snake95

To report back - I caught one keeper striper and decided to keep that one for dinner. I used a very long, cheap cord stringer and tied off to the rocks on the lee side of the jetty. Not ideal, but it worked to keep the fish fresh for an hour or so. Having a long enough stringer and finding a good tie-off point were key. Always the risk crabs or something might slice up the fish but that didn't happen. I agree that harvesting is not always the best option. Then again, I've been hammering this jetty for several days each of the last three summers, trying to learn what to do, and I felt like I earned this one. Felt like a hero bringing home and grilling a fish for dinner that was well received by all.

Just a quick update on what I actually did - and it worked! I caught lots of small stripers and one beauty that I was able to keep and grill for my family. I used various Heddon spooks with good success in the very early hours right around sun-up: Bright pink one-knocker Pink and gold super spook Chartreuse super spook Jr On my last morning out, when the topwater bite died off, I did what I might do for largemouths: went underwater with swimbaits on a jighead. I used the 4.3 inch Keitech swing impact fat, silver flash minnow, on a Trokar 1/2 oz swimbait jighead, and caught two more. I also tried white magnum super flukes on a weighted swimbait hook - I watched several followers but no bites on it. I also tried flinging a 3-lure umbrella rig with white Mann's paddletails and got no response. Thanks for all the input, guys.

Thanks, guys. I know that many don't like to eat bluefish, but bluefish are popular with my in-laws, and when I've had ones that were cleaned immediately and then cooked on the grill (by me) they were great IMHO. I'm all for putting fish back, too @MassBass and that's what I've done the few times I've figured them out in the past. I'll try to concoct a stringer long enough to secure the fish and toss into the ocean.

90% of my fishing is for bass from the shore. What I do with bass is simple. I put them back where I got them. I have also recently caught: trout that I cleaned on the spot and rushed home to the freezer, and crappie from a boat that I put on a stringer. Soon I will be casting for stripers and bluefish from a rocky jetty in the Atlantic. If I am lucky enough to catch some (and legally allowed to) I may keep some for dinner. How do you deal with either of these fish on a warm summer morning when you want to keep fishing? Hard to lug a cooler out there. Thanks for any tips on this one!

Palomar for most knots to hooks and snaps. San Diego jam for spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and direct ties to spilt rings. Alberto for leaders to braid. Rapala when I need a loop knot. I would like to continue to experiment with alternatives but rarely have these failed on me. I've only lost a couple of fish to failed knots; one was using Vanish for the first time, another time was setting the hook on copoly that had experienced multiple hard jerks from poor casting.

Well, this certainly seems to be the consensus. I assume you fish them like zoom flukes? Also, what colors do you choose for stripers in the ocean? Does it matter? Thanks, Crestliner and anyone else who wants to chime in!

@RoLo thanks for the advice. Absolutely; safety first when it comes to... breakwaters. @MassBass thanks for the tips, I will pack a few big paddletails to throw. I take it you fish the area so you've probably tried this yourself. @NHBull that's interesting. I met a guy motoring past last summer who was fishing sluggos and I was interested to hear that. I will cast a few of those too. I got lucky the first time I went out there and there was a school of blues busting bait and I could just barely cast into them. This time I will be armed with big flukes to throw. Not sure how to protect against bluefish teeth but will be ready anyway. Much appreciated, guys, I'll report back.

The last few years I have been trying to catch stripers from shore in New England, mostly from rip rap jetties. Sure, there are a huge amount of books and videos out there for striper lures and fishing in the surf. What bass lures translate well to shore casting for stripers? I've had luck with "striper" plugs like the creek chub striper strike, and I've had the best success walking one-knocker saltwater spooks as if I'm fishing for largemouths. They tail slap and toy with them, but I also get solid bites. Thinking of throwing swimbaits on jigheads this season. Any other ideas to try?

Lots of "25%" off prices on baits this week + upcoming weekend: DSG has buy one get one 50% off all lures except megabass. (Essentially 25% off). Cabelas has 25% off "all" jigs and their own house lures. (Strike King squadron jigheads are not included for unknown reason, I love them but maybe I'm the only one). Not sure which of their house brand lures are any good but my 5-year old daughter convinced me I needed a "grave digger" in Vegas lights and a pack of their chartreuse 5" hand-pour shad swimbaits. Not my choices but she's my own personal bait monkey. Continuing the worldwide sell-off of some apparently retiring Rapala lure lines, in store the Cabelas near me had Clackin' raps of all types and sizes down to $4 each (mostly just reds left). They also had Storm Arashis down to $3 in a big bargain cooler, and they show up as $3.88 online. (I can't imagine they are killing off the Arashis?).

