Bass Bait

[Swanny B]

This Is the first year I take my boat to the Bass river. Anyone have suggestions what type of bait for stripers. Should I troll up and down the river, or try anchoring and casting. I would really like to take something home of some size to show my boys.

[Swanny B]

Does anyone have any pointers? I usually use squid and cut bait from shore. Should I use the same bait in a boat or use lures?

[fishweewee]

You could try anchoring up somewhere and dunking a hunk of meat with a fish finder rig. I think the best times are 2 hours either side of slack high tide. Use a long leader - at least 20 inches, preferably flurocarbon. Use a good quality hook tied with a strong knot and hide it well.

Choices of bait could be 1) freshly-jigged squid (I wouldn't bother with the frozen stuff), 2) pogies, 3) mackeral, and 4) fresh sand eels (which should not be hard to find this time of year).

Try to position your bait where there is likely to be structure. This could be a hole/depression, the bottom of a rip, and/or near boulders. With the latter, bass will hide behind a boulder, facing the current, waiting for an easy meal to swim by.

Good luck...

[Swanny B]

Thanks for the advice.

[fishweewee]

Remember, the fresher the bait, the better off you are. Don't be shy about spending a little more for the fresh stuff or even hunting for it. Fresh pogies should be crunchy and have clear eyes. Fresh squid should not be stinky. Sand eels should be firm, not droopy or soft.

Frozen macks are usually okay, though.

Keep your bait on ice in the cooler.

[Bronko]

You could troll around the mouth of the Bass River for a while with a tube and worm or some deep swimmers during the outgoing. There are usually a bunch of schoolies there and the occasional big boy. Wee wee is right about the bait too, make sure if you decide to dunk bait that it is fresh! If you are struggling there head due east out of the harbor and troll around a bit out in front of West Dennis beach. People are catching stripers and blues at first light and dusk. If you are lucky, the birds will show you the way. I am not sure if you know the area at all....but if you catch a nice day (no fog) you can head out to monomoy. From the reports that I am getting, the rips out there are stacked with big bass right now. But it can be tricky out there and I wouldn't recommend it if you are not familiar with the water out there.

[Swanny B]

If I use Macks, chunk'em or whole?

[fishweewee]

Re: Macks - definitely chunk 'em, unless you have fresh tinker macks (which are killer albie bait).

You might want to experiment with a pogie/mack "sandwich."

Use your normal sized pogie chunk, put your hook through it, and and then top off the exposed barb of the hook with a small mack chunk. Hides the hook and you've just created a striper BLT.

[Swanny B]

Thanks Bronco. I only have a 12 ft alm. with a johnson 9.9
so I don't think i'll be going out too far.

[Swanny B]

I'm taking my brother-in-law out and I don't think he's caught anything over 16in. It would be nice to get a chukle out of him if he hooked on the a 20# striper or even a doormat fluke. Hopefully we can make it happen this year. for the past 8 years from shore it's been a struggle just to get a nice hit. never mind bringing it in. we'll have to see. Thanks for all the help. this site is great..........

[Notaro]

try cutting them into strips (macks and squids). chuck pogies. dont forget to chum them sparingly. if u accidently caught a sea robin, fillet it and make a strip out of them, flukes love them.

[Big Vern]

I know this area well. You will be hard pressed to find keeper bass in the river this time of year. In fact, even schoolies are a slow nightime pick at best. However, the fluke fishing just outside the mouth and the bluefishing just outside the mouth should keep you occupied. Forget the chunks - all you need is some squid for fluking and some poppers for the blues.

[Swanny B]

Thanks Don. I hope it doesn't get too rough outside the mouth.

[CANAL RAT]

eels allways catch fish try trolling some eels around