I’m looking to do some topwater striped bass fishing and would love advice if my setup will work.

 

Going to be fishing inlets around southern Long Island (New York).

 

I have a 7’6 st croix mojo rod, medium heavy power and fast action.  Rod can stand 10-20 lb line and lures .5 oz to 1.25 oz.

 

I have a 13 fishing origin tx baitcaster reel.  7.3:1 gear ratio with a max drag of 18lbs.

 

Im planning on fishing 20 lb mono line.

 

Will this setup work?  Any advice on how I should fish this?

 

 

 

 

To me that rod is a bit light in power but it should be ok most of the time.

 

I’d prefer a reel with more line capacity.

It will work until you hook into a big striper!

Tom

The reel line capacity is pretty low, especially if you put #20 mono on there.

I would go with a bigger reel or maybe spool that 13 fishing with braid to get more capacity.

I’ve never used braid.  What # should I go with and what would you set the drag at?

50 lb braid and crank the drag down pretty tight. I have had 9-10 lb striper on Texoma strip drag like it was nothing. Buddy of mine caught his first striper on Texoma during a tournament and it was about 5 lbs. He thought he might have the new state record because he thought it was a LMB lol.

Stripers get after it pretty good, you will want some slip from the drag if using braid. They tend to be line shy so if you go braid a leader may be involved. 

I caught a 30 plus pound with a 7' medium heavy and 12 lb mono a month or so ago, it just depends on how you fight them and how strong the current is 

On 5/24/2019 at 10:36 AM, 813basstard said:

Stripers get after it pretty good, you will want some slip from the drag if using braid. They tend to be line shy so if you go braid a leader may be involved. 

 

What kind of leader would you recommend?  I ended up putting 30 lb braid on the rod.  Have been out twice with no real bites.  Have been trying the yo Zuri striped lures (hydro pencil, mag darter and hydro squirt).

I am also tieing the line straight to the lures.  Should I be using a swivel?

I'd add a 4-6' mono leader to the braid. Probably 15-17# big game or something similar. It will help with problems with the braid fouling in the topwater lure's hooks on the cast. Braid is very limp and flexible the mono is much stiffer.  And the mono floats too.

FM

 

Yes it's a good start, should work but as others said more line capacity might help if your'e after bigger stripers.

 

For schoolie stripers I use a StC 7'0 MH/F with a 5000 size spinnig reel (it's smaller than it sounds), 17 lb mono and lures up to about 1 1/4 oz. Schoolies are a blast on this setup.