Nailed it guys, that worked, but wound up not really being sight fishing. I T-rigged to deal with the vegetation and dead wood nearby, and caught fish on slightly longer casts not flipping close by. No big ones yet, but success anyway. Maybe these ponds don't get a lot of pressure. At least, not by anglers intentionally targeting bass. Surprising, but never seen anyone else there except the odd crappie fishermen, despite being in a very public spot.

Ha ha..... true and good point. On the other hand, I did think about your advice that it is OK to use an EWG for a wacky hook if you decide to make a sudden switch between baits. Admittedly, I pulled that move a couple of hours before I started this thread. I just didn't think I had a good answer to my own question until the replies started rolling in and it registered with me that the bass I caught was probably cruising around among the bluegills just like the bigger guy I saw closer to me. Anyway, one outta two ain't bad for a start; I can think of a few select people I deal with would be shocked if I followed 50% of what they suggest I do.

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions, guys. Worth mentioning: at the second spot I saw bass among the bluegills, I tossed a wacky-rigged 7" dinger in Bama Magic (blue and green swirl) to the opposite side of the little bay I was in, and caught a bass about the size of the dinger. When I did it, I thought of the tip posted recently by @Yeajray231: took the small 1/0 or 2/0 EWG I was using with the U-tail, and without wasting any time, speared it through the dinger to wacky rig in a hurry. Got bit on the fall on the first cast (but to the opposite side from where I was seeing 'gills and bass). I tried the first spot again and no visible bass. Will continue to try the recommendations.

The bluegill spawn is on in north Georgia right now, and the last two days I've watched nice bass lurking around the groups of bluegills in different ponds. The water is just slightly stained to clear. 'gills are on sandy to clay beds up very shallow. Bass are lurking and suspending, or cruising around slowly amongst the bluegills. I've tried various soft plastics: craw dragged past on a swinging rugby head, stickbait dropped nearby, and finesse hook and U-tail worm worked past their noses. No interest shown. In the past I've had luck lobbing a stickbait into the midst of swirling pods of bluegills only to be grabbed by a bass on the fall (apparently a lurker). I've also sight-fished shallow cruising bass by dropping a trickworm in front of them and having the bass go berserk on the worm. Anything else I should be trying in this case?

#1 Bama magic by a long shot. I know it's not a basic color at all, but it really excels for me. Caught a bass about an hour ago on it. The "bream" color looks very close. #2 Watermelon pearl laminate. #3 Junebug #4 Green pumpkin Hope top 4 works. Been hard to get past #1 for me.

Just an update on this: I just got my check for $40 from the earlier 4 for $10 from DSG (i.e. free after rebate! - hard to believe!). And actually, Walmart has powerbait for less than $3/bag, so you can buy any combo of 4 for $2 total after rebate. So, this is the real deal: 16 bags of powerbait for $16 after doing the rebate from Dicks, $8 after rebate from Walmart.

Snake is my actual nickname. 95 is just a good number. I realize now it might look like I was born in 1995, but that would be a little off the mark.

@crankbait2009 I thought I was the only guy in the world that didn't fish soft plastics!!! (Until last year, when I made it my mission to learn to fish with them -- persistence led to experience, experience led to confidence. Summarized my experience with it in the post below. Now I actually find myself going out with nothing but plastics. Now if only I could catch a fish on a jig...

I know a lot of guys like to keep their colors simple, and that makes complete sense to me. On the other hand, I like to experiment and given the range of colors out there, there are a lot of options to play around with. Over the past week I've caught them in similar situations (moderately stained, warm, late post-spawn) on: Bream or Bama Magic (olive green and light blue swirl - my favorite by a long shot) Junebug Smoke Blue and Gold Flake (senko) In short, I like blue tones and have a lot of success with those. I could rationalize it by saying bluegills are a primary forage, but the main reason is I personally prefer blues over greens. Nothing to do with the bass. In the same situations I've caught fish on "baby bass" and purple, while I've watched others catch them on Red Shad and green pumpkin. Have fun with it.

