Fishing Lines
by Capt. Mike Eichenseer

Schoolies 

            Small stripers sometimes seem all too willing to bite whatever is thrown their way, but for a consistent bite experienced fishers attend to the details.

            Those spin-fishing have so many good options for lures it often seems anything will work.  Some days that’s true, but a few lure types consistently out-perform the rest