Probably the biggest change with my outdoor experience over the past year and a half was how my fishing buddy, Captain Steve Kelley, and I approach fishing for rockfish (a.k.a. striped bass, stripers, rock, etc.). The biggest change was that we learned how to find and jig for nice sized rockfish no matter the time of year.
In the past, we tossed crankbaits in tidal catch and release areas of the Chesapeake drainage or fished live bait over structure. We caught nice fish along with some monsters in the spring, but that bite is hit or miss, depending on the weather, water quality, and water temperatures. During the summer, we worked crankbaits and jigs and caught mostly schoolies (smaller sized stripers in the 14 to 18 inch range). Most, if not all, of our bigger fish came on bait. Every time we fished, while he fished bait and caught keeper sized rockfish, I would try unsuccessfully to catch stripers on lures.
Then, a year ago in the late summer, Steve got me hooked watching and reading about jigging for stripers in the Bay using light tackle. That convinced us to take the inevitable path that we both really wanted, to be more proficient with catching rockfish on lures with light tackle. So, we both invested in the right tackle, rigged our rods appropriately, and then gave it a try.
I remember the very first day that we took jigging seriously was a year ago from this past September. We searched everywhere as we looked for birds and fished for the fish pushing bait up under them. We had no idea what we were doing, really as we caught a few smaller fish on smaller baits.
That evening, right before sunset, a last ditch effort on a frustrating day, we found a nice current rip over a large long rock pile type structure, shallow water next to deep on both sides. Steve lobbed his 3/4 ounce skirted Coach Jig Head teamed with a seven inch Bust 'em Baits Fat Boy trailer and instantly hooked up on a trophy size sea trout. I can't remember exactly, but it was about 25 inches long, and, without a doubt, the fattest trout that I'd ever seen. Literally, three casts later on the next drift, Steve hooked up again on back to back keeper sized rockfish sized in the mid twenty inch range. We both became believers and have been addicted to jigging for rockfish ever since.
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| Steve Kelley's tank of a sea trout jump started our jigging addiction. |
I struggled that evening. I didn't have the knack of feeling that striper jig bite yet, despite having the right tackle set up. I was hampered by tackle problems. I snagged on my first cast, but got the lure free. On the next cast, however, since the braided line became buried in the spool of my baitcasting reel, the shock of the next cast caused my lure and leader to break off. I became mesmerized as I watched my lure fly off into oblivion. As I tried to tie on another leader and lure, that's when Steve hooked into his second striper.
But man, Steve had it down pat. I always thought of him as the "Striper Whisperer" anyway, ever since our crankbait striper fishing days, as he has a sixth sense of when a rockfish is around his lure and ready to bite, just by the feel of what is going on with his lure. That's when he'd take action to make that fish bite with erratic jerks of his crankbait.
About a couple weeks prior to that night, Steve searched YouTube videos about fishing the Chesapeake Bay. Several videos stood out, most notably were those done by Shawn Kimbro and Jeff Little. Shawn and Jeff have some great "how to" stuff that they share, from every topic you can imagine when it comes to jigging for stripers. I linked both of their channels in my favorite haunts section of this blog to the right. Please check them out.
Anyway, we listened, and after that first night, we really took notice and focused on what we needed to do. In fact, for both of us, it became an obsession. Now, jigging for rockfish is all we think about. Last week, we both reminisced about having dreams of fish biting and us setting the hook. Steve's wife caught him physically setting the hook in his sleep one night and has been teasing him about it ever since. You don't want to wake up from dreams like that. Even more, you don't want to leave the water when the fishing day is over when that bite is for real.
We had no idea that you can catch fish like that all year long consistently. I purchase two of Shawn's books (you can purchase them from his blog, Chesapeake Light Tackle site or on Amazon). These books offer a ton of good information and I highly recommend them. My failures that first night combined with Steve's success drove me to learn as much as I could, and, I'm still learning. These books were a great start.
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| These two books by Shawn Kimbro are chock-full of great information that will help you fish light tackle on the Chesapeake Bay, or anywhere, for that matter. Not only that, but both books are a great read. I highly recommend them if you want to improve your fishing in the Bay. |
It took me most of last fall to get the hang of it. Steve picked things up right away. It wasn't unusual for him to catch two stripers to my one. Things started to change for me after I purchased my first rod and reel dedicated to striper fishing. For Christmas last year, I bought a St. Croix 6 foot 8 inch, extra fast action, medium power baitcasting rod matched with a Shimano Tranx baitcasting reel. I spooled it with light braid. I absolutely love this set up. Now, I can feel the lightest of bites.
