In an earlier discussion (http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripertalk/stripertalk/62929-preseason-discussion-1-early-season-lure-selection.html) we talked what lures we would bring in the early season.

What would be the top 5 (or so) we should discuss more in depth HOW to use? Nothing super secreative or detailed necessary but a general all around techniques...

Popular selections from the last thread:

Jigs
Tins
Rubber
Danny's
Pencils
Mambos / Redfins
Darters (pronounced "Daughters" for those from Long Island).

Maybe a few of the more seasoned with a particular brand can put together a few paragraphs for us ;)

I've got plenty of time under my belt fishing dannys, so here are my thoughts.

You want them to work slow, making a wake. You need to tune your plug to do this. The quick head down snapping action that most have out of the bag (and requires a moderate retrieve to get going) has great eye appeal and works fine for aggressive fish, but is too energetic to convince a large fish to chase.

Tune your plug by bending the eye down and tweaking the lip angle to get a slow s-shaped swimming motion at the lowest speed you can stand to reel. Up sizing your hooks to sink it lower in the water also helps getting it swimming sooner and with a more subdued action.

Next, fish it by day until you get the retrieve speed right. Particularly with big spinning tackle it is very easy to retrieve dannys (and most other plugs) too fast in the dark when you tend to fall into a comfortable cranking speed.

Pause often during your retrieve. At night, twitch once, pause again, then restart. Often that is when the hit comes. By day, try ripping or popping the plug ("calling 'em up" is how my son describes it). There is a trick to this. You pop a danny with its side, rather than its face. Try to pop it when it is coming at you and you either get a a violent dig, or a dig and tumble. Instead, pause in your retrieve and drop your rod tip to give the plug slack and let it veer to one side and stop so it is facing 90degrees away from you. Let it sit then give it a hard short rip (too long a tug will make it tumble). As you yank it back facing you the side of the plug will create a splash/chug. Pause again, then restart your retrieve.

As far as size goes, think medium in the spring (herring size) and large (bunker size) in the fall. Also, fish big dannys with confidence particularly when there are peanut bunker around. Something about the smell of bunker in the water triggers bass to key in on bunker of any size.

As far as conditions, I like water calm, current gentle, and a little bit of turbidity. Fish will come up from 18 feet to hit a danny if water clarity is decent. Too clear though and you have trouble. They'll follow it back to your feet but not take unless they have competition chasing it. Then I go to a spook/pencil/popper to get 'em mad and give them less time to look things over.

As far as color, white is always good by day, yellow (or fluro green) is fine too. Easier to see what your doing with light colored backs on your swimmers. I do well with purple dannys at night, but have to keep reminding myself to slow down, even with conventional reels. I like large blue and white ones in the fall.

Darters are a greatly underutilized plug (I am just starting to realize). Sure there is the standard throw it out there at 11oclock up current, drive it down with two or three sweeps/tugs, then start a slow retrieve with pauses and tugs as it sweeps by you thing, or you can get all advanced a rip it deep then slow it and swim it back up to the surface thing, but there is a third way that is worth experimenting with.

Take your darters to a shallow swimming beach by day, one with no current, and try fishing one like it was a needle, only with more rod tip shaking and twitching and frequent pauses. Not every variety will work, but certain types of darters (the Gibbs and wide wooden Mussos do) will stay very close to the surface (within a few inches) look all the world like a fish struggling on the surface to dive back down, making it a few inches down, then floating back up. Get the idea down, then some night in still water when you're getting bumped or tapped on a needle, give it a try. The hit will come when it is paused.

Another variation that worked the only time I tried it in the canal (while the current was cranking) was to toss it out there and not retrieve at all, just shake it like you were working a pencil by day, keeping it working (but not coming in) as it sweeps past you. Once it gets down stream you can try a slow retrieve, but this will take you deep and bang up the lip when you hit the rocky edge. Instead you crank real fast and try to roll the plug out so it will come to the surface and you can skitter it in.

Finally, if you look at pictures of the old time legends hanging out at Race Point, notice that they often all have darters on their rods. Probably something in that.

Spooks! (Actually "Blitzseekers") Just what I need to "WAKE" the fish!!!:uhuh:

I start off the season with alot of daytime/topwater forays! Pencils 1 oz. and 1 3/4 oz. and my "Blitzseeker" in back waters and beach fronts! Canal action features canal style pencils, traditional 2.5 oz. pencils with "Prey" swimmers and Danny's a heavy favorite in the ditch and rocky areas!!

