Most Effective Lures....Jigs in the White Water

Big bucktail jigs fished right
along the bottom were hot
one day for decent sized fish.
Most of the fish were in the
white water in close.

The float and jig combo, in this case,
a Cocahoe on a jighead, has also been
a hot ticket all week.  Fish in the rocks
or on sandy beaches.  Focus on fishing
in the white water.

The hottest striper fishing of the year in RI is going on right now. This past week has seen MASSIVE schools of stripers moving all along the oceanfront. I've fished every day in the last five days and have been into blitz-type action ever single day. The fishing is so good that it has not been unusual for many fishermen to be landing upwards of a hundred fish a day.  While the vast majority of the fish are schoolies, my sons and I have landed some keepers every day up to 32 inches.
BY FAR, the hottest lures of the week have been jigs fished in any type of white water. Jigs are far outfishing swimmers and poppers. On several days this week, I did really well fishing a 3 inch Cocahoe off a wooden egg float.  I was using a small half ounce jighead on the Cocahoie.  That float 'n' jig combo is deadly in shallow, rocky waters though I got a lot of fish one day off one of the south shore beaches while using this.  The other killer for us this week was a larger 1 1/2 oz. homemade bullet head bucktail jig spiced with a 4 inch curly tail.  One day I hit the fish off the beaches where they were lurking right on the bottom under schools of peanut bunker.  My son Ben and I killed fish from 24 to 28 inches one day on those big bucktail jigs.
I'm amazed at how many fishermen continue to use large poppers when most of these stripers are feeding on 1 to 2 inch peanut bunker, and fellow fishermen are scoring like crazy on jigs.  While it is exciting to see a fish hit a popper, it's effectiveness has been fair to poor this week. Save those big poppers for days when we have big bait like adult menhaden or herring.

Right in back of that wave produced loads of fish for me this week on jigs.  Focus on
fishing the white water whether you see fish or not.