Help only Blues, Gloucester

[Jetta]

Fish this morning (Low tide) for stripers but only caught pesky 5# Blue fishes. I used dead herring for bait. Drifted with 2' flurocarbon leader, no weights.

I was really hoping to catch a striper. Should I have used another approach? fishfinder rig?

Thanks In Advanced.

Jetta

[Notaro]

try a weight snapper popper float with your 40-69 lbs flouro leader w/ a gaskamstu circle, nautical, or octopus hook #2-5 in a palmouar knot. or make a hi-lo rig from stripersurf.com.

[Fly Rod]

Were you in close to shore 10' of water??? sounds like you were deeper.

Try a 4-5 leader of florucarbon.

Anchor up in deep water or use some weight when drifting. you must chum when using herring for bait.

You must discipline yourself to stay no more then 15-20 minutes in a spot if not catching fish,"try another spot "

Rock fishing find the drop offs where they come up to shallow water and fish where there is white water. Cast close to shore. If you don't hit the shore you haven't cast close enough.

[Jetta]

Thanks for all the replies so far,

FLYROD: I was outside the harbor in about 110 feet of water. We would drift our dead herring bait about 1/4 to 1/2 a mile then go back to original spot. Also we were chumming every so often.

Sounds like one of the things I need to do is get my bait down into deeper water. My boat was drifting ~1.5 mile per hour, and with the angle of my line I'd guess my bait was down a maximun about 10-15 feet.

Regards

Jetta

[mrmacey]

that was me last summer allways out in deep water never catching nothing but sharks and sunburn it wasnt until I got in close to the shore that I started catching stripers I dont mean put your boat up on the shore I watch my depth gauge under 20, 15 ft cast in towards the shore you will be suprised to see how shallow some of these fish are if im correct later when it gets hot they go deeper then you still troll in 20 40 ft water theres guys on here with better advise than mine but its true come in closer and you will catch!!

[Fly Rod]

First of all if you were chunk fishing and didn't have your line weighted you wern't down 10 -15 ' you would only be down about a foot if that.

drifting with chunk bait is a NO !! NO !! Always anchor up when chunk fishing and try to sight fish them in shallow water

Drifting 1.5kts or less with live bait is GOOD!!! for stripers on the surface or trolling deep

When fishing inshore KNOW the draft of your boat. Check inshore areas at low tide and a minus tide is best so that you could see the hidden rocks that claim propellers and memourise these spots.

[Notaro]

richard, one of the guys at rockport whom i have known a wonderful and a cool fisherman. he told me that some fish can see the leader material and weight and might be turn off by an angler using it. so far, i tried no weight and caught a keeper last year. will a 4 feet seaguar fluro leader w/ a gaskamtu octopus 3/0 hook tied to the black swivel barrel #140 and a snapper float do? im speaking from the ground.

[Fly Rod]

Before the floro carbs all we used was mono. We also used it for Tuna and we caught fish. Are the fish any smarter? "No". Did the makers of all these new lines do good advertizing and also brain wash us? "Yes ".

All I use today are floroucarb leaders 4-5'. with a swivel attached. I do believe it does increase your catch.

I would not use a floater with chunk bait for stripers. You may get away with it on blues.

We do use a bobber with live baits.

I only use a weight some times when trolling from a boat with live bait.

Chuming is the key to chunk bait fishing from boat or fishing from the shore.

I use a #5 hook for chunk fishing and a #8 hook for trolling live bait excpt when trolling eels I use the #5 hook

[Jetta]

FLYROD:

Your right about the depth of my bait. After reading your comment and thinking about it, my estimate of 10-15' is wrong. I was however using whole herring and my line (rode) did seem to have an steeper angle towards the bottom as opposed to using chunks. But thanks for the Geometry refresher, it's been many years since I've been to class.

So, I'm learning and getting some real good techniques and information here.

Thanks All

[Fly Rod]

Allot of this fishing is trail & error. Today some fishermen are lucky that others are willing to show some tricks to better fishing.