Each Spring brings with it a highly anticipated event which drives many Long Island Striped Bass anglers to cash in vacation leave, call in sick to jobs and just about completely neglect everything else on their daily schedules. I am speaking about the yearly appearance of large schools of menhaden (bunker) in the Atlantic Ocean waters along Long Island’s south shore beaches.

The action generally starts along the New Jersey beachfronts in early to mid April before spreading northward to the New York Bight area and ultimately sliding east along Long Island’s south shore. In the area I fish (Fire Island Inlet) we can usually count on seeing these baitfish in late May and early June. Hot on the heels of these schools are some of the biggest striped bass of the season. Many personal best stripers are caught at this time of year.

Two of the more popular methods employed in this fishery would be casting a weighted treble (snag-hook) into the densely packed schools and sweeping the rod until a bait is foul hooked or snagging and re-rigging the bait on a rig that is then sunk to the bottom below the school. Let’s take a closer look at these methods.

First off, understand that not all schools are created equal. Coming across a loosely packed, slow moving school where the baitfish are happily performing their trademark “snapping” on the surface would be an example of a less desirable bait school. While there may be fish on this particular school and it could be worth a quick shot I would suggest searching for other schools. Coming across a tightly packed, quickly moving school with the fish tight together on the surface and moving along pretty well is a good indicator that something below is driving them to the surface and pushing them along in an attempt to get out of harm’s way.A lot of times you will notice the baitfish shower out of the water on the surface. A sure sign that gamefish are feeding on them. It goes without saying that these schools deserve your FULL attention.

With snag rig at the ready, cast your weighted treble across the school and sweep the rod until you snag a baitfish. A tip to make this process easier would be to make your cast into the school and reel SLOWLY while the snaghook sinks. Eventually you will feel the baitfish bumping the line and this is when you can begin sweeping the rod knowing that your rig is now at the depth the school is swimming at. Once a bait is foul-hooked if there are fish on the school you will generally know fairly quickly as the snagged baitfish is emitting vibrations the gamefish are quick to sense. In addition, the weight of the snag itself will pull the baitfish down below the school and hopefully into the mouth of a waiting striper.

In general I will leave the bait to swim in the school just long enough that I can feel it is no longer struggling at which time I will reel it in and toss it in the livewell before snagging a new one out of the school to start the process over again. If fishing in a relatively small school I will let the baitfish swim where it wants but if the school is very large, and some are EXTREMEMLY large, I will try to coax the baitfish out of the middle of the pack toward the edges of the school.

If you are not able to find a school being actively fed upon that does not necessarily mean you are out of action. In this case, snag (or castnet) a bunch of baits for the livewell. These baits are then rigged and sent to the bottom and drifted through areas where the schools are and/or have been swimming. There are a LOT of fish caught in areas where a school has just passed as the stripers are prowling behind the school doing a cleanup of stragglers who strayed from their friends. I find this method works very well when the bait is scattered over a large area or I am marking the schools near the bottom. Those schools on the bottom may be getting massacred without ever showing a mark on the surface. Even if fishing a snagged bait in the school I will always be dragging one along the bottom as the boat drifts.

Another option that works alot of times when the others don’t would be cutting the bunker into chunks and drifting those along. It can be VERY effective drifting the head portion of the bait as this would mimic what the stripers along the bottom are accostumed to seeing when bluefish are feedind on the schools above. The blues slash the baits from behind leaving the head sections to sink to the bottom where the stripers are more than happy to take the easy pickings.

Tackle I use for this type of fishing includes medium-heavy 8ft casting and/or spinning rods. I use 8ft Star Rods from their Stellar Lite series. The reels on the conventional rods are Shimano Tekotas loaded with 25lb monofilament and the finished off with a shot of 50lb leader. For spinning I have Quantum Cabo 40′s spooled with 30lb braid and a 3 or 4 foot shot of 50lb mono leader which is then tied directly to the snaghook.

I personally prefer using conventional casting equipment for this fishing as I can easily freespool line to a fish that has picked up the bait and leave it run to swallow the bait before driving the hook home.

Spinning equipment is widely used as well and since alot of my charter clients don’t cast conventional very well it works very nicely for them. With spinning tackle I advise my anglers to cast into the schools, snag their bait and once one is on the bail is then opened and the line is held by their index finger similar to as if getting ready to make a cast. When a take is felt it is an easy matter of letting the line off their finger, point the rod tip at the fish and then close the bail after the fish has been allowed to get the bait down and set the hook. A lot of folks fishing with spinning equipment will back off the drag knob until it is loose enough for a fish running off with a bait to pull line off unimpeded. For me I just have a mental picture of that drag knob falling off and into the briny so I use the index finger instead.

I hope everyone is able to take advantage of this amazing Spring time ritual. Around Fire Island area we can usually expect the action to hold up into early July (Weather depending of course). Have fun out there and don’t hesitate to email your pics of your live bunker successes.

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook