BookFishingTrips.com | Bucktailing for Spring Time Stripers

Bucktailing for Spring Time Stripers

Written by Capt. Paul Peluso

Saturday, 20 March 2010 22:20

Written on March 20 2010.

"When the trees turn white the fish begin to bite"

As the sounds of St.Patrick's day bag pipers echo in my head I begin to look for the tail tell signs of spring. As each flower and tree starts to bloom I can't wait for the pear trees to blossom and turn white, for I know as soon as I see them along Wm Floyd Pkwy (Suffolk, NY) blooming the Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) have come in and there hungry to feed.

In the spring the Striped Bass along with many other game fish come into the bay to spawn in the warmer waters in and around rivers and tributaries, when the bait fish show up the Striped Bass start gorging they are voracious eaters. They'll eat all most any kind of fish, crustaceans, worms, frogs, insects, crabs you name it. If it can swallow it whole the striped bass will eat it.

Sand Eels all over in the spring

Once the water temps hits mid to upper 50's the striped bass head for these areas to spawn. The males show up 1st with the bigger females right behind making there way up the rivers and tributaries. This is a what we call the spring run. Some of these fish have swam from as far away as North Carolina or swam down from the Hudson River. Opening day in the Hudson River north of the George Washington Bridge is March 16th south of the bridge we have to wait till April 15th starting in the western long Island and making there way out to me by the last week of April. This is when Double headers are commonly caught.

Capt.Paul and Dean

Bob Hageman with a double header

Click below to see video of Bob's double header

Some of my favorite tactics for catching striped bass is a 1 to 1.5 oz blue frog bucktail with a uncle josh pork rind trailer. Some of you are saying what is he talking about let me break it down. The weight of the buck tail co insides with the depth of the water you are fishing. 0-5' a good choice would be 1/2 oz to 1 oz. The depths I usually fish are around 10' and I like to throw a 1.25 or 1.5 oz bucktail in this situation. If I'm fishing in 20' of water I will go with a heavier bucktail like a 2 oz or may even go up to 3 oz depending on the current. In some areas you even have to use a three way swivel with much heavier lead up to 16 oz sometimes and a 6' leader attached to 1.5 oz bucktail. But for now lets stick with shallow bay fishing like I do in Moriches bay. Also there are many kinds of Bucktail jigs to pick from,

Assorted types of bucktails

Spro, Smiley Bill's, Andrus to name a few but my favorite is the Blue Frog Arrow Head Swing Hook.

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BLUEFROG BUCKTAILS WITH SWING HOOK

I like the Swing Hook because of the hook up ratio. No matter which way the fish hits the lure you have the best chance of a hook up with the swing over a fixed hook. But that's just my preference. And last but one of the most important parts of bucktail's is what to tip it with. I'm a big fan of Uncle Josh to me there's nothing better and it comes in many sizes and colors.

Uncle Josh Pork Rinds in assorted color and sizes

In the spring I like to use green and white or all white bucktail with red split tail josh or yellow or even green depending on the bait that day. I also like to add a spearing or sand eel teaser tied using a dropper loop about 1' above the bucktail. This will increase your odds until the Blue Fish show up then you'll want to remove the teaser and bucktail and go with a diamond jig or they'll just rip that pretty combo to shreds

Teasers Double your odds

But if the color combos and teasers are getting to much, go with an all White 1.5 oz BlueFrog Bucktail and Red Josh you can't go wrong with that combo. Check out the pictures below

One more important thing to do when throwing Bucktail's especially in the spring is a slow retrieve. Just fast enough to keep it off the bottom but slow enough for the Bass to bite it. Once you find that magic retrieve speed and your bucktail is in the strike zone you'll be hooked up before you know it...

Photo above Mama, Mia and my son Paul Anthony

One more important thing I think you need to know is where to look for these fish. What you want to do is look for any large body of shallow water flowing into a deeper area. Because the sun heats up these waters on the flats all day long an afternoon bite with a out going tide usually produces a lot of fish. In Moriches there are several places I can find this scenario and you can find thses drop offs in any body of water especially on the south shore.

If you have any questions please feel free to drop me a line fishing

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Last Updated on Sunday, 21 March 2010 22:50