With a sensitive rod, you can determine what exactly is a bite, and what could lead to a bite. Sometimes rockfish nose your jig but don't quite bite, almost like short striking largemouth bass, and the action necessary to get that fish to bite is needed. You know a fish is there, you've marked them on the finder, they're interested in your lure, but you need to make it happen. I truly think that when I struggled, I felt fish there, but didn't realize it. I thought that perhaps what I was feeling were jellyfish being cut by my line or stuff like that, when probably, most of the time, fish were nosing my jig. That's where jigging techniques come in to play, turning those short strikes into hits. More on that later in this post.
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| A year and a half ago, we never thought that you could jig up fish like this in the summer. We thought that live bait was the ticket for big fish. Boy, were we wrong, and we are thrilled that we were. You can jig rockfish like this all year long with light tackle. |
First, what tackle works best? Basically, a medium power, fast or extra fast action, graphite 6 foot 6 inch (or 6' 8") baitcasting rod teamed with a reel that holds a fair amount of line but is light enough to jig with, has a good drag, and a high speed gear ratio works best. Baitcasters give you better control of how much line you have out, which is critical to catching big stripers. But, there is a trade off. Baitcasters tend to not quite cast as far as spinning rods. Most of the time you don't need to make really long casts. But, when I feel the need to, I also have a spinning outfit rigged with similar tackle as my baitcaster. I use that when I need a long cast to reach fish that the other rod can't reach.
What about line? Most of the experienced light tackle striper anglers use ten to fifteen pound braided line, matched with fluorocarbon twenty or thirty pound leader, depending on the size of the fish. Lighter braid allows your lure to get deeper with less drag. The leader should be long enough to reach past the sharp spines and of the size fish that you are targeting. For most of the year, and for fish under thirty inches, two to three feet of twenty pound leader works fine. For the big slob stripers that show up in early spring and late fall, it's probably best to up that to thirty pound leader. These fish are so strong, and so much can go wrong, and you probably don't want to lose a fish of a lifetime.
Lures are, of course, a matter of personal preference. I will mention my favorites for jigging, but the key is always getting the lure in front of the fish and taking action to make them bite. My advice is, go with what you are confident in. If you find a lure that works for you, stick with it until you find something that works better. My suggestions below might help if you're struggling, but please know that there are lots of choices out there. The suggestions below work for me and have reduced my learning curve. Starting off with good tackle also saves money, because you benefit from the experience of others, as I have.
I like the Coach Jig Heads made by Shawn's fishing pal, Rich Jenkins. They come in a variety of sizes and colors. I think I use one ounce size most often. However, there are times when the tide, current and winds aren't as strong, where a 3/4 ounce or lighter jighead might perform better. You can fish them with or without a skirt. By skirt, I mean skirts that are designed for spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. When the currents are strong and the wind picks up, you may wish to up the weight of the jighead to an ounce and a half or maybe two ounces, especially if you are fishing bigger soft plastics. Use whatever the lightest weight jig is that gets the lure to the fish effectively given the conditions. If the fish are finicky, a heavier lure might be dropped by the fish quicker, or the action might not be right to get a fish to bite.
Fish will bite on these jigs whether or not they have a skirt. Skirts give the jig and soft plastic combo a little bigger profile and movement. But, if you need to lure to get down, say for strong windy conditions of lots of current, maybe leave the skirt off, as it creates drag, preventing your lure from perhaps getting to the bottom. I personally like fishing the skirted jigs because I have confidence with them. But, I've also caught nice fish without the skirts.
The three brands of soft plastics that I like are made by Z-man, Bust'em Baits, and Bass Kandy Delights (BKDs), not necessarily in that order. The seven inch sized fluke style baits made by each company resemble "bunker", the bait that the bigger fish prefer. But, bunker can grow as large as ten or twelve inches, so the ten inch sized plastics work well when you find big fish feeding on big bunker. In fact, my biggest fish this year was a fat 41 incher that fell for a ten inch BKD on a two ounce Coach Jig Head without a skirt.
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| This beast of a rockfish nailed a ten inch Bass Kandy Delight (BKD) earlier this year. As it turned out, it was my biggest rockfish of 2020. Big lures catch big fish! |
As far as color goes, go with what you feel confident in. Anything that you can do to get a fish to bite, whether adding a skirt, dying the soft plastic to give it contrast and scent, trying contrasting colors, or anything like that is worth a try. When you are successfully catching fish, file that into your memory about what you were using, the conditions you faced, and how you worked the lure. I'm a big fan of the color chartreuse. In fact, a former Potomac River bass guide, Glenn Peacock, had a saying that I adopted and repeat to this day, that "if it ain't chartreuse, it ain't no use!"
