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Striper fishing with Soft Plastics and Plugs
Learn the use of Plugs
and Soft Plastics.
There is nothing
quite like seeing a bass hit a topwater plug on the surface fishing the
rip at Block Island. The splash, seeing the tail in the air as they roll
on it, then the run as your line comes tight, its always exciting.
Topwater plugs work mostly under low light conditions like dawn and
foggy days. When fish are feeding on the surface they will also produce.
I use some standard manufactured plugs but my best one for charters is
an Anco plug that I build myself. It is a floating topwater type plug
with a unique action and is very easy for the average angler to use with
a only a little coaching. This is important, as I do a lot of charters
and the easier it is to teach the clients the more time we can all spend
doing what we are out there for: fishing. You can also use poppers and
walker plugs but especially the walkers require a fairly high level of
skill to retrieve properly to entice the fish into a strike, so these
are definitely much less useful. As an experienced fisherman, I can
catch them pretty easily with these types of plugs, but it is not so
easy to pass that skill onto others in a half day fishing trip,
especially if their casting skills are in need of improvement. Rule of
thumb, real fisherman don’t like beautiful blue-sky days, overcast and
fog is better for fishing.
Once the sun is up it becomes time to switch to the soft plastics.
Bass have large eyes that are optimized to see at night and in low light
conditions. They tend to stay down once the sun is up and head to deeper
water as it reaches its zenith. Soft plastics can be used to get down
there to where the fish are. I see a lot of anglers use soft plastics
and it seems that the majority of them cast it out, and almost
immediately after it hits the water they close the bail and start their
retrieve. This just doesn’t work unless the fish are on the surface.
You need to work the entire water column to find them. If they are
holding near the bottom in a moderate drift and 20 feet of water, count
to 10 before you close up and start your retrieve. This allows the soft
plastic to get near the bottom before moving it. The rule of thumb is
half the depth in your count before retrieving. Also, vary the speed of
your retrieve, mix it up, jig it, just retrieve slowly, until you find
what works for that day and spot. If it’s a strong current you might not
retrieve it at all. Just remember, if its not working, your retrieve is
wrong or your not getting down to the fish. It isn’t because the soft
plastic is no good. If you get hit and don’t hook the fish, immediately
work your soft plastic like its wounded, with slow reeling and short
jigs, it makes them more likely to hit it again. I’ve had 6 or 7 hits in
a row before hooking up using this trick. The tendency of most anglers
is to haul back and reel fast, but this just pulls the lure away from
the fish, which might work with bluefish but not necessarily with bass.
I use a variety of soft plastics, storms, sluggos, Fin-S, curly
tail grubs, etc. They are always used with a jig head or bucktail. The
jig head weight should be between 3/8 ounce to 1.5 ounces depending on
the depth and current. Use ones that match the hatch of what may be out
there, e.g. sluggos in green/white for sand eels, 6” pearl storms for
menhaden, etc. Matching the hatch can sometimes be very critical. I
fished Block Island several days in June of 2007 using topwater plugs
with no success (which is very unusual) and it was because the bass were
feeding on hordes of 3” sand eels, you would see them swirl the surface
but they never needed to jump because these small sand eels didn’t have
a prayer of outrunning them. The fish were just slurping them up. Acres
of fish, swirls all around the boat for hours and they wouldn’t touch
even the smallest topwater plug. Only soft plastics worked very slowly
right near them would entice a strike.
Well, none of these techniques are any good unless you know where
and when to find some fish. Using these tactics on a smooth, sandy
bottom isn’t going to prove much. You need to find structure that holds
fish or schools of fish feeding at the surface. Underwater rocks and
other structure with currents the run past them are prime spots for
bass. Bass can be aggressive feeders in the early morning, but after
that they mostly prefer to ambush their prey, which uses fewer calories
(well you could say they are either lazy or smart). They would hold on
the downcurrent side of the structure, waiting for something to tumble
over the top. Keep a lookout for birds, bait, and splashes in the water.
I see so many anglers go cruising past as I am casting to feeding fish,
they are aware of their surroundings, instead being focused on getting
to where they are planning on going. Some of the best fishing I’ve ever
experienced was due to paying attention and spotting the activity that
indicated feeding fish. Early morning trips at Block Island are great
for this.
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