Posts Tagged ‘Striped Bass’

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Winter Flounder Fishing

May 19th, 2011 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Fishing Techniques

Winter Flounder Fishing for a Great Time

If you’re dissatisfied with the cold weather and want to start fishing, you’re probably considering ice fishing. If you live in New England, you’ve got plenty of opportunities just waiting for you. Striped bass are available as early as March and in April you’ll have the opportunity to begin fishing for fluke (also known as winter flounder).  The reason they are so plentiful at this time of year is that they are spawning along the coastline.Winter Flounder Fishing

Winter Flounder Fishing Season is just 6 or 8 weeks

Modern restrictions have newly been placed on winter flounder owing in large part to over-harvesting and incompatible reproduction habitats.  These restrictions have shortened winter flounder fishing season to just 6 or 8 weeks, but this still offers plenty of time for a great winter fluke season.

Unlike summer flounder fishing.

You can easily fish for winter flounder with relatively light line (8-12 lbs) and a rod as small as six or seven feet will be adequate.  Remember, these fish only range from 2-3 lbs each.  Crafting a rig for winter flounder can be as simple or as complicated as you care to make it.  Regardless, you’ll have great success provided you use the smaller hooks that are an essential component of successfull winter flounder fishing.  Small hooks and weights (to keep bait at the bottom) help accommodate both the habitat where you’ll find winter flounder and their small, nearly toothless mouths.

Your next step is to combine bait for winter flounder fishing with yellow grubs or beads fastened to the shaft.  Winter flounder rigs are well known for their bright yellow bait. Regardless of whether you choose to fish with mussel, sandworms or bloodworms as bait, the bright yellow helps catch the attention of winter flounder.

Chumming is another successful means of fishing for flounder.

Whether you opt to fish while anchored in a boat or from the shoreline, and this method attracts large schools of winter flounder.  To have all the equipment you need to take full advantage of your winter flounder fishing event, just pick up your chum pots at a local bait and tackle shop.  You need simply attach the pots to a nonflexible object near the shoreline or secure them to the boat.

For those who prefer to cast dual rods, you can use one behind your boat (in the same direction as the current) and one along-side the boat near your chum pot.  This method not only helps you catch more flounder but it helps you get the most out of your chum pots.

Winter flounder have a habit of gathering together in areas where they can find food in abundance.

So it is likely that you will catch a bunch of them in somewhat shallow water.  As a rule of thumb, the more shallow the water, the warmer it will be, and therefore the more abundant the fluke’s food source.   Consequently, you can usually find a school of winter flounder near an area of sand and gravel that easily becomes to mud on a regular basis.

If you’re a saltwater angler, winter flounder fishing is a great way to break back into it after a long and cold winter. These delicately flavored fish also help restock your freezer after the winter and before the summer fishing season gets underway.

When winter flounder fishing you want to make sure that you have the proper equipment, some products to consider are Shimano Fishing Reels and Penn Reel


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Striper Fishing With Live Bait

May 18th, 2011 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Fishing Techniques

Start Striper Fishing seriously in May

Striper Fishing is popular and you can catch big stripers up and down the East Coast each year, using a variety of methods and many kinds of Try striper fishing for striped basstackle. If you wish to take full advantage of your chances for a striped bass longer than 40 inches, then live bait on a 3-way rig is your best option. Standard baits in the New England region are eel, hickory shad, scup and menhaden, also called porgy or bunker. Live baits work well no matter the time of day or day of the week. Start Striper Fishing seriously in May, and you can keep on until ice becomes a problem on the boat’s deck in late November. Big bass over 60 pounds have been caught at night or during broad daylight.

How often can you honestly say that anyone strong enough – from a child to your grandmother – to land one of these monsters can have a great day Striper Fishing!  Some of the heaviest bass from 55 to 78 lbs have been caught in New England.  Valiant Rock, Sugar Reef, Plum Gut and the Sluiceway have all bragged about stripers in the weight range of 55-70 lbs while Al McReynolds landed a 78 lb striper at a jetty in New Jersey using a 3-way rig. The next big catch was made at Montauk Point and the proud fisherman that day was Captain Rod Rochetta who was also using a three-way rig.  These rigs have made Striper Fishing so simple that with a few pointers, anyone can land a great fish once you find out where they like to be.

