Greetings, gang! Hope the new season is treating you boaters well.

Question for the boat crew. I've only fished stripers off the beaches. Uncle Matt just got a boat so I'm hoping to bum rides off him. I am tying up some parachute jigs on smilin' bill heads. How heavy do you guys go for heads using wire-line setups for off shore? Is 4 & 5 ounce good enough? Should I tie more 5 than 4 or tie lotsa both of 'em??

Any particular colors work better than others?

Thanks for the help. This boat thing is gonna be a new world for us!!

I would think 4-5 would be plenty, colors I usually put together on most of my rigs are flourescent green/white and pink/white

It's funny, sometimes the lighter jigs produce better than heavy ones, like 2 ounces or so. But I know a guy who loves those giant 10 ounce Andrus jigs. These are all fished on the bottom and some days the heavy does it and some day the lighter does it.

Like you, I tend to stockpile the 4-5 ounce size as a catch all jig. When I fished as a mate on a charterboat in high school, we used 2 ounces jigs in the rips and they never touched the bottom, and we did really well.

The leadhead jig is very versatile, isn't it!

Hey Hooper, when you fished those jigs on the charterboat would you troll them and pump the rods up and down, or would you drift? I know a lot of guyd over off of P-town troll and pump those unbrerlla rigs. Just wondering? I would think the best place to use a jig like this is over a bottom that has lots of structure or "dips" ^-^---^-----^^^ so the jig gets down there on those holding fish.

I have been thinking about trolling the 9 inch strom jigs on the wireline. It would be great to see which produces more, the parachute or the strom. I'm going to experiment this year.

Thanks for the replies! I think I'm pretty safe with the 4 & 5 ounce jobs.

Teezer - that's a heck of an idea! I bet those would swim nice. Gonna hafta try that!

Inshore I fish 2 oz White Jigs w/white porkrind. Offshore I'll go to a 4 -5 oz. 9 inch Storm Wildeyes are killer when trolled. This is all with Monel wire.

Originally posted by quick decision
Hey Hooper, when you fished those jigs on the charterboat would you troll them and pump the rods up and down, or would you drift?

Hi Quick-

Yes, on the boat I worked for, the crew worked the rods, usually seated from a fishting chair. We used very light wire line, 30lb and two ounce jigs. Generally, we spooled with 150' of wire and came back 12-15 turns on the reels which usually put us in the right spot. Some other boat used strictly 100' of wire and left it there, then fished the rip that way.

I've seen Cape Cod Bay charters jig umbrellas sometimes, but it seems overkill to me. Maybe they're trying to kill the customers? If the fish are there they'll either hit the rigs or not regardless if they're being pulled on....right? Just my school of thought!

:D

I have trolled those storms on wire...they work but a lot of the time you pull up half a storm. Beware of choppers.

Bob-

One thing I thought I'd mention... For the most part, fishing off the southside of the Cape I've seen most people using the chartruese or white jigs. However, my buddy who charter fishes in Cape Cod bay says all he uses is red and purple. Also on the bay side, they don't pump the jigs but bounce them along the bottom. Therefore the tendency is to go with the standard smilin' bill style rather than the chute.

On the southside of the Cape I fish the chutes and keep them about 3 or 4 feet off bottom. I pump them because it seems realistic to the way a squid pumps through the water. Althought, I have had hits on the chutes while the rods weren't being jigged. Fish chartruese in may and early june, than move to white as the water warms up... Not sure why, but that's been the most successful for me... My biggest fish last year came on Jigs in early June rather than bait in the fall. Don't listen to those who say only the bait will take the big girls. I've had 40 pounders on the jigs.

Good luck.

Wow, I am getting excited just reading this stuff. I need to get my boat in asap! Thanx guys.