OK. Here is my situation. I fish mostly chunks of herring/macs as well as whole dead herring. I have had some decent success lately in and around a local harbor catching fish around 40". My interesting problem is that I am SEEING (while chumming around floats) some simply HUGE stripers that are coming up and gorging themselves on the handsful of chum I occasionaly toss. I swear that some of these fish are 4ft long. Occasionally a schoolie or smallish keeper will grab the piece of chum with my hook imbedded. Since I know that these cows are there, I am looking for an alternative method to entice them. I have little acess to live bait but there are lots of small pollock around. Any suggestions on an artificial that may fool them in clear water that is often shallow? How about a live eel? Might that work on a gravel type bottom with little in the way of rocky structure?

Thanx in advance for any insight/suggestions

Spin

Try an eel, they can't resist.

and wiat when they take it. Give them 20' of line. THEN set the hook........ :)

You could also try some splitshot to get your bait to fall a little quicker past the schoolies.

in that handfull of chum You will have a hunk of bait with Your hook in it. and then toss it over.
been there and that worked for Me along the islands

What Dave said - delete the sinker from your rig.

If your fishing from the boat, try not throwing so much chum at once. Where I fish from a boat lots fo us just float the chunks but sometimes smaller fish eat the floaters. Try a small egg sinker to get to the right depth for the bigger fish depending on the current. Another idea is to get the chum as small as possible. From shore some of the guys who chum also float their baits, but if you do use a sinker try using the least amount of weight as possible.

an article in the fisherman said that big bass love heads

The 39 lber I posted recently came on a live pollack, big bass will gobble them up big time, I've probably caught more big bass on live polllack than any live bait. The macs are great but they come and go and harbor pollack are easy to catch on sabiki rigs.

Thanx for the replies folks. I am fishing directly off of the floats... I could spearfish these big fish if it were legal. GS, do you alter the pollock at all to attract the big bass. I aimaging you do not have to out in the open but I am fishing amongst a zillion pollock and many bass. Seems they could easily have thier fill of pollock.

I will try an eel but will they resist if it is daytime?

This is very clear, clean water and it seems the fish can see the line even if the hook is burried in a chunk. I have tried florocarbon and other "invisible" lines but I am not as smart as the bigger fish (that is likely how they got so big)

Blackeye, I can say that many of the larger fish that I have kept have bellies full of herring heads.

Thanx again...

Spin

Bury the hook with absolutly no wieght, that includes any swivels! Use very small pieces of chum. Do not chum too much just enough to get their interest keeping the baited hook out of the water. When they start coming into the bait stop chumming and flip the baited hook in on a slack line so it falls just like the chum. If the small fish hit the bait put on a head. I have used this techniche many times in the canal.

try drifting a chunck with a rubbercore 1-2oz sinker above the leader or a egg sinker i use this rig in the canal

also...make your chunk similar in size to the peices in the chum

And, very light leaders, small sharp strong hooks (Gami live bait)
Floro carbon may help... if the hook bait sinks too fast add a small styrofoam peanut (inside chunk) to make it sink slower... think like your chunking line shy tuna...