Spring time I'll do alot of day fishing ..Until the first extended heat wave then I'll go nights . The fish (schoolies ,small keepers ) seem to like small baits .. spooks,, pencils,, needles .. small spooks like the Jigman,,5 3/4" .. or the small Cordell 5 3/4" factory loaded 80's vintage pearl/white . or load and paint the newer ones ..Last year my jiggy wasn't jiving and for what ever reason they were loving the small cordell only .(knocked off in wood for this year). I also do well on my small 6" slow sink olive needle .. These plugs are for May with June favoring the canal with lead and sluggos and all size pp ,,yellow with a pearl/white belly . In certain area's around the herring run 6"-7"wood swimmers ,,, red fins .. I would prefer to catch fish top water and may sometimes be guilty of forcing the issue instead of s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g it up and throwing a ducky .. I've caught on darters in the canal .. Couple of years ago first fish of the year was on a (gibbs type) Eben darter .. I don't throw them nearly enough either ,, gotta fix that ..

I like the early Rebels (5inch Broken back) black, and yellow/ silver
A 2nd option for early fishing is sea worms,on bottom:jump1:.
Best is a bait we no longer can use :confused:

Best is a bait we no longer can use :confused:

How many 50's and 40's on artificals last year ?? We don't need no stinking bait ..

Made a few Dannys this winter and didn't tail weight a couple. With a nice slow retrieve the tail wags on the surface and looks quite tantalizing. Actually had a couple largemouth takes swipes at them when I was testing them in the spring. Maybe they have some karma to them now?

in the early season (about mid may up this way) i love a cloudy day, some rollers and alittle white water, but not a ton. go to is a herring colored small mambo minnow (small tattoo swimmer in herring or white is also good, but my favorite is the mambo). work it on the edges of the bar / structure or right in the white water where and when the wave just starts to break - you need to time and locate you cast perfectly for this. you'll need a light leader for this and you'll need to test swim your mambos as i find them to be very inconsistant - some swim great no matter what, some just suck no matter what, and some swim well only on light leader with the knot located at the perfect spot. I need to experiment with loop knots to see if I can improve this. None of the snaps that i've tried that are small enough for these small lures can stand up to even keeper sized fish. Light tackle is fun for this but can get you in trouble. Sluggos can be very effective here too, but I enjoy fishing the mambo more, it seams alittle more cerebral.

when night tides start becoming an option (late may to early june up here, at a few spots, later at most) you can't go wrong with an a-salt bomber on a relatively calm night. yellow if there's a moon or artificial light, blurple if not. slow retrieve with an occasional light twitch (think flick more than twitch - rod tip should only move an inch or two). this method has accounted for most of my better (30-35ish) early season fish. if your getting lots of short strikes, try twitching more often and speeding up the retrieve a bit.

Nice info gents :btu:

Josh, yes, the Mambo is a beautiful (if occasionally temperamental) thing (I prefer the olive / gold in 7") for some of my local inlet fishing.

i could get through the may on these plugs alone. the majority of the better fish will (hopefully) come on a bomber at night in late may. one key thing with the 1 oz. bomber is to use a lighter leader and a small snap.....preferably breakaway. it swims significantly better with out a heavy rigging attached to it and the fish seam to agree.

day
white bm danny
yellow bm junior
yellow rm jigsmith
chartreuse small tattoo swimmer
yellow or herring ss 2 3/8 popper
blue mackerel prof m small surf howdy
chartreuse rapala small x-walk
pink 2 oz yozuri pencil
white 3 oz. guppy pencil

night
large blurple or yellow tattoo swimmer
a-salt bomber in yellow, chartreuse, or blurple
red fin in wonderbread or blurple

A few years back I painted some F80 rebels hot pink then had a 2 year hiatus with 2 shoulder surgeries. Last Spring those hot pink rebels took many good fish in May. Also had great success with 7 inch dark gold-colored bomber at night, same with the hot pink at night ..

Hey Chuck,

A few years back I met a former commercial highliner who had a box full of pink F80's!! They were beat to heck, some had been spraypainted, some he had ordered from rebel in hot pink. I love to swim a pink ss littleneck just below the surface.