If you think that a Striper Fishing three way rig is hard to fashion, think again, it’s actually quite simple.  The name explains it all – the starting point is a three way swivel, one from your main line, and two leader lines.  One of these lines is created from a dropper loop – simple enough to design, a loop to attach your sinker to which allows bounce during a running tide.  Experiment with weights – depending on the area you are fishing you can utilize as few as four ounces or as many as twenty.  The second line will be home to a fluorocarbon leader generally about five feet in length. Remember to balance out your line – decide if you’re looking for the unobtrusive approach or if you’re looking for a stronger approach. It’s not that difficult to find the right balance between the two.  Generally a fifty pound line is best for this leader as it offers exactly the right balance for most.  Depending on the weather, you might find that a thirty pound fluorocarbon line is best for Striper Fishing on a day that’s especially clear and you’re in clear water.

This Striper Fishing rig can get very expensive and this is one downside of it. However, you can control costs fairly simple to avoid turning this fun hobby into one that requires massive spending.  When you factor in the cost of Gemakatsu hooks, Seaguar Fluorocarbon line, and a three way Spro Swivel, you can soon find your costs mounting up.  But, if you set your rig up so that your main line is your heaviest (55 lbs is ideal), your leader line is heavy (around 50 lbs) and your dropper loop is your lightest (30 lbs is preferred) you can cut down the cost of losses by merely snapping the dropper loop losing only your sinker.  The bottom line is that the sinker is the least expensive item on your rig and is the easiest to replace cost-wise.

For Striper Fishing 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 Striper Fishing, some of the more popular ones include; Shimano Calcutta Fishing Reels and BG90.


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Fishing the Deep Water Reefs

November 11th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Fishing Venues

Fishing deep water reefs can be very productive

Northeast summers can often mean low production for inshore anglers.  This is due to oxygen depletion in shallow water which forces both bait fish and game fish out into deep water reefs.  Instead of giving up, the best bet is to follow the fish – to the deep water reefs where the water is cooler and more oxygen rich.Fishing deep water reefs

To visualize deep water reefs, simply take a look at any hill. You’ll quickly notice that it has both an up-slope and a down-slope. This isn’t any different in the water – reefs have them too. Fishing the deep water reefs typically means that the fish are going to be hiding in the structures that are provided – either rock formations, weeds or even old wrecks.  To make the most of this type of structure, you’ll need to drift over it and go with the flow of the tides.  A depth finder is a required tool for this type of fishing, as you have to be cautious to not damage your boat, but it is also helpful to mark the location where you find fish – remember, fish tend to return to the same areas and storing these locations for future use will help make each fishing expedition fruitful.

Live bait or fresh cut bait is often the best choice for striped bass and bluefish.  This is nearly a requirement in deep water.  You need the right tackle also, or you’ll soon find that the fast moving currents around deep water reefs will be a particular challenge.  Choose a rod that is capable of handling heavy sinkers – 10 to 20 ounce sinkers will be almost a necessity. While in the past this capability was often restricted to the heavier, fiberglass rods with a super duty reel, thankfully technology has changed all that.

Braided fishing line has become far more popular with deep water anglers, in fact, it is practically designed for it. Since it is smaller in diameter than the older, heavy monofilaments, you merely need to have a reel that will comfortably accommodate 30-50 point test (a couple of hundred yards) and a mono backing.  This type of reel will work well fishing deep water reefs.  Ensure that you have a successful trip by making sure that your reels drag system is capable of landing larger fish.

Fortunately, the creation of braided fishing line also provided new rods that were built for handling the line. This meant that carbon and graphite were incorporated into the manufacture to create a lighter rod that would accommodate a smaller reel.  Composite rods are typically made from a combination of fiberglass and graphite which produces a rod that is not only lightweight but also capable of handling the pressure associated with deep water fishing.

Speed jigging is one of the newest deep water techniques.  When you are using live bait in deep water,  you may elect a short, stout rod which is specially designed for baits and jigs that are on the heavier side (e.g. 16-20 oz).  Fortunately, these rods are ideal for those who wish to fish all day long, they are no longer heavy and bulky, they’re very lightweight and easy to use.

Braided lines, smaller reels and lighter, stouter rods allow the seasoned angler to move with the fish. When they move from the shallow water they normally inhabit, you’ll be ready to take them on in the deeper waters they have moved to.When you are out saltwater fishing it is important to make sure you have the right supplies. Some of the most popular brands include Shimano Reels, Penn Saltwater Reels, and Daiwa Fishing Reels.


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