One of the most popular and very effective methods of catching a Striped Bass around the waters of Long Island is Clam Chumming. It’s easy, it can be done on the in-coming or the out-going tide and when the fish are around this can provide for some fast, furious action!What’s a Clam Belly? When you look at a clam out of the shell, there is that big, meaty, tongue looking part and the rest of the clam is mushy and kind of slimy… THAT’S the belly! Clam bellies are a bi-product of commercial food clam operations. Skimmer clams are commercially caught and the meaty, tongue part is what is harvested. The mush that is left over becomes our bait and chum.

Where: Striped Bass are predatory fish, so keep this in mind when you’re scouting out places to set up. Bass like to use structure to ambush their food, structure like bridges, bottom contour, marsh banks and even dock pilings. What makes these types of areas even better is having some current around them as well, it allows a bass to kind of hover and hide and when food washes by them they can dart out and eat it. Current is one of the more important things to consider when looking for a place to start clam chumming. You’ll need the current to carry the chum and your bait back to where you think the fish may be. In our opinion, the more current the better!! In these pictures we’ve pointed out some areas that we KNOW hold fish… These are a few very reliable spots in our bay. You’ll notice the cuts in the bottom, created from the current, and you’ll notice where we would position our boat.

Rigging: Now that you have an area scoped out, you need to rig the rods. Rigging for this type of fishing is quite diverse, with no true “wrong or right” way to do it. The objective is to get your bait into the chum slick… simple as that… how you do it doesn’t really matter. The fish are going to set up somewhere, down-tide, in the current behind the boat and THAT’S where you need to get the bait.Some of the basics would be hook choice, leader material, leader length and a variety of terminal tackle. Those of us in the shop prefer the Gamakatsu Octopus hooks in a size 6/0 or 7/0, tied on a 36 to 48 inch leader. The leader material we typically recommend is ordinary mono leader material in 30 to 50 pound test. Fourocarbon is an option as well and although we don’t see it as being necessary it does offer a few advantages. It IS invisible under water (Bass are not line shy fish though), and it is quite abrasion resistant and that can be nice when you’re fishing around bridge pilings or rocks. As for terminal tackle, there are a million ways to take it from here. The most popular way to connect your hook and leader to the main line is with a barrel swivel and afish finder / sinker slide. The barrel swivel acts as a way to tie your main line on, as well as a stop for the fish finder. Fish finder / Sinker Slides also make changing your weights very easy, this way when the tide begins to slack off, or pick up, you can quickly change sinkers to accommodate. We “old school” guys like to skip the fish finder and use rubber core sinkers instead… just a little less hardware and this can be helpful when the sea weed becomes a problem… it’s more streamlined and won’t catch as much weed in the current. However you decide to do it, remember the objective… GET THE BAIT TO THE CHUM!

Chumming: Again, there is no wrong or right way to do this, and there are a variety of ways to effectively do it. The most popular way, these days, is to use a chum pot of some kind. We sell pots that are taylor made for the 2 1/2 or 4 gallon containers of chum and they make it very easy… put the chum in the pot and lower it to the bottom. Some of us “old school” guys like to chum by hand, literally squeezing the bellies into the current. What would make the difference here would be how you wanted to rig up and how you like to fish. With the chum pot, you can put your baits on the bottom, directly behind the chum pot and basically dead stick the bait, waiting for the fish to come to you. When you’re squeezing, you need to work your bait back in the current, trying to keep the bait in the slick the whole time… a little tricky at first but very effective. What we like about this method is that you can control how much chum goes in the water. Depending on the current, you can put more or less in the water to suit the conditions. PLUS, if you get invaded by the Bluefish you can stop chumming, wait for the blues to leave and then start again. With a chum pot, you have no control over how much chum is let out of the pot. However, some people wrap duct tape around the pot, like stripes almost, to slow the flow but that’s about it. Again, no wrong or right… it’s simply what you’re comfortable with and as long as there is chum in the water the Bass will sniff it out. Some folks like to use the bellies themselves for bait and some like, fresh, whole clams instead. They both work, however the most significant difference is that the bellies are frozen and defrosted to use, so they become soft and mushy… making them a one bite bait. When a fish takes a swipe at a belly, it will come off the hook very easily and you’ll need to re-bait after practically EVERY bite if you don’t hook the fish. Where with the fresh clams… they have a little more substance to them and you can often get a couple bites out of one bait before having to reel in your line and re-bait. Good Luck and feel free to call or stop by the store… we’ll be happy to help you out!

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