One of my winter projects is to learn more about striper & bluefish habitat/fishing and then try my luck this spring in Jamaica Bay with my kayak. I have been reading many of the posts but I am open to any and all suggestions.

Lures
I currently fish soft plastic for smallmouths and think this will be my primary bait when I go to the salt. With a budget in mind what would your first type, color, size, and weight choices be. Since I am just begining I want to make the most of my purchases.

I am also assuming I will need to tie my braided line, what size, to a steel leader for blues, is one length better than another. What leader material would you suggest for stripers?
Thank you in advance for the info.

Kayak, tube n worm, live eels, any imitation rubber eels, plugs such as Bombers and any metal lip swimmer. Endless possibilities. Braid 20-30 lb to 3-4 ft 40lb flourocarbon leader material or 50 in Rocky areas. Tie braid to a Spro or Krok swivel of 120lb strength. Use breakaway clips to attach lures. Don't really need to use a wire leader unless the blues are in thick. Casting you can use 7-9 inch sluggos or soft plasctic swim baits if you like rubber.

Any recommendations on the braided line: I have read about PowerPro and mysterious snap offs. I have used this on my freshwater reel with no problems but just seeing if another brand has better success.

Just curious, why the breakaway clips on the lure, this is the first I heard of this? Will a uni knot work for attaching all the gear?

For soft plastics you can't go wrong with Fin-S or Sluggos, I use anywhere from 4" to 7" with 1/4 oz. to 1-1/2 oz. lead heads in the former and 6" through 9" with 1/2 oz. to 3 oz. heads in the latter, size and weight used depends on water depth, strength of current, size of prevalent bait, etc. Sluggos also work well with no weight, just a single Shaughnesy hook. My favorite soft plastics though have become the RonZ, I use everything from 6" on 1/4 oz. heads to 10" on 3 oz., they catch fish when nothing else will! You should also pick up a few hard baits like Bombers, great, inexpensive lures that just catch fish. I'm not familiar with the spot you mentioned, so you'll need to assess what weights and sizes your local conditions warrant, and as for color, don't get too hung up on that, anything that is darker on top and lighter on the bottom will mimic any type of baitfish, that being said, don't be afraid to throw chartreuse or bubblegum stuff, that works too. Lastly, make sure the jig heads you get have good, strong hooks on them, saltwater fish put way more pressure on your gear than smallies. Hope this helped and welcome to the site, there's a whole lot of good information to be had here, I know the guys on this board have definitely helped me become a better angler. :cheers:

Any recommendations on the braided line: I have read about PowerPro and mysterious snap offs. I have used this on my freshwater reel with no problems but just seeing if another brand has better success.

Just curious, why the breakaway clips on the lure, this is the first I heard of this? Will a uni knot work for attaching all the gear?

I used to use uni knots for everything, but I've lost faith in them. Now I tie a bimini at the end of my braid and attach the leader with an albright. I use a simple clinch knot to attach the breakaway clip to my leader, this way if I get hung the clinch will be the first to pop and I won't lose a bunch of line. The breakaway clips make it easier to change lures and I like them better than other types of clips. I generally prefer Fireline on my spinners and Power Pro/Stealth/Spectron on my conventionals, things just seem to work better that way. It will take some practice to perfect the knots I mentioned, but trust me, it's time well spent, I've had far fewer break-offs then when I used uni to uni to attach leader to mainline. :kewl:

For braided line I would reccomend 20/30 Fireline. I've been using it for years and have no problems with it...

Ice

My braid of choice is 30# Fireline, tied with a Crazy Al's knot to 5' -7' of 50# Berkeley BGame green, or 60# Ande IGFA green mono sose I can tie direct to whichever lure the conditions warrant. When it's cold out, at the beginning and ending of our season, I'll go to the breakaway snap for plugs and tie that onto my leader with an improved clinch knot.

That being said, at some point this year I am going to try 55# Suffix for my plugging set-up simply because most of the NPT boyz swear by it.

If I know that I'm going after blues, or as soon as I get into them i'll either leave or tie on a 5'-7' leader of 60# Ande flouro and for the most part you'll get 'em in without wire, but wire is sure fire ~just not good for Bass, so I don't use it.

When eeeeeeeling or chunking, I go mono to mono/flouro.

25# Ande BCountry, tied with an albright knot to 34"- 42" of 60# Ande IGFA green, tied to a snelled 5/0 to 7/0 Mustad or a 5/0 to 6/0 Gammakatsu J hook for eeeels.

While chunking, i'll stay with the same spool line, then place a fish finder with a snap and a 2oz - 6oz (bank sinker for the rocks and a pyramid sinker for the beach) weight whichever holds the offering on the bottom above a heavy duty (130#+) Spro swivel, tied to 60# Ande flouro leader that is snelled with a 6/0 to 7/0 Gammi Octopus hook depending on the size of the pogies/macks.

For Sluggo info, go to the Salt Water's Edge site and click on their instructional link. Steve McKenna is tha MAN, and he pioneered the rigged sluggo. Pm me with any questions, or any of these guys, as we are all to happy to lend a hand. These guys have been great to me and you won't be disappointed that you've found this excellent forum.

Welcome Aboard, my friend!