Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3611 May 12-26, 2017 | Page 33
VOL.36 • ISS. 11
HOW TO
Continued from Pg 24
A variety
of large live
baits work well for drifting, but
magnum size shiners like the one
pictured here are among the very best. Pin
them through the lips and let the drifting begin
50 to 90 feet back. With shallow
plugs keep the boat in 6 to 8 feet of
water. With deep runners work the 12
to 15 foot zone. Your plugs should hit
the bottom occasionally, but don’t go
dredging.
Drifting Live Baits
Live bait drifting for Delta stripers
is great fun. There are several baits
you can run with. Bait shop shiners
work well, but they are pricey. Mud-
suckers work too, but they tend to die
easily. If you want to buy your bait, by
all means go with one of these two.
If you’re willing to commit to
catching your own bait, small 2 to
3 inch bluegill and 4 to 8 inch pike
minnows are prime baits that big bass
will seldom pass up. These baits can
be caught with a light spinning rod
and a tub or worms. And the fact of
the matter is that hunting down quality
baits can be nearly as fun as the striper
fishing itself.
Whatever type of bait fish you
choose, they are all fished on the same
three-way rig. The rig consists of a
3-way swivel with a 36 inch 20 pound
fluorocarbon leader tipped with a 1,
1/0 or 2/0 live bait hook tied on a
perfection loop connected to
one of the swivel’s eyes.
To the second
eye a short drop-
per of 10-pound
mono is attached
with either a loop
or cheap snap on
the other end. Your sinker is
attached to the dropper. The dropper
is made of light line, such that in the
event you should snag it will break
before your leader or main line. Your
mainline attaches to the third swivel
eye.
Using this rig teamed with a
1-ounce sinker, pin a live bait on the
hook through the lips and walk the rig
through likely areas from a drifting
boat. Sand bars are prime spots as
are channel edges. One of nice things
about drifting is that you can work
water that is too deep for conventional
trolling approaches.
Spinning gear can be used for this
work, but medium weight baitcasting
gear teamed with 30 lb braided line
works best. When you get hit let the
rod load up before setting the hook.
Still Fishing For Trophies
If you want to land a really big
striper still fishing with either live split
tails in the 8 to 14 inch class or chunky
pike minnows in the same size range
is the way to go. If you can get a live
bluegill up to about 4 inches long they
will work too. For this type of fishing
you’ll have to seek out and catch your
own bait.
31
May 12-26, 2017
FRESHWATER
For Delta striper trollers, both shallow and deep running minnow plugs are go to baits.
Author Cal Kellogg’s favorite trolling bait is a deep running Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow like the
plug shown here. Be sure to tip your plugs with plastic worms for maximum effectiveness.
These baits are fished on the same
sliding sinker rig that all Delta bait
soakers are familiar with, but with one
main difference. Instead of pinning
your bait on the hook, you’ll need to
thread a 25 to 30 lb fluorocarbon lead-
er through the bait using a bait nee-
dle. Obviously, you want to keep the
leader just under the skin to avoid vital
organs. See the illustration for a full
understanding of how this might look.
Once you’ve identified and an-
chored on a likely area to cross paths
with a big bass, such as a sandbar
edge, tule edge or channel edge (note
edges, edges, edges!) it’s time to
thread a bait and toss in your line. Af-
ter that success is all about patience.
Fish with your reel out of gear, but
with the clicker on. When a fish takes
these big baits you’ve got to let them
run a long time before setting the hook.
Typically, they will take the bait and
move off. Then they stop and take off
again. When they’ve really taken the
bait, you’ll note a big uptick in the
speed of the fish. When they shift gears
and take off it’s time to set the hook.
This type of fishing is typically
done with an 8/0 to 10/0 hook. If you
use a standard octopus hook almost
every bass you hook will be throat
hooked and die. If you use a circle
hook instead, most of them will be
hooked in the corner of the mouth and
will be highly releasable.
To set the hook with a circle hook
hold the rod 90 degrees to the running
fish, engage the reel and let the rod
load up. You’ll feel the fish start to
fight and know the hook has locked up.
As a final point about releasing
bass using this approach, don’t go
with super light tackle. You want gear
heavy enough to bring the fish in with-
out totally exhausting them, hook’em,
land’em, snap that photo, revive’em
and send them back down to spawn
and fight again another day.
Like I said up top, I won’t fault
you for keeping “the fish of a life
time”, but remember that these days a
replica of a big fish looks just as good
on the wall as a traditional skin mount,
especially if you have a photo to frame
and display with the replica!
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