The last few nights of striper fishing was really a challenge. There were loads of stripers around feeding on small sandeels. There is no artificial that will imitate something that small and slender. So, you best shot is to get something that moves in a similar way and that has a slender silhouette. After numerous lure changes, I finally figured out what the fish would take. I threaded on a small, 6 inch white ("bone" is official color)skinny Hogy and that did the trick (see photo). Strange thing is that the black Hogy would not work (yes, I was surprised), but the white got me 6 fish and a load more fish on. They were really keying on this lure to the point where other fishermen around me were asking what I was using!
Imitating small sandeels is tough. Sometimes Deceiver fly or Red Gill teasers will work. They did not work this week. At other times a small swimmer will fool them. I saw a few fishermen using this and catching a few fish. Unweighted plastic flukes twitched on the surface also work and I saw one guy scoring using this. However, that 6 inch white Hogy fished with a Texas style hook rigging far out fished everything else this week.