Jigs & Shads for Fall Stripers

If you’ve read this blog for any period of time you probably picked up on the fact that I like fishing for striped bass. As a Jersey Shore guy, please no comparisons to Snooki and the casts of miscreants on the supposed reality show by the same name, striped bass are the premiere inshore game fish in my backyard, as they are for anglers from North Carolina to Maine. Fall is coming on fast with water temperatures plummeting and massive amounts of baitfish moving out of coastal rivers and bays. That means fishing the beach fronts should be fantastic for beach and boat anglers.

I took my center console out of Manasquan Inlet yesterday to chase false albacore and oceanic bonito and the concentration of bait in the river near the inlet was epic. The same goes for outside the inlet. Peanut bunker, mullet, bay anchovies, sand eels and spearing were everywhere and on the bottom below them were acres of small weakfish and spot picking them off. Bass love all of these forage species, including the weakfish and the spot, and you can match the hatch with a few simple lures and techniques.

The vanguard of bigger bass migrating south are not here yet, only the resident fish that remain in these waters throughout the summer, but they aren’t far away in distance or time. By early October we will be seeing large schools of stripers working their way south, stopping to feed voraciously along the way. The timing will be earlier to our north and later to our south, but you can count on it.

Two of my favorite methods of catching fall stripers are using light spinning tackle with plastic shads or using a medium bait casting outfit to vertical fish metal jigs. The two techniques don’t require a lot of specialized tackle, but I would not be caught dead without braid on both the spinning and bait casting outfits – Hi-Seas Grand Slam Braid or Hi-Seas Wildfire Fused Braid to be more precise. Why? Well the simple answer is they basically guarantee you’ll catch more fish. OK, it’s not a written guarantee, but using braid puts so many factors more squarely in your favor that you’d be crazy not to use the stuff.

Most of my spinning outfits for fall bass are 7’ graphite and rated as light/medium or medium with appropriately sized reels. They are spooled with 10 to 20-pound test Wildfire. Most of my bait casting outfits are 7’ straight-butt trigger sticks with medium or medium/heavy actions and appropriately sized reels loaded with 30 to 50-pound Grand Slam Braid.

The spinning rods are used mostly for throwing plastic shads or bucktails and Wildfire is the perfect line choice. Since it’s a Spectra line it has all the necessary benefits – thin diameter so the lures sink deeper more quickly, almost no stretch so you can feel even the lightest pick up, and its tough stuff. Fusing the outer sheath of the line gives it a rounder, smoother feel so it casts and spools beautifully on spinning reels and no special braid knots are necessary for tying on leaders.

I prefer Grand Slam Braid on the bait casting outfits because it is thinner than even the fused braid and I tend to use heavier line on these rigs. That’s because the metal jigs I fish below the boat are frequently heavier and larger, requiring a stiffer action rod to work them. I frequently fish jigs in deeper water right on the bottom, where stripers spend a good deal of their time, and big jigs can catch some big bass so the heavier tackle provides a better chance at boating a bigger fish. Grand Slam Braid is extremely thin, even in 30 and 50-lb test, and with almost no stretch you can feel the subtle pick up of a striper grabbing the jig while it is sinking to the bottom or when lifting and dropping it. It also gives you an advantage when setting the hook. A quick lift of the rod transmits all the power directly to the hook without losing any to line stretch.

The fall run in coming, the fall run is coming. Is your tackle rigged and ready for these two great fall striper techniques? It isn’t if the reels aren’t loaded with Hi-Seas Grand Slam Braid and Hi-Seas Wildfire lines.

Caputi’s Blog Tip: When fishing either braided line for fall stripers be sure to add a four or five foot leader of Hi-Seas 100% Fluorocarbon in 50 or 60 lb test as shock and chafe protections. Stripers might not have teeth, but they do have sand paper lined jaws. If bluefish are mixed in add a bite leader of AFW Surflon Micro Supreme. You can tie knots with it just like monofilament. 

The Evolution of Terminal Tackle

Fishing tackle is constantly evolving as technologies and manufacturing capabilities improve and new materials come on the scene. Sometimes new gear requires manufacturing techniques to catch up to new materials. Such is the case with AFW’s impressive titanium leader wire products.

Titanium is certainly nothing new. You can find it on the Periodic Chart as Ti, with an atomic number of 22, which is the number of protons in its single atom form. That’s probably more information than you need, but now you know in case you’re on a game show and the question comes up. Titanium is also considered a rare earth element as compared with other metals like iron and copper, and until recent the military took a big interest in it the stuff was not really available for civilian purposes. It is extremely light and strong and can be finished to a very shiny, slippery finish and is extremely resistant to chemical and environmental corrosives. It is nearly impervious to saltwater. It is used in high-tech military aircraft and spacecraft, but as it became more readily available it started finding its way into less exotic applications.

Several years ago AFW introduced Titanium Tooth Proof wire leader material, which is a titanium alloy suitable for fishing purposes. It is a single strand wire that has very interesting properties. It is stronger than stainless steel so the leader material is thinner. It is unaffected by saltwater so it will not corrode in the water, your tackle box or when left on board a boat for long periods between fishing trips. It can be crimped or tied using a clinch knot, which will be more loosely cinched than one tied in monofilament line, but just as strong. It also has a degree of stretch to it, which means it can absorb a bone jarring strike and then snap back to its original length, but probably the most revolutionary improvement over stainless steel is it’s resistance to kinking! Stainless wire and cable will kink when bit, which means one or two fish and the leader is shot. Not titanium. The elasticity factor negates the tendency to kink like steel, so the added expense is offset by its life expectancy.

As alloy science and manufacturing techniques evolved so did the way titanium can be extruded and woven providing the ability for AFW to introduce the next generation of leader material, AFW Titanium Surfstrand, another advancement in the use of this amazing metal. Formed from seven hair-like strands of titanium woven into a single, super light micro-cable, Titanium Surfstrand is stronger than the sum of its strands providing a thin protective leader to guard against toothy critters like kingfish, barracuda, bluefish, Spanish mackerel and their ilk when fishing with light to medium tackle. It has excellent elastic properties for absorbing the shock of a strike when trolling or fast jigging and it is even more resistant to kinking than single strand titanium leader. It is available in 30, 50. 75 pound test and can be knotted like Titanium Tooth Proof, but also works extremely well using AFW Leader Sleeves and crimping tools.

Bite proof leaders are not the only thing evolving in terminal tackle. Next time we’ll take a look at the amazing shrinking swivel. Until then, fish hard, you can always rest tomorrow.  

Caputi’s Blog Tip: When crimping Titanium Surfstrand using AFW Leader Sleeves it is important to use a 3-time thru process because of the elasticity of the cable. Then follow the simple instructions below for a fool proof connection.