BASS FISHINGBass Fishing Sports Blog

Fishermen, both tournament and recreational, are always looking for a new lure or system to catch their fish and they will go to great lengths to achieve that goal.

The latest fad is the so-called “Alabama Rig.” This isn’t a secret lure but is basically a wire spreader where up to five lures, such as swimbaits, can be attached to a wire harness. the entire rig is cast and then retrieved slowly. To a bass, the five lures probably resemble a school of minnows swimming tightly together. It has been deadly on bass and is sure to spread to other species of fish as well.

The Alabama Rig gained national attention when bass pro Paul Elias used it to win a FLW tournament in October at Lake Guntersville in Alabama. He attached five swimbaits to the rig and had a three-day weight of more than 100 pounds. the Alabama Rig (also called the umbrella rig) is also well loved on Clear Lake. two weeks ago the team of Charlie Almassey and Matt Saaredra won an Angler’s Choice tournament on Clear Lake with 33 pounds of bass, including a 9-pounder. They said they caught their fish on an Alabama Rig with swimbaits.

Really, the traditional Alabama Rig is illegal in California if you use five lures. According to Department of Fish and Game (DFG) warden Tim little, California law allows for a maximum of three lures to be used on an individual line although each lure can have a maximum of three hooks. what California fishermen have been doing is rigging the three lures with hooks and two others as dummy lures without hooks. These are called “teasers.” In fact, lure manufacturers are now making a three-lure setup and calling it a Calabama Rig.

All the local tackle shops carry the rigs and the cost ranges from $15 to more than $30. when you add the five swimbaits, the total cost can go as high as $80.

Where this lure will be deadly is during the spring months when the bass start to stage in preparation for spawning. actually, there are a number of setups that can be used. instead of swimbaits you can use small crankbaits or spinnerbaits. even plastic worms could be used. I recently rigged a pair of Shad Rap deep-diving crankbaits and caught a couple of bass while fishing off the docks at Library Park in Lakeport.

Spreaders have been around for years and striped bass fishermen have been using them for trolling with two lures. I made mine out of a striped bass spreader that I modified. My total cost for one was less than a dollar.

The potential use for this type of rig is limitless. They could be used for trolling for trout and just reckon how deadly it would be for crappie if you attached three crappie lures and jigged the rig up and down in a school of crappie. In fact, that is already being done in Texas and fishermen have been catching as many as five crappie at a time.

The question that many fishermen are asking is how long before the bass get wise to the lure and quit biting? Fishing lures have a way of being extremely well loved for a couple of months and then they tend to fade away. despite being considered a “dumb” animal, bass do get accustomed to certain lures.

A study done a number of years ago by a major tackle manufacturer revealed some startling habits about bass. They placed several adult bass in an indoor pool and didn’t feed them for several days. They took a certain type of crankbait and cast it into the pond. the bass immediately grabbed the lure and were hooked. This happened on 10 consecutive casts and on each cast one of the bass would get hooked. But, the bass soon learned they would be hooked and wouldn’t strike. the scientists replaced the lure with a completely different looking lure and the bass would strike it. They repeated this experiment several times and concluded the bass soon learned to avoid certain types of lures. actually, it’s something that most experienced bass fishermen have known for years.

In the past 10 years bass fishing has taken on a whole new character. the latest electronics in the new bass boats resembles a space ship and many of the new lures can cost upward of $100 each. where it will all end is anyone’s guess.

A revised agenda has been set for the upcoming N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Raleigh.

The agenda includes the same topics for discussion that were previously scheduled for the meeting, but the order of some of the presentations has changed. this week’s meeting was postponed due to the state of emergency and the impacts of Hurricane Irene on commission members and the general public.

Agenda items include a review of public input received about allowing an Atlantic Ocean striped bass commercial hook-and-line fishery. The commission is also slated to decide how it wants to manage the ocean striped bass fishery for the upcoming season. Additionally, the commission will discuss when to open the large-mesh gill net fisheries in the Pamlico Sound Gill Net Restricted area and in southern Core Sound, North River and back Sound.

The meeting begins with a public comment session at 6 p.m. on Wednesday Sept. 7. Anyone who wishes to speak to the commission on a fisheries-related matter may do so then or at 9:15 a.m. Sept. 8. Due to time constraints, the commission chairman asks individuals to speak at only one of the comment periods.

The business sessions of the meeting begin at 9 a.m. Thursday Sept. 8 and 8:30 a.m. Friday Sept. 9. The updated agenda, briefing book and scheduled presentations can be found on the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries website at portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/august-2011-mfc-briefing-book.

Halibut Hal reporting this weeks local fresh and salt water fishing reports for KHTS 1220AM:Starting off with our local lakes:1)  Castaic Lake…Wide open largemouth bass action!  The best times are before 10AM or after 4:30PM.  Honest to good blegill bite.  Hit and miss on the stripers.2)  Pyramid Lake…Striped bass fishing continues to improve…the fish have been boiling all over the lake! ; most are 1 – 3 pound stripers.  Catfish bite is good too.3)  Lake Piru…Improved catfish action.  Very good bass bite in the coves.  Better bites on the crappie, as well as good bluegill fishing.

