With the amount of Striped Bass around these days, plugging in the back bays with light tackle can be a GREAT way to catch them. It’s fun, a little more challenging than bait fishing and it can be done from shore, from small boats and even from a kayak.
First things first… the fish you’re targeting… the Striped Bass. Bass are “ambush” predators, no two ways about it, they will find places to set up and wait for food to come to them. They are also very structure oriented, meaning they use things like bridges, marsh banks, bottom contour and currents to find their food. Keeping these basic characteristics in mind you can dramatically narrow down the places to start plugging.
Tackle: There is no wrong or right tackle set up for this type of fishing and the only thing we recommend is to use an outfit that is suited for the plugs or lures you’re planning on using. Personally, for conventional outfits, I like a 7′ (ish) baitcasting style rod with a low profile baitcasting reel. The exact model I use is the St. Croix Premier series PC 70 MHF with the new ABU Garcia Revo Inshore reel. The rod is a fast action, light weight rod that can throw anything between 1/4 ounce and 1 ounce very comfortably and the new Revo reels are smooth as silk, hold plenty of line and they have a massive drag for their size. For line on this outfit I like the good old Berkley Big Game in 12 pound test. For a spinning outfit, again a 7′ rod and reel loaded with 10 or 12 pound test. Personally I like my St. Croix Premier, PS70MHF, and a Shimano Stradic ST4000I.
For lures, there are a million lures that will get a Striper but you should basically have enough to cover the water column, from top to bottom. Starting on the surface, poppers can be an effective and fun way to fish. Some of my personal favorites are the Smack-It’s, You-Zuri Mag Poppers, Storm Chug Bugs, and the Tsunami Talking Poppers. These all work quite well and they’re equipped with hooks that won’t get mashed if a bigger fish eats it. Moving down in the water column, swimming plugs are hard to beat. Some lures swim up near the surface, some deeper and some swim at a depth that you determine. A few of my favorites are the Bomber A-Salt, Yo-Zuri Live Bait Minnow, Yo-Zuri Mag Darter and a variety of plastic baits like Tsunami Swim Shads, Fin-S Fish, Slug-Go’s and Bass Assasin’s. What’s nice about the plastic baits is they can be fished at any depth depending on how you rig them and how you use them… extremely versatile baits! Finally, fishing near the bottom is always effective and lures like the previously mentioned plastic baits and Bucktails are hard to beat. I tell many of our customers that if I had to choose one lure to catch a Striped Bass, for the rest of my life, I would choose a white Bucktail! Bucktails are very diverse too, meaning they can be fished higher in the water column, you can swim them or jig them, but I like a slow steady retrieve along the bottom for this type of fishing.
Where to fish is the most difficult part, but with a little common sense and experience you can easily find places that hold fish on a regular basis. Current and tides play the biggest role in plug fishing in our area and around here it’s hard to go wrong around high tide. I always liked the later half of the incoming tide or the first half of the outgoing, and i do NOT like fishing around slack tide. Remember, these fish stalk they food, so when the current isn’t moving all the bait fish are scattered about and they don’t concentrate in any particular order or any particular condition. But when the current is moving, the bait fish will find a place they like and set up shop and now and then when they try and move off somewhere they get swept into areas where the Bass are waiting… those are the places to fish!
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