Porgy fishing is going off right now in the NJ/NY area with literally hundreds to thousands of fish being caught on party boat and charter trips alike. It’s non-stop, drop and reel activity, but you can up your odds to fill your limits with larger fish by paying attention to some little details.

You’ll be fishing hard scrabble bottom like concrete rubble and submarine glacial rockpile areas or shipwrecks, so start off with some tackle able to withstand the rough stuff. A solid set up starts with a 6-1/2 to 7 foot moderate to fast action rod such as a Lamiglas TFX 7040CT matched with a small conventional reel like a Shimano Torium 16 spooled with 50-pound Power Pro Braided line.

From the braid, connect via a uni-to-uni knot a 10-foot top shot shock leader of 40-pound Triplefish monofilament leader, then tie a double overhand knot on the end of that leader. Loop on an appropriate size bank sinker from 6 to 10 ounces. Now, tie three small dropper loops about 15 inches apart up from the sinker. Loop on snelled size #1 to #2 beak or baitholder hooks to each respective dropper loop, and you can use hooks that have orange or red beads above the shank as the added attraction garners more numerous strikes from porgies.

Bait up with small 1-inch bits of clam tongue, and don’t overload the hook with bait as the small baits are easily inhaled by porgy mouths and gobs of bait will just get picked off the hook. You can also opt to lance on 1-inch pieces of Fishbites Bloodworms in red coloring for a bait that will stay on long after a clam gets sucked off. Porgies will feed directly on the bottom, but will feed above the seafloor, many times up 10 to 30 feet. If you aren’t getting many hits on the bottom, or if smaller fish seemed to have taken over, feel free to reel in a good 10 to 20 feet to see if they are staging up above the wreck or around the higher points of the structure. Porgy fishing is fast and furious, and you’ll be loading a cooler in no time with the delicious treats.