That said, popular colors in the Chesapeake Bay are white or chartreuse, or a combination of that. But, other colors work just fine. Think about the conditions. If your favorite lure isn't working and your fishing pal is catching fish, take note of what your fishing buddy is doing or what he is using and adapt. Adapting is the key to catching fish.
Don't be afraid to use scented dyes to alter or add a little extra oomph to the lure. I've been dying the tails of my plastic worms chartreuse while fishing for bass for years. I made my plastic worms seem less monotone and more lifelike, plus, the added garlic scent certainly seemed to help get me more bass bites. The dyed tails always reminded my of how a bluegill looks while swimming off. At the very least, my repeated success using soft plastic dye gives me confidence.
The shad style soft plastics work great, but sometimes, a paddle tail soft plastic will catch fish and generate more bites. I really like the 5 inch Z-man Diezel Minnowz for many reasons as my favorite shad tail bait, but mostly they catch fish. In fact, when bluefish are around, the Z-man baits can, most of the time, withstand a bluefish bite while other brands become cut in half. That's probably my primary reason for using them as often as I do. When is a good time to fish a paddle tail? When the fish are super active and are in chasing mode, or, when they aren't very active and dragging the bottom produces.
Of course, you can jig these using the same techniques as the shad tails. I've caught some really nice fish this past year using this bait just by snap jigging it. I've had particular success catching nicer fish under feeding birds with this bait too. For these, I use a long spinning rod so I can get that extra casting distance and reach more fish.
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| I've caught bunch of nice fish on these swim tails, the Z-Man DieZel Minnowz. I don't know what it is about them, but stripers like them. |
Each of the aforementioned brands of soft plastic has worked well for me. If I'm not getting hits on one brand, size or color, then I'll switch to another. BKD's, Z-Man 7 inch Jerk Shadz, Bust'em Baits 7 inch Fat Boys have caught me so many fish that I can't count. I've linked Coach Jig Heads above, so I'll link these soft plastics here. Coach Jig Heads, Bass Kandy Delights, and Bust'em Baits are all made locally in the Maryland section of the Chesapeake Bay, but you can order directly from them on-line. I really believe in supporting our locally produced products. But, not only that, they work wonderfully! They all have great customer service.
By the way, the Bust'em Baits "Fat Boy" has nothing to do with the name of this blog, but it is fitting, I guess. My blog name comes from the name of an ice fishing jig.
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| Steve Kelley showing us a nice rockfish caught on a skirted Coach Jig Head teamed with a 7 inch Bust'em Fat Boy. The color? "It ain't no use if it ain't chartreuse!" |
Look, the brands of lures mentioned above aren't the only ones that catch rockfish. There are many brands. It's not the lure that catches them, it's you. If you have a brand of lure that you like and have confidence in, then give it a try. If it works, stick with it. The entire point of this is that the size, weight and shape of the lure play a big roll in getting the lure down deep enough to the fish. Also, it needs to resemble the baitfish that they feed on. What you do with the lure, presentation, is the most important thing. You can use the "right" lure, but if you don't work it properly, you probably won't catch as many fish as someone next to you that may work their lure properly. And believe me, that type of thing frustrates me. I simply named a few lures that I rely on and have had success with to show you as examples of the types of jigs that catch fish.
What about techniques to catch rockfish on jigs? Snap jigging is a popular method to get fish to bite when they won't otherwise. The snap is usually so hard and fast, that you can actually hear a whipping sound. The erratic quick movement of the lure when snapped like this really draws strikes. Sometimes, multiple quick snaps are necessary to trigger a good strike. Stripers tend to strike short often, almost like they're trying to taste the lure first. That extra snap fires them up into biting.
Click here to watch Shawn Kimbro's Snap Jigging Video, where he demonstrates his technique that he made famous in our area. Snap jigging is the primary technique that I use to jig up nice size rockfish.
The most important thing when snap jigging, or when jigging for stripers in general, is to always keep slack out of your line, keep the line as tight as possible, as the lure falls at the end of the snap. That's when most bites occur, and most often, the bites are very light. Be ready to set the hook at any time, because rockfish sometimes bite at the very top of your snap. If your line is slack, you won't feel the bite. If you feel anything, set the hook. Even better, become a line watcher. If you see the line go slack, or twitch in a way that it shouldn't, set the hook. Sometimes, you see the bite before you even feel it.
Other times, you feel something that doesn't feel like a bite so much, almost like a spongy feeling or something like a jellyfish hitting your line. If you feel that, jig aggressively, because it could be fish nosing the lure or something like that. Often, you can entice them to inhale the jig rather than just mess with it. Don't assume it's not a bite until you know it isn't.