Are you interested in events and activities in the Santa Clarita Valley?  Stay informed with a weekly “Top Things to do This Weekend” E-newsletter.  Sign-up now! 4) Lake Cachuma…many limits of catfish being taken.  Try fishing the coves or bays. There’s a very good bluegill bite, as well as better crappie fishing.Saltwater Report:The best bite for “exotics” right now is happening on the “Redondo Special”.  This is the half day boat out of Redondo.  On Monday, 16 white seabass were caught on the morning trip.  The afternoon trip caught another 5 seabass!  Live squid is available and that’s what they want.Landings from Long Beach to Marina Del Rey:  Excellent fishing for the usual assortment of rockfish, sand bass, calico bass, sculpin, barracuda, ocean whitefish and an improved sheephead bite.  Twilight runs from San Pedro and Long Beach are scoring many limits of sand bass.Oxnard/Ventura Landings:  Very few “exotics” this week.  Mostly rockfish are biting very well. The overnight boats are getting a few nice ling cod. At press time, “The Mirage” is catching some white seabass and halibut. There’s also a mixture of ocean whitefish, sheephead, sculpin, calico bass, sand bass being caught….and that’s this weeks Hometown Station fish report.  Halibut Hal reporting.

They are up VERY close to shore. People are catching them in my area only about 10 feet out. I have never done surf fishing. What bait or lure type should I be using?
Can you provide Lure Pic if possible?
Coworker just caught a good size 29" stripper last night. he was using 20 yr old 8' Kunan rod & Shimano reel. 8" pencil popper, white with red head. 14 lb test, but I used the same thing and got nothing!

bass are very unpredictable fish. some days you can go out and catch 7 of them and the next day you could not catch any. i don't have to much experience with striped bass in particular but i do know with largemouth that if your near the shore, hulapoppers work great. also, frogs with weedless hooks have been a favorite of mine. i just started using them a year ago and they are great.

heres a tip: with floating lures, when u cast your line out near shore, let the lure sit floating in the water for a good 10-15 seconds. every once and awhile twitch the line, this will mimic the lure to be an injured baitfish.

try it out and email me if you got any luck!

. the best lure would be a jig with a pork rind
stripersonline.net/cart/shop.…

stripersonline.net/cart/shop.…

for bait cut or live bunker would work

When I go, I usually buy 6 or more frozen pogies, and cut them up into quarters, or fifths, and throw a handful of the frozen fish out as chum, and then throw a piece on a hook and cast that out. It is usually very successful for me. good luck

well yesterday i have a dock and alot of bluegill hang around there and i use bread to catch them… so i place the hook in the water, instead of catching a itty bitty bluegill i caught a 5 pound bass! i couldn't tell what king it was though

striped lures. JK lol. Golden shiners under slip bobber.Or things you would catch a largemouth with.

The best way is to go in the morning or evening. You can fish the bottom with salted clams (which smell terrible and make your hands stink) but are quite effective. I have had the most luck using a 5in rapala slash bait. this is a shallow diving crank bait and I landed 6 keepers this fall with the same lure. the most effective color seemed to be black and red. I fish the jetties of over in the squan.

Al McReynolds pulled this World Record striper from the Atlantic fishing at night off the Vermont Ave. jetty in Atlantic City following days of September Nor'easter storming in 1982. the fish was taken on a 5 1/2-inch long Rebel Black-back silver minnow plug on 20-pound test line. it took one hour and 40 minutes to land the fish on the slippery jetty. the fish measured 53 inches in length with a 34 1/2 inch girth, and was estimated to be 20 – 22 years ancient. Its 78 pound 8 oz. weight earned it the IGFA all-tackle record!

Why change something that apparently worked.
On 1 pole use a 5 1/2-inch long Rebel Black-back silver minnow plug on 20-pound test.
On another pole tie a nice fresh piece of Clam and cast out as far as you can, have a beer and wait. Excellent luck.

Striped Bass are simple to catch. I use a large white Jig twister tail.
cast it out and swim it back slowly and if there are stripers in the area they will strike it.

Some Stripers have been known to feed on liver and anchoves from the bottom, but I do better with Jigs.

Here in Georgia at Goat Rock Dam we wait till they start generating water from the dam and then above the dam not below we start casting our Jigs and have landed anywhere from 4 lbs to 16 lb stripers. it is a huge fight and very much a ball of fun.

I have had 20 lb test snap because they were so big I couldn't get them out. the current is fierce and that adds to the tension.

All of the local boys in Harris County know the risks of fishing above the dam and it is very dangerous. if you fall in, your stuck till they stop generating there is no way out of the trap against the gates.

Now they have fenced it up making it harder to fish, but we still climb the fence and go down there because the fishing is like nothing in this world catching 22 lb Stripers.

Now below the dam, you can use small Bluegill or Bream hooked through the tail and throw him out with no weight attached. Let him drift naturally and watch what happens.

Fishing for Stripes is not hard you just have to know whrere they are and they especially love running water that's why the Chattahoochee River in Georgia stocks some the largest Stripers around.

