HOLIDAY FISHING APPAREL

The vacation days between Christmas and New Year’s is absolute prime time to get out and hit the saltwater, especially in the Northeast. Finally, a week you can call your own. Don’t kid yourself, its gonna be pretty darn cold out, but if you are prepped right, you can do battle with a bunch of […]

The vacation days between Christmas and New Year’s is absolute prime time to get out and hit the saltwater, especially in the Northeast.Finally, a week you can call your own. Don’t kid yourself, its gonna be pretty darn cold out, but if you are prepped right, you can do battle with a bunch of bottom beasties such as cod, pollock, sea bass and blackfish on the high seas. First and foremost, be prepared with proper clothing. From top to bottom, start with a sweet TackleDirect beanie to put on your skull to keep you warm the whole day through. After you are set up with the beanie, slip on a Columbia Freezer Zero neck gaiter to keep all the heat around your head and neck area contained. Bundle up against the salt spray and hug on a Grundens Neptune Anorak or Columbia Storm hooded jacket, then a pair of bibs and rain gear such as Grundens 116 Petrus bibs or Huk packable rain pant. Before you throw those on, make sure you put a Grundens base layer on as well to hug all the warmth inside. A pair of insulated neoprene XtraTuf boots will keep your feet toasty, so long as you layer on some insulated Simms wool socks underneath. We don’t normally think of sun glare in winter, but the sun has the same eye-burning potential as it does in the summer with reflection off the water, so pick up a pair of Costa Blackfins as they wrap around solid to keep all glare from every angle out. If you get your hands wet from releasing fish, you’re not going to be happy as the windchill will make them into useless blocks of ice in an instant. Pick up a pair of Glacier Gloves with fleece lining and finger and thumb holes to stave off the pain while still being useful enough to feel the sensitivity of a braided line.I don’t think I left anything out regarding apparel for cold water fishing. If I did, leave it in the comment section below. Just be sure to bring plenty of hot java to keep the fire burning! Good luck this holiday week, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! [vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width='6' grid_id='vc_gid:1485876128429-956a0435a2a0f25f6c84919907eacd12-3' include='5817,5816'][/vc_column]" target="_blank">

JIGGING FOR BLACKFISH

I admit, I was a bit skeptical about this whole tog jigging phenomena that has taken the blackfishing world by storm. To assuage my fears, I took a ride out with Christian Driscoll and a few friends on his 34 Regulator and we picked out a promising spot on the local reef site, setting up […]

I admit, I was a bit skeptical about this whole tog jigging phenomena that has taken the blackfishing world by storm.To assuage my fears, I took a ride out with Christian Driscoll and a few friends on his 34 Regulator and we picked out a promising spot on the local reef site, setting up in 70 feet of water. Let me tell ya, from the moment the jigs hit the bottom to the time we pulled anchor, there was not one moment when there wasn’t a bent rod. When jigging for tog, here are a few pointers I’ve found.First and foremost, it isn’t actually jigging really. You’re basically putting a leadhead down with a half green crab lanced on the hook, letting the jig to sit on the seafloor bottom, rolling around right in the strike zone of the tog. We used 2-ounce MagicTail tog jigs in black/orange and chartreuse and they got hit with reckless abandon. For ultimate hookset capability, crabs can be hooked with the shank going through the last back leg hole, then out the third leg hole up from there. As the jig is settled on the bottom, wait for the telltale tog taps, but instead of swinging like you do on a regular tog dropper rig after the first tap, get the feel for when the blackfish is chewing on the bait, as in a tap is good, but you’ll feel him actually teething the jig and that’s when you hit.Or when you feel consistent immediate taps. The other key to success is to use lighter tackle gear. Medium heavy spinning rods are prime, I employed a 6-6-foot Shimano Terramar E66MH rod rated for 15 to 30-pound test and a Shimano Stradic 5000 reel spooled with 30-pound Power Pro with a 4 foot top shot of 40-pound TripleFish leader. And if you think that outfit couldn’t handle a true whitechinner, it was enough backbone to land two tog of 12.6 and 10.5 pounds on our day out. The writing on the wall for tog jigging that day was a full 5 man limit by 9 AM with 15 more throwback keepers. Conditions must be right for jigging, including little or no current, 3 foot or less seas and fairly clean water, but when it all lines up, count me in as convinced on tog jigging. [vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width='6' grid_id='vc_gid:1485876128429-956a0435a2a0f25f6c84919907eacd12-3' include='5806,5807'][/vc_column]" target="_blank">

MOJO BALLIN

It took awhile to catch on up north, but southern anglers in the Chesapeake Bay area were onto the striped bass technique of Mojo balling, (a derivative of Parachute jigging), years before the madness trickled up into the New Jersey and New York waters. The tactic is pretty simple and doesn’t really require too much […]

It took awhile to catch on up north, but southern anglers in the Chesapeake Bay area were onto the striped bass technique of Mojo balling, (a derivative of Parachute jigging), years before the madness trickled up into the New Jersey and New York waters.The tactic is pretty simple and doesn’t really require too much technical wisdom. A Mojo rig starts with a heavy duty three way swivel. On one ring is tied a 24-inch piece of 60 to 80-pound monofilament leader. To the leader is a Mojo ball jig, a colored piece of lead with a hook, usually 12 to 48 ounces, with a large 12-inch rubber swim shad attached on the hook. On the other ring, a 48-inch piece of 60 to 80-pound mono leader is tied to which a trailer lure is clipped, usually a lighter 4 to 12-ounce weight or unweighted rubber shad again.Shad colors are generally white or chartreuse. Magictail bucktails make all the perfect shapes and sizes. The theory is that the weight of the Mojo ball drags down in the water column around the bottom, while the trailing teaser kind of flutters above it. Striped bass key in on the movement of the rubber shads and strike with reckless abandon. You simply troll around at a 2.5 to 3 knot pace until you find the fish.Mojo ball rigs are easy to deploy as you can troll the rig on a tight, compact capacity conventional reel that can hold a lot of 65 to 80-pound Power Pro braided line, such as an Avet LX and match with a heavy action conventional rod such as an Okuma MK-C-601XH-HD. Mojo ball rigs are really easy to manage and you can even run three in the spread effectively as they don’t cheat and swing over the spread like Stretch plugs are prone to do when you make a turn and you don’t need a mile of line out as when bunker spooning. Mostly the lures are nearly vertical when trolled so you can effectively monitor the lures and turn the boat with ease.Drop some Mojos the next time you are out striper fishing, you’ll be pleased with the results. [vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width='6' grid_id='vc_gid:1485876128429-956a0435a2a0f25f6c84919907eacd12-3' include='5800,5798'][/vc_column]" target="_blank">

TOG RIGS 101

Blackfishing is firing on all cylinders, with both NY and NJ anglers loading coolers full of the bucktoothed brawlers. That fishery will be solid through January, then the southern fellas in Delaware and Virginia get the bulk of the fishery during the heart of the winter in February and early March. Regardless of where you […]

Blackfishing is firing on all cylinders, with both NY and NJ anglers loading coolers full of the bucktoothed brawlers.That fishery will be solid through January, then the southern fellas in Delaware and Virginia get the bulk of the fishery during the heart of the winter in February and early March. Regardless of where you fish, a lot of anglers getting into the tog fishery may not understand how and why to tie certain basic rigs for success. As tautog are bottom feeders with their diets mainly consisting of crabs, sea worms, clams and mussels, rigs need to be designed to lay down on the sea floor.Two top rigs that are used are the egg slider rig and the “Belmar” rig. The slider rig works well when current or tide is running fast and a bait needs to be weighted enough to lay directly on the bottom without spinning around and flailing above the sea floor. Start with the running line, slide on a 1 to 4-ounce egg sinker, then a 100-pound Spro Barrel swivel, and a short 18-inch section of 60-pound Triple Fish monofilament leader to which as size 4/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook is snelled.The ol “Belmar Rig” is the standard among toggers and is easy to tie. Off your reel spooled with 50-pound braided Power Pro, Albright knot a 8-foot top shot section of 50-pound Triple Fish leader. Create a foot long double overhand loop knot on the end of the leader. On the bottom of the loop goes a 4 to 10-ounce bank sinker. Now pinch a loop into the double line roughly 5 inches up from the sinker and slide on a snelled size #2 to #6 virginia style hook, linking the snell loop and your pinched loop together. Once it is pulled tight, take the sinker, pass it behind the point of the loop to loop and tie an overhand knot behind it to lock the snell loop in.That rig will have the crab bait sprawled out in an arc, resting an inch above the bottom and tapping the seafloor, in essence resembling a stickwalking crab along the bottom. Both bottom rigs are a great place to start when angling for tautog. Bait up with green crabs, whiteleggers or clam baits and hold on tight.[vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width='6' grid_id='vc_gid:1485876128429-956a0435a2a0f25f6c84919907eacd12-3' include='5791,5790'][/vc_column]" target="_blank">

STRIPER JIGGING

As the Fall Run of stripers moves along, late November and early December bring in different types of baitfish to the area, where jigging tactics can effectively mimic the baitfish to claim a large share of fish. Both wide profile baits such as herring, mackerel and bunker, as well as thin baits such as sand […]

As the Fall Run of stripers moves along, late November and early December bring in different types of baitfish to the area, where jigging tactics can effectively mimic the baitfish to claim a large share of fish.Both wide profile baits such as herring, mackerel and bunker, as well as thin baits such as sand eels and rainfish could be present at any given time and you need to match the hatch.Start with a 7 foot Shimano Teramar Spinning Rod rated for 15 to 30-pound and lock on a Shimano Stradic 5000 class reel, spooled with 30 to 50-pound braided Power Pro to which a 48-inch section of 30 to 40-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader is tied uni to uni knot then a 50-pound TA clip on the end to switch out lures. If wide baits are present, latch on a 1 to 3-ounce Kroc Spoon, Crippled Herring, or Kastmaster for shiny metal lures. Hot rubber baits include the Hogy Pro-Tails, Ron-Z and 3 to 5-inch Storm or Tsunami Shads. Sand eels and rainfish can be imitated with #4 Deadly Dicks, Ava 27 to 87 jigs with rubber tails, and Hopkin’s NoEql for metals, or Fin-S fish, Kettle Creek Paddletails or Bass Assassins all on 1 to 2-ounce leadheads or bucktails.When jigging, two schools of thought are imposed. Some anglers will drop the rig to the bottom, then simply reel up at a very slow to medium pace up the water column, then drop back down and repeat. Others will drop down, then swing the rod in a swoop to let the jig shoot up and then settle down and repeat that process. If no hits are had after a few swoops, reel up 10 to 15 feet and start jigging again. Striped bass can be hanging literally anywhere in the water column, so its best to have anglers mixing it up to work the bottom all the way to the top. Pay strict attention to the fishfinder screen as well to see at what depths the bass are staging at.Striper jigging can be fast and furious, and heading into December will be the method of choice to hang a few fish.[vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width='6' grid_id='vc_gid:1485876128429-956a0435a2a0f25f6c84919907eacd12-3' include='5780,5783'][/vc_column]" target="_blank">