OK, before I go on, you may be wondering why I mentioned jigging with a spinning rod after previously stating that I purchased a dedicated baitcasting rod for jigging. I think that they have a place in my own arsenal. It's your preference, really. For me, I have a muscle cramping disease, and after lots of jigging and catching fish with one rod, my jigging arm cramps up. When that happens, I have to switch to fishing with my right arm, and the spinning rod fits that need. I jig my baitcaster with my left arm, meaning that I cast with my right hand and switch hands, old school style...it's how I learned. I cast and jig a spinning rod with my right hand and arm, so having the ability to switch between rods and jigging arms actually gives me more fishing time. So, in addition to what I said about spinning rods above, I have my own personal reasons.
There are other ways to generate strikes. Sometimes, simply dragging your lure on the bottom will get rockfish to bite. For me, that usually happens when I try to grab a drink or eat a bite of lunch. I always leave my line in the water as much as possible, because of the old saying, you can't catch fish if you're lure isn't in the water.
Of course, just swimming a bait can also catch really aggressive fish. There are times when you may reel in quickly to make another cast, and have a super aggressive rockfish nail your lure on the way in. I find situations like this to be a bit random though. Dragging the lure or speed reeling is a technique to catch fish, but not really a jigging technique. However, when you combine that with jigging, you can really get a fish to bite.
For example, my fishing pal, Steve Kelley, has a very effective technique to draw rockfish hits. He often makes a long cast, lets the lure sink to a desired depth, then jigs it, reels it very fast for a few cranks, snap jigs it a couple times, then let's it fall while keeping a tight line, again, waiting for that hit on the fall. If no hit occurs, he repeats that process, perhaps several times, all the way back to the boat. This technique evolved from our spring crankbait fishing days. Erratic action draws strikes.
Don't be surprised if a rockfish nails your lure at boat side. Don't remove the lure so quick for that next cast. If you just let it hang there for a second before going on to another cast, you just might get that boat side hit. I can't tell you how many times I've had nice fish take a swipe at my lure as I've lifted it out of the water.
Another key is to always fish your lure in the strike zone. Use your sonar to determine where the fish are. Are they on the bottom? Are they suspended? Or, are they breaking on top, or just finished doing so? Obviously, if they're on the bottom, let it sink to the bottom, and then keep jigging to the boat. If they are at mid depth, let it fall part way and start jigging the lure back to the boat. If they are in the upper third of the water column, cast out and start jigging aggressively right away back to the boat. If they are all over the screen, big fish tend to be deeper than the smaller fish breaking on the surface, so get the lure down to the deepest fish marked, and jig. If no bites, crank it up a bit and jig different depths until you get a bite.
Basically, just jig to where the fish are. As an example, if they are suspended, you probably don't want to fish the bottom and fish underneath the fish you are marking. You should try and put and keep your lure where the fish are, the strike zone. It makes sense, right?
Not everyone can see the sonar at the same time in Steve's boat. So, when Steve and I fish together, the one who can see the screen will constantly communicate where the good marks are. Teamwork like this helps everyone in the boat consistently catch nice fish. It's always more fun when everyone is happy catching rockfish.
Over the past year, I've caught more nice size rockfish than I have my entire fishing career. It just gets better and better the more we learn. I'm blessed to have fishing buddies, especially Steve, to learn or jig with along the way. I haven't discarded any of my crankbaits or topwater lures, as there is always a place in my box and often a need for them, but jigging has become my primary method to catch big rockfish. I think that applying these techniques may prove useful for targeting stripers in reservoirs as well.
One last thing about light tackle jigging in the Chesapeake Bay for rockfish, that this is nothing new around here, just new to me. There are many good jigging anglers out there in the Bay area that use these techniques. Some have been a huge influence on us. Thank you to those pioneers that are willing to share their knowledge, like Shawn Kimbro and Jeff Little, their friends, and many others.
Also, I'd like to formally thank Steve Kelley for introducing me to this wonderful fishery. We've caught a lot of big fish together over the years of different species, and these experiences just add to those great memories. Steve's not a charter boat captain, but could be, because he's that good of a fisherman. It's a nickname that I gave him since we most often fish out of his boat. I still call him "Captain" when we're chasing other species in the upper rivers out of my jet boat.
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| Steve sporting his well deserved personal best 42 inch beast of a rockfish. |
Thanks for following the blog. I hope the info here helps you catch fish. I think that it's important for me to share stuff like this, to help others, as others have helped me. Until next time, good fishing!
2 comments:
Best read I've seen in a while. Thanks so much for this!
Thank you. You're quite welcome!
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