@bitsandbass I get where you are coming from. I only started with soft plastics a couple of years ago, and I still remember clearly thinking "HOW... is this limp piece of plastic that doesn't look like anything natural going to catch anything?" I'm at all not going to discount the advice you've gotten about fishing a stick bait under a bobber (I've also never done that and don't know much about it), but I'd like to strongly suggest that you also consider trying out just hooking it and casting at targets. Honestly, it's easy stuff. *** not only is it easy - but using this method you will learn so much about where bass are located and how to provoke strikes*** If you want your kids to do it, no problem. Here's the sequence, it's this simple: Rig it Identify a target, or failing that, just take a wild shot in the dark and pick a spot Chuck it out Splashdown Wiggles on way down "on the fall " Slammed! (or maybe nothing, in which case you can do a 'lift and fall/shimmy down" all the way back, or just reel it back) You will get strikes this way based on the "wiggle of the worm" as it falls - probably also the interest generated by the splashdown, maybe the movement and wiggle if you shake or lift it, maybe the color, the shape, maybe the scent/taste (possibly). But basically, it's all about the plastic moving as it falls. I agree that at first stickbaits don't seem to have much action, but that subtle wiggle and shimmy as they fall is clearly a huge strike generator. If there is a bass within a reasonable radius, they will see/feel the splashdown, and swim over and likely hit your bait. As a relative newcomer to bass fishing with soft plastics, I can't "X2" enough the comments by seasoned guys that they get so many hits "on the fall." In fact, just this morning I got a decent bass by following up a strike on a walking bait by lobbing a weightless, texas-rigged Yum Dinger into the area of the missed strike, letting it splash down and just wobble its way slowly toward the bottom. Long before could settle on the bottom, I felt the familiar "thump thump" and set the hook. I didn't reel at any speed, I didn't impart any motion. I just let it fall. I later got some hits during the retrieve phase with a lift/drop/fall-shimmy approach, but out of 4 hits, 3 were on the initial fall. Pick a rigging method; wacky or tex-posed weightless, and start casting. For me, 98% of the time my bait is tex-posed, not wacky. There are reasons to pick one or the other, but without getting into all that, texposed works for me and my snaggy conditions, and honestly I have more strikes. I typed up more of my notes on my thoughts after a year of successful plastics fishing in the thread below. Good luck with the bobber - but try casting a T-rigged (or wacky) stickworm too.

@smalljaw67 excellent points and recommendations for everyone. I have found that shopping in the "clearance" times of year you mentioned can really pay off. For me those have been: - late summer Aug-Sept (which is surprisingly early to me) - early winter (November) - days after Christmas into mid-January - later winter when they are getting inventory sorted out (can be February - mid-April)

Thanks for the visuals. I have had good luck with the 90 in loon, fishing it every which way. Has worked great twitched in nearly complete darkness though my cardiologist might beg to differ. I still love the deep "bloop" of a Pop R and like to keep busy walking just about anything that wants to walk. Buzzbaits still perform great right alongside the WP for me. Of all lures, my top producing topwater is a craw with big arms retrieved on surface. Picking one over the others is just not applicable for me.

The crazy thing was one store had a few S-cranks and a Flapslap marked down to about $15. They would not honor the $5 off because it did not show up at the register, and the tagged price was less than the price range shown on the sign. I've often had managers overrule things like that, but it wasn't happening at the store with the S-cranks.

I couldn't make this up. Two stores in Georgia. I love DSG - it's about the only brick-and-mortar game in town for me, and I'm not complaining. One thing I've learned about bargain-hunting at DSG and taking advantage of their sales: the in-store sales tend to be company/system/nation-wide, but: - online sales may not overlap with in-store sales - only a few select sale prices are highlighted in the flyer or online ads - an individual store may/may not have a particular sale price labeled with a sign I've been there first thing on a Sunday or Tuesday morning when the staff are piling up and putting out new signs for the in-store promotions for the new period, and not every store will have the same signs out. Some will not have the signs for a particular sale price, but based on whatever is "in the system," they will still ring up right at the register. So if you see a great price at a store in say, south Florida, and the next day you are in GA and the local DSG does not have a sign up for the same product, take it to the register anyway, and it will often ring up at the price you saw in Florida. Would be interesting to see how they ring up if you try it tomorrow.

Megabass lures at DSG are priced at $15+ are all $5 off. In store only. So, 4 Pop Maxes for $12.50 each when you use a $10 off of $50 coupon for doing a review. Never thought I could bring myself to fork out $20 for a lure, but thanks to this thread and site... I now have a few Pop Maxes to try.

Wow. Might be the best feedback I've ever got on this forum. I can imagine the feeling of getting that back. So glad to hear about your success!!