Black sea bass fishing is firing along the Jersey coast. There’s a very tight window to get in on the action as the season closes on June 22 with an instated bag limit of 10 fish at a 12-1/2-inch minimum size.

I hopped aboard the Dauntless party boat in Point Pleasant this past Tuesday to check out the rumors of “drop and reel” sea bass fishing for myself, and I was not disappointed. Captain Butch Egerter anchored us over some concrete rubble piles roughly 8 to 12 miles off the coast as nearly all the boat’s patrons had their 10 fish limits. There were scores of short fish, and a good bet is to change your tactics a little bit to target keeper class fish so you can weed out the throwbacks on each drop.

Generally a three-hook dropper rig made out of 40-pound Triplefish leader is preferred, with droppers spaced every 16 inches and a snelled size 3/0 Gamakatsu Baitholder hook on each dropper. The snelled hook allows the baits to flutter in the current naturally. An appropriate 6 to 12-ounce bank sinker is looped on the bottom. I noticed many of the larger sea bass were hitting rigs tricked out with green or red beads ahead of the hook.

As well, any hook that was tipped with a Chartreuse Berkley Gulp! 4-inch swimmin’ Mullet seemed to attract bigger sea biscuits. Fresh clam bait strings on the hook were top choice baits. The key to swinging on sea bass with snelled hooks hanging on droppers is when you feel the tap-tap-tap strike, lift up on the rod with a gradual pull before you jolt the rod at the pinnacle of the raise to set it.

Reason being, you need to take out the slack of those snelled hooks to come tight first and then plant the hook in the mouth of the sea bass. If you feel the tap of a smaller sea bass hooked on the line, leave the rig down there with the smaller bass flailing on it as the activity will alert bigger sea bass around to jump on the other two baits you have out. Get out there now to load up a cooler full of sea bass. Its on, and you better be on it.