretch. With almost no stretch with braid, you can feel everything that is going on, and you get excellent hook sets. You can plainly tell if you are fishing over a sand bottom, mussel bed, or boulders as a result of the line’s sensitivity. There are many effective brands available, such as Fireline, Stren, Daiwa, and Power Pro. The definite advantage that Daiwa has is that the braid is weaved from eight strands, while many others use four. Most braids feel as though you have to break them in before they are useful, but Daiwa is a very limp and smooth line.

There are many reels on the market which are great for fishing. Some of the more popular ones include; Shimano Calcutta Fishing Reels and BG90.