Bunker No...Plastic Yes!

[Fish_Eye]

I started my season with Captain Jim White yesterday morning at around 7:00 AM. Jim and I were planning to film an installment for a DVD project we're working on that covers how to rig and work soft plastic offerings. As the White Ghost headed out into Greenwich Cove we saw menhaden schools everywhere. Now, plastic is fantastic, but who could resists snagging up a few volunteers to test the water for LARGE...not us! We promptly deposited 10 full size bunker into the live well then headed down the bay.

Water quality was terrible and visibility was measured in inches not feet, there was no wind and the water was flat calm. We stopped by a stretch of shoreline that had been productive for Jim and his charters over the past several days but we couldn't get so much as a bump on our meaty menhaden. We continued to slow troll the edge of a nice drop for about 20 minutes, but to no avail.

Jim tied on a 5 inch brown Fin-s fish with a jig head and I started filming as he showed how to rig and fish that simple offering. Ten minutes later he landed the first fish, a lice covered striper about 27 inches long, meanwhile we continued to teach a bunker how to swim.

Jim and I went on to catch 48 stripers, 30 of which were at or over 28" and finally one bass of about 25 pounds decided he had to munch a menhaden. A simple wind driven drift (the bite started as the wind started to blow from the SW at about 10 - 12 mph) with the jigs worked on or near the bottom was the ticket. The stripers were fat and sassy with several puking up squid...however, one fish was in bad shape and was covered with plaques and it showed signs of mycobacteriosis infection...use gloves when you handle stripers these days!

The moral of the story is: stripers are downright finicky eaters and when they are feeding on squid, they want squid or squid-like offerings, and even though there might not be any signs of working fish, watch your sounder and prospect with deep offerings.

The forecast calls for gale force winds today...might be just what's needed to turn on the surf bite for larger fish.

Good hunting.

Mike