Autumn surfwaters in Jersey are reaching that magical 58 degree mark which will spark the striper migration en masse into our area.

The key to success in hooking up with surfstyle bass is to dial in the proper artificial lures to perfectly mimic the predominant baitfish profiles bass feed upon in November and December.

Fall run baitfish consists of a variety of species including sand eels, spearing, rainfish, herring, adult and peanut bunker, and mullet, so a wide array of profiles are needed, but you need not go overboard with packing your surf bag. I use a 6 tube Canyon surf bag and packed in the tubes and a small Plano box are these tried and true offerings:

An array of ¼ to ¾ ounce leadheads and Magictail bucktails, with a variety of 4 to 5-3/4 Fins Fish in Arkansas shiner white, Bubble gum and Rainbow trout colors to mix and match on the leadheads. Plugs to dopplegang herring, mullet and bunker include Bomber A Salts in black, chickenscratch, Wonderbread and Blurple, Daiwa S Minnows, 4-inch Mambo minnows, a 4-inch Stillwater popper and YoZuri Crystal Minnows. Metals to best mimic sand eels and spearing are 1-ounce Crippled herrings, #4 Deadly Dick, and Ava 007 to A17 jigs naked or with green, orange or black tails. Peanut bunker imitations include 3 to 4-inch Storm or Tsunami Shads.

And last November, by far the one soft bait that outproduced all the others was the Tsunami Sand eels. That’s really all the basic lures you need to target stripers along the Jersey Coast as most of the fish we have been tangling with in the past few years are generally in the 20 to 28-inch range, with a few stragglers in the 30 to 35-inch class, but any rod and reel set up over 7-1/2 foot should be able to handle a larger linesider if you so happen to hook one. Grab these lures for your surf hit list and you’ll be best prepared to tussle with surf stripers in the upcoming weeks.