Bass 1 Fisherman 0

[catsmeow]

Long time fluke fisherman trying to catch striped bass. Launched out of Rumson muncipal ramp around noon. Tried trolling polish shad plugs from TC bouy to # 9 in the reach and then to Old Orchard rock pile and back to Sandy Hook. Nothing. Tried using a technique from John Skinner that he said commercial pin fisherman use. Its a bucktail with pork rind and an 8 Oz ball sinker about 5 ft ahead on a dropper from a three way. Drifted from that single pole off the hook back in for a bunch of drifts. Nothing. Wondering if I need to try a bait techinque to nail a few bass. Any help appreciated..... Thanks Walt

[Gerry Zagorski]

How fast were you trolling?? You should be between 1.5 and 2 knots over ground and what ever your troll should be in the bottom 1/3 of the water column.

You should also try lazy S turns and trolling in different directions since often times one direction works better then the others.

If you mark fish on your sounder in a specific area try working that same area in different directions to see what works.

If you need to slow your boat down you can try dragging a 5 gallon bucket. If you need to get down in the water column further add drail weights or try using thinner braided line.

I've heard good things about the polish shads so if the fish are in the area, are hungry and you are trolling them correctly you should catch well on them.

[bobberboy]

I would try clams bunker or trolling stretch 25 plugs or umbrella rigs with plastic flat tails

[SeaLevel]

There's so many bass around that area but The bight is on clams right now. Bring a bushel for cracking, and save the shells from your hook bait. Anchor up near the clam beds or around the north side of the hook. You could also look for a clam boat working and drift by them as long as you don't get in their way.

[jmurr711]

i'm no expert but it sounds like clamming or bunker chunkings ur best bet up there also we were pulling chartreuse plastic shads on Sunday and couldn't kep em in the water for 5 minutes without a bass eating em but heard the plug trollers really struggled, this was all out front though. keep trying man

[flyersnfluke]

The fish are certainly there, we had a bunch of fish about 1/2 mile west of the old orchard rock pile. We were on the radio with a friend who was trolling plugs, and he only landed 2, once he switched over and used clams he did well. We were chunking bunker and had great action.

cheers

[catsmeow]

Hey Guys, Thanks for the feed back may have been trolling a little too fast. I guess i need to bring bait options to cover all situations. Will hopefully try again next week. From what I hear the bass fishing is good into June... Walt

[LIGHTACKLE]

Anchored up and clammed Saturday and Sunday had great action. Have a great chum bucket and some more tips. E-mail me and I'll share what I know.

[Dino]

hey Catsmeow.. talking bass here so they are never a sure thing. mid day launch is tough sometimes. understand that if you are going to chum clams that is very tide specific, can be a bit technical (not too bad though). pick up a white croc spoon and if your boat can make it around the hook to the ocean.. should see fleet of boats out there jigging a few fish with those (among other jigs) from now thru the next couple weeks. if you want that hero shot of a big fish.. it will mostly likely come from snagging a bunker out in the ocean later this may into june. mid day launch is tough for that as well, unless you are willing to hang out until the later afternoon. good luck brother.. you have hundreds of good bass fisherman here to help on ths site. :)

[BlueDog]

I trolled the reach for less than an hour by old orchard and lost one and caught one(17lbs) on Sunday . Two rods with stretch 25's. The only one that got hit was grey and white. Tried a few different colors and grey was the only one that worked. Try different colors and make sure it's really close to the bottom. I usually let it hit bottom, then crank up 5 turns on the reel.This was my shakedown trip, next trip is tomorrow, and I'm gonna be sure to be armed with clam and bunker.
Art

[Chrisk]

Meow trolled the same places after the fog lifted, Keansburg, Swat channel, Flynns and Old Orchard, yesterday for 1 striper and 1 blue using a spreader with shad. Didn't seem too matter how thick the readings or where in the water colume the bite wasn't on during incoming. Didn't see that clammers were doing much either.