Once the horn blows and Georgia Power starts generating it's on.
Once the water stops moving the Stripes quit biting and the reason is as follows:

Bait fish that are small cannot swim up current once the generating starts, so the big Stripes just swoop in and feed on them before they are sucked down the turbines. the bait fish struggle to maintain their level and the big ones snatch them up.

This is why generating water from the dam has yielded some of the largest Stripes in Georgia and that is no lie!

I once went Jug fishing for Catfish at Lake Harding in Georgia, using Clorox Jugs. we had fifteen Jugs in the water place out just after midnight. one hour later, a huge splash and we had fourteen Jugs left and one was missing.

I have never in my life seen a Catfish submerge a gallon Jug and not surface again. That's is just one story to let you know how buig Catfish get in the Chattahooche to make things simple. their big enough to swallow a man.

3:30 pm August 19, 2011, by Jay

The family wedding and reunion went off perfectly. My brother, sister and I, along with marital units, took in a game at Fenway Park Wednesday (the BoSox, alas, lost 4-0). On Thursday, we went fishing for bluefish and bass off Nantucket and caught probably 40 fish in a few hours. it was crazy. My wife was the day’s top fisher(wo)man, nailing a 36-inch striped bass. Fresh fish for dinner last night.

One of the benefits of having grown up all over the country as a military brat, and working in every corner of the country as an adult, is feeling a connection to all the places I’ve lived over the years. You’re a native nowhere, but a stranger nowhere as well.

As the fantastic Allman Brothers place it …

Fishing from the surf, north shore, Queens, NY

ells and sand-worms for bait………….. and try top water plugs(needlefish) in red/white

My husband just went fishing with his buddies and brought back a mess of cleaned striper filets. Are they a real heavy fishy taste? What is the best way to cook them? I appreciate the help, thanks.

I love striped bass!!! I usually fry them with a mixture of flour and cornmeal….but here are a couple other ways to make them

STRIPE BASS WITH LEMON JUICE AND WINE

3 lb. stripe bass, cleaned with head removed
2 tbsp. lemon juice
3 oz. Chablis wine
3 oz. Seltzer water
1/2 tsp. celery powder
1/8 tsp. black pepper
Salt to taste
1 1/2 oz. corn oil
1/4 tsp. marjoram spice
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Use pan large enough to hold fish and line it with aluminum foil. Place fish on top of the foil and make a border around edges with the foil to confine the fish. (This is done to keep the ingredients around the fish.) Place all the ingredients on top of the fish. Bake for 50-55 minutes. Remove and serve. makes 4-6 servings.

BAKED STRIPED BASS WITH FENNEL

1 lg. fennel bulb (including stems and feathery leaves)
1/4 c. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
Salt and pepper to taste (corn ground pepper)
1/4 c. chopped Italian parsley
1 striped bass
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 c. ginger ale
1-2 bunches of fresh dill-parsley garnish

(5-7 pound before dressing with backbone removed and scaled. Optional to leave head and tail on).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut fennel bulb into slices and then into thin strips. Remove stems and leaves. Heat olive oil in small skillet and saute fennel slices and 1/2 of the garlic covered until just tender (approximately 10 minutes). With slotted spoon, transfer fennel to a bowl, season with salt and pepper to taste and arrange the bass in an oiled shallow baking dish and spread it open.

Lay the cooked fennel mixture down center of bass and arrange a few sprigs on top of mixture. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Close the fish – tie together with kitchen twine in 2 or 3 pieces. Season outside of fish with salt and pepper and rub with remaining garlic.

Pour reserved oil over fish and lay fennel stems on top. Pour ginger ale into the dish. Bake on middle rack of oven. Bake 10 minutes per inch of thickness of thickest part. Baste often. Ready when opaque and flakes slightly when probed with a fork. Remove string and enjoy.

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I usually fish of the rocks and the surf. Some people tell me to use clams and oysters. is there any live bait that is very effective? What do you suggest? What should I use? Thanks!
Thanks!

(Its October everywhere)
Live eels are the best bait hands down for striped bass. Eels are a predator to the striped bass and bass will attack eels even if they arent hungry. why you question? because eels eat striped bass eggs, so the bass will bite the head off of an eel even if they dont eat the eel. so to put the eel on your hook pass the hook through its lower jaw. Fish at night, its when the largest striped bass make their go and hunt.

Check out the best North East fishing site, you`ll find tips and tricks and fishing reports from people fishing in your area. Click on the community tab then on discussion boards or go to Fishing Updates and click on posted reports.
noreast.com/my/index.cfm?from…

Eels? I dunno… sounds fishy to me!

In all seriousness though you can't go wrong with a Bucktail Jig in the fall. I've been fishing all my life and no matter what I've tried I always fall back to the bucktail jig when other lures aren't working and had fantastic success with it for smallmouth, largemouth and striped bass.

Beachbum is right, Live eels are one of the top go to baits during the fall run, but I would still have Clam bellies, Shad, Bunker, Plugs, 9" Slug go's, Diamond jigs, and more during the fall run. its that time of years when you don't want to be small on any bait.