A Northeast weather pattern has been sitting on Jersey for the past few days, and with it surf striped bass fishing has gone bananas.

Heavy water demands you switch up your tactics a little bit for more effective bait fishing. Start off by bringing larger rods and reels to handle the swashing surf. I employ a Shimano Tiralejo 12 foot rod, matched with a Shimano Ultegra 14000 reel, spooled with 50-pound Spiderwire. A bait and wait approach is utilized in churny surf as the roiling waters kick up clams and smash them on the ocean floor, providing plenty of natural forage for stripers. The key is using rigs that will hold their ground in rough waters. Keep your rigs tight and short.

Generally, you can go with a hi-lo rig fixed with a 75-pound Spro Barrel Swivel and two droppers spaced 16 inches apart fixed with 40-pound Trikfish leader material and 4/0 Mustad Baitholder hooks. Sinkers are key here and Hatteras, Satellite or Pyramid sinkers hold their ground best, usually anywhere from 4 to 8 ounces. A three-way swivel rig fixed with a size #2 three-way and a short 20—inch 40-pound leader snelled with a size 6/0 Baitholder hook will also do the job. The short leader allows for the bait to stay put rather than flailing all over tangling up the leader and knocking off the clam bait.

Clams should be hooked on a minimum of three times and use the ribbons of the clam to lock the big tongue piece in by piercing it over and over 5 or 6 times on the hook after the tongue is hooked on first. This method put my fishing friend Mickey Melchiondo and I into 24 surf stripers yesterday in three hours time.

With a Nor’east surf, low tide can be just as effective as high tide hours as the heavy water fills in the cuts and sloughs even on lower tides. Be sure to plant your rods with foot-push metal sandspikes from Anglers Mate so they hold the rod in place without pulling out in the rough waters. Jersey will usually have Nor’easters rumble through up until early June, so get out and hit the suds for some stripers now.