Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Float and Jig Rules White Water for Schoolies

I fished yesterday evening for stripers with my son, Ben.  We found a spot where birds were working along some white water.  I'm guessing it was small bait and schoolies were right under them.  The fish were fussy as they often are when feeding on small bait.  The situation was tailor made for the float and jig.
I've written about this a lot and it is featured in my latest article in the Sept. issue of On the Water magazine. This rig is simply a homemade wooden float to which two to three feet of heavy mono is tied.  At the end is a small bucktail jig (quarter oz.) onto which a plastic curly tail is added.  The float is cast into a white water surf.  This works real well where there are lots of rocks and snags.  Simply reel it in and the white water and turbulence will impart the action. The float serves double duty as a casting weight, and the float  keeps the jig above the snags.

It worked wonders last night as we landed a total of 25 stripers, all hefty schoolies.  In the past I have also landed many keeper bass and large blues on this rig in a variety of locations from the RI shore to the outer Cape.