and that spelled trouble for the stripers and blues lurking in the area. Nice to meet you and Bill, now I have a face to put with all the trouble you guys raise on the board, lol. Great morning, ton's of nice chunk schoolies, with several pushing that 30 inch mark. No big ones but lot's of fun. I have to say, the best part of the day was getting into some huge blues later in the morning. We weighed a couple that were pushing 17 lbs and most we caught were around 12-14 lbs. I ended up with around 20 big blues, a few on poppers, but most on my plastic jerkbait. I use the 8 inch 27# South Bend Invisa-Leaders, which I pick up at Walmart. They don't ruin the action of the jerkbait and since the blues like it a little faster it's not that critical. We were in a parking lot of boats for a while and I saw everyone scratching their heads as we caught fish after fish, with not that many hook-ups around us. When they are keyed in on the small bait, the small jerkbaits really shine. We even had a couple guys motor up beside us to get a look, one guy left with a couple hooks and some baits.

The only drawback to the blues, is they are a pain in the *ss to land, especially since I don't even own a net. I've got a couple good spiderwire cuts, courtesy of some blues that decided they weren't done just yet. I was using my gaff to lip them, but then that came apart. Pete had a ball and lucked into most of the big blues. One that broke his leader as he was landing it was just a monster and I'll bet when close to 19 lbs.

I'm headed out again tomorrow with my middle son, who will put aside the girls and his gang for a day, especially after hearing my report. It will be good to fish with him again, it's been about 2 years since we were out together. Stopped at Walmart on the way home for a few more leaders and a local bait shop for a nice small gaff. All I need now is a new left hand, which is in pretty bad shape after last weekend and today.

Good to meet you guys, I enjoyed chatting with you. Some day we need to get together and fish, plus I'd love a ride in the Lund. Tight lines, maybe I'll see you out there tomorrow too.

Congrats on your day. Sounds like you guys are into fish up to your eyeballs. Having trouble landing 17 pound blues is a good problem to have. My best blue was 15 lbs. at Middleground Vinyard sound. Only got one blue today. 7 stripers yesterday. Got Stripers , are those jerkbaits anything like the lures everyone throws at Pilgrim power plant -Zoom- Plastic with lead head? They work great and you have to match what they are eating. These days it seems like peanut bunker. Keep teaching those small fish so they can live to be fat slobs for us to catch in 5-10 years.

Hi there got stripers, never got home until 7, we pounded it all day, got blues to about 14lb, and some decent bass also. Was great to meet ya. Your welcome to a ride in the boat anytime, only we will be leaving next Sunday for MV, so will probably not be until we get back, in 3 weeks. So we will try and hook up with ya then. What a day!!!!!, the fish got very spookie this afternoon in some spots. I am fried need to go veg out, we won't be going out tomorrow, have to do a fishing seminar at the tackle shop, but good luck, we will be talkin to ya.

Fisherwoman & Baitcaster

Must have gotten into the same Bluefish Blitz as you guys, we landed quit a few biggins ourselves! They tore into our plastics, allthough if any one caught one with a nice Zara Spook in it's mouth "IT'S MINE!!!!"

Slipknot, the picture shows a couple of my favorite striper baits. <img src="http://www.rgsiroisco.com/striperbaits.jpg" border="0">

I doubt there is a handful of people rigging plastics the way I do and that's ok by me, but they are missing the boat. Not to say rigging them on a lead head will not work, but the difference is that a lead head presents the bait in a more vertical presentation and my rigging method is more of a horizontal presentation. That is the key difference and based 14 years of experimentation a big one, because I've found the horizontal presentation will outfish the vertical 5:1. I think it's more natural to the striper, blues or any other game fish for that matter. By using the large 5/0 Owner 90 degree jig hook and weighting it with 1/16 diameter solder, the weight is spread out over much of the length of the bait and not all forward of the bait. If I see trailers and I kill the bait with the big flat bait, it will fall in a large 8 foot diameter circle and that tactic will usually get some of those trailers to just kill that bait as it falls. The flat bait used to be my staple, but the new split tail has just be a killer this year. I switch back and forth, some days they want the bigger profile, but most days the split tail does the trick.

The other key is the corkscrew like device I clip to the eye of the hook. By screwing the head of the bait to that little baby, I increase the life of my plastics tremendously. My most productive day this year (bait shredding wise) was 20 fish on one bait, but usually I get between 5 and 8 fish per bait. Now for me it's not all that critical, because I pour my own baits and melt down all my used baits, but for anyone buying them commercially it's a big money saver. You can get them in Bass Pro Shops, or at Bassing Specialties on Rt 128 in Abington. Steve Carty the owner knows me and he also carries those 5/0 Owner hooks. In fact the flat bait is a design of his and you can get them in his store as well. I knew it would be a killer for stripers when I first saw it and copied it immediately, much to his dismay, lol. Try this method of rigging your own plastics, I guarantee it will put more fish in your boat.

It's 5:30 and I pumped to get out again, tight lines.

Thanks for that in depth response ,I agree with the horizontal presentation.hope you had another good day.

What a difference a day makes. Launched in Scituate this morning, figuring it's a shorter run from there to just past Minot. About 300 yards of pounding in 6 footers outside and I flipped it around, just too rough for my little 17 footer. Launched in Hingham and ran to the Gut. Nothing doing around Peddocks, so I figured one more look outside, since I'm now a short run to Nantasket, where we hit the schoolies yesterday. Crused (more like surfed with the size of the swells) about have the length of the beach and didn't see any birds working and not knowing that area, flipped it around and headed back inside. Lot's of running, some fishing, but not much catching today. Odd, because everywhere you looked there was tons of bait in the water. I guess that's why they call it fishing. Just disappointing that my son couldn't get into that action we had yesterday. Probably a better day for you surf casters, tough day for us small boaters, tight lines.

Great to hear that you all had a chance to hook up out there... Fished from Terra-Firma there last night with two buddies from work to 2 measley hits and no runs.... You all must have tired out the fish during the day!!! I'm suing!!! Actually, there was not as much baitfish last night as in previous nights... Was supposed to get out Friday night hoping for some more 30 pound stripers but my friend and co-worker Bill-C's battery died on his new Dodge as we were leaving, the battery post had actually loosened up!!!