Tuesday june 14th, the elusive striped bass...

[Zach123]

Got off from work early, decided to go search for bass, ran over to see pete at atlantic bait and tackle, bought a new rod and reel :D got some ice and a little Intel. Jumped on the boat ran south past the rocks snagging and dropping bunker, 3 hits and 3 misses :rolleyes: came back to the tip of sandy hook played with blues on top water plugs until around 830pm and decided to call it. Great day with my family. But the hunt for the bass continues.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Par for the coarse when live lining. A lot of missed hits.

Not sure it's the case but I seem to think fishing with braid has a lot to do with it. I think that perhaps mono is a better choice for this type of fishing. The line stretch allows the fish to take your bait and set the hook a bit more subtlety rather then yanking it out of the fishes mouth.

Big hooks are key here as well..... I like to use at least 8/0 or 9/0 Octopus.

You might also try to snag the bunker on one pole and transfer the bunker to a pole with with a larger single hook mentioned above.

Hope this helps and don't get discouraged.

[Chrisper4694]

limits you to one rod at a time per person, but might make the difference in hooking up. hold the rod and control the live lined bunker. keep the line free and when something takes it you can immediately release it so there is zero resistance. usually also might want to wait a bit before trying to hook it.

[SaltLife1980]

What kind of rod and reel ya get?

[swcody13]

I like a more moderate to light rod with nice bend to combat the problem Gerry mentioned regarding pulling a hook out of the mouth of the fish. The bend in the rod allows the hook, in my experience, to be pulled less.

[Zach123]

I picked up a fluke bucktail set up because i fell inlove with it. Haha.
Regarding the fishing, i was snagging bunker reeling it in and switching it over to an all mono avet with an 8/0 bait holder hook.
We put the time in, i guess the subs we were eating ment more then the fish pulling on the line:D
Great tips and most definitely will try again, its an addiction now.:)

[tombanjo]

Amen to Gerry's braid comments, especially if I'm fishing next to you and it's dark out. Seen braid line snap three times with big fish on already this year. I've been getting way more action since switching to 25 fluro this year. You can debate all you want about them being line shy or not but I sees what I sees. When there's a bite on little matters but they're often finicky and you need every advantage you can get. That's just getting the bite, hooking up is a whole other adventure in patience.