Sunday, May 21, 2017

A Change in the "Best Bet" Lures and Plugs

Matt Pickering landed this nice
fish from the boat on a Zara "Super
Spook" fished at Boston Harbor
this morning..
The saltwater game is changing.  Up until this week, I had been getting nearly all my stripers on jigs. I was getting them on Cocahoes on jigheads, flukes on jigheads and bucktail jigs. While fish can still be caught on these, the past week's warm weather has gotten the fish more active, and they are now hitting and favoring different plugs. One big change is that small topwater  lures and plugs are now really producing.
This schoolie hit a bone colored Rebel
Jumpin Minnow last evening from
shore in Narragansett Bay.
I am getting good numbers of fish up to keeper size from the boat as well as from shore on such plugs as white Slug-gos, Rebel Jumpin Minnows and Zara Spooks. These are all plugs that jump and dart on the surface as you retrieve with short pulls of the rod tip. These plugs are far more effective than traditional poppers and will often really produce when the fish turn fussy.
I like all of the above mentioned plugs in a white or bone color. Note that the Zara Super Spook is the best caster of the three and is a good choice when the fish are out far or the wind is in your face. Note also that some blues are now around and the hard plastic lures such as the Spook and Jumpin Minnow are good bets to use when toothy blues are mixed with stripers.
This small keeper was landed on a white, 7 1/2 inch Slug-go in Narragansett
Bay this week from the boat.