Needlefish
04-28-2018, 07:06 PM
Fished the surf this morning for a couple of hours starting at 6 a.m. There were a decent number of small bass around, mostly very small. Caught 8 from 10" to 22" using an A17 with a 4" teaser retrieving it slowly to keep the diamond jig dragging in the sand. The A17 helps me reach the outer sand bars but most of the fish hit close to the beach. So I didn't really didn't need to make any long casts. All but one of the fish caught on the teaser. It still surprises me sometime how small fish sometimes try to eat a relatively bigger lure.
For those who look for details on NJFishing.com like I do, my go to setup is a 10' surf rod, spinning reel with 30lb braid and a 4 foot fluorocarbon leader. My go to lure is the A17 which can be cast a long way to reach feeding fish (blues and bass) but I like to retrieve slow enough to keep the jig in the sand and under the blues. Catch more stripers that way. This technique is effective spring and fall. They don't seem to mind grabbing a diamond jig off the bottom. It's definitely more productive to use the teaser but bluefish do a lot of damage to leaders so I avoid the teaser when blues are around.
For those who look for details on NJFishing.com like I do, my go to setup is a 10' surf rod, spinning reel with 30lb braid and a 4 foot fluorocarbon leader. My go to lure is the A17 which can be cast a long way to reach feeding fish (blues and bass) but I like to retrieve slow enough to keep the jig in the sand and under the blues. Catch more stripers that way. This technique is effective spring and fall. They don't seem to mind grabbing a diamond jig off the bottom. It's definitely more productive to use the teaser but bluefish do a lot of damage to leaders so I avoid the teaser when blues are around.