Changing Tactics Results in more Stripers

I went striper fishing three times this week. Tuesday I already wrote about. However, the stripers were around in decent numbers this week but I used tactics that I haven't used all spring to catch them.

Wednesday my friend Dave and I fished Narragansett. We didn't have any luck in one spot so we drove to another about 7 pm. We fished an outflow to a small tidal pond. There were a couple other guys there. We arrived about the time the sun was behind the trees. Almost immediately I caught a small schoolie on an old stand-by, the Jumpin' Minnow.

The other guys were using slug-gos and the Jumpin Minnow. They got a few fish. I didn't get anymore hits on the Rebel, so I switched lures. I didn't have any big Slug-gos in my bag and the wind was in our face. My small light 7 inch soft plastic wasn't even an option. I figured since the fish seemed to be near the surface, I'd try a swimmer just below the surface. I put on a Jointed Redfin. That did the trick for me. I landed a few more fish and had multiple other hits. Fishing wasn't lights out, but trying something different made my night productive.

I went back to the ocean on Friday evening after a day of birding. Like Wednesday, almost immediately I landed a fish. I was fishing the surf in a shallow rocky area. I used a float with a three foot leader. The business end was one of those light 7 inch Slug-gos. I thought I was in for a big night.

Then after I landed the first fish, I missed four more in ten minutes. They would swirl or pull the tail, but I couldn't hook up. I thought "the hell with this". I left the float on, but replaced the soft plastic with a bucktail jig. That did the trick. First cast with the bucktail landed a schoolie. For the next two hours I caught a bunch of fish. I ended up with twelve. Near dark, I tried a popper hoping for a bigger fish. I did land my biggest fish of the night on it, but missed multiple fish as I did with the soft plastic.

Because I was not afraid to "try something different" I had two productive nights that could have been frustrating. These lessons were something I will try to use the next time I'm scratching to catch a fish or two.