Saltwater Fishin’ Vol 4, No. 4
Pro Recommends Deep Diving Plugs for Spring Stripers
Capt. Brian Rice uses light tackle to troll for early season striped bass - Here’s how he does it
Captain Brian Rice ran the Jersey Devil, a 29’ Yamaha-powered Contender®, from its slip in the Nevasink River down into Raritan Bay, a large embayment nestled between the tip of Sandy Hook, New Jersey and Staten Island, New York. He was headed toward the mouth of the Raritan River to an area of flats surrounding the main shipping channels. Upon reaching his destination, he slowed the boat, and the depth finder lit up with pods of striped bass hugging the bottom in 20-to-30-feet of water. This area is part of the larger estuary complex that is home to the Hudson River stock of striped bass, which also includes places such as Jamaica Bay and Western Long Island Sound. It is similar to other estuary complexes associated with the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay stocks of stripers, and they are all great places to fish for linesiders in the spring months.
Mate Jim “Peaches” Massimino, Jr. shows off a particularly large spring bass that could resist a Stretch plug.The overwhelming majority of the East Coast striped bass population is comprised of cohorts from those three major spawning stocks. Younger stripers remain in these estuaries, using them as nursery areas until they are mature enough to join the larger fish on their annual migration cycles. The initial migration is back into the feeder rivers of their birth where they spawn. Stripers by the thousands will swim far upstream into freshwater, spawn and then come back down river, eventually moving back into ocean waters to recover and feed. From there, they begin their migration to their summer haunts, which can be anywhere from off the coast of New Jersey to as far north as Nova Scotia, Canada. In the late summer and early fall they head back south to their wintering grounds, which can be anywhere from New Jersey to the ocean waters off North Carolina...........
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