blue oyster |
06-05-2007 11:43 AM |
pogies are called many things, depends where you fish , menhaden i think is the offical name , also called bunker , mossbacks , crunchies . they are a filter feeding fish found swimming in large schools (not as large as in days gone by but that is another story) adult pogies can reach the size of 16"and almost 2 pounds but most are around 12" , the young of the year pogies are called peanuts and can be found in the fall swimming in large numbers usually close to the shore . there are a thousand ways to fish them but stripers love them and so does almost every other fish that swims in this area .if you are looking for big fish nothing beats a whole live pogie livelined in your favorite spot (imho) but a lot of people swear by chunking them . bunker can be found from virginia to maine but there are many variables where and when they can be found (water temp, winds , overfishing by reduction fleets) the best way to catch them is if you have a boat , the schools of fish are easly seen when the water is calm you will see a area of disturbed water as you get closer you will usually see and hear them them flipping in the water , you get a weighted treble hook and cast it through the school of fish , wait a couple of seconds and start quickly sweeping the fishing rod in a large arc reeling in the slack to tighten the line before the next sweep .the goal here is to impale the bunker on the treble hook . if you feel there is a fish on the line stop sweeping and just reel in fish .if you fish from shore it is harder to get live pogies as they only get that close to shore sporadically and usually when bluefish are chasing them in .if you pick chunking as your prefered method you can usually buy them at your local bait and tackle store , just make sure the look fresh (silver in color clear eyes ,bad bait looks almost gold and red) this only scratches the surface but i hope it helps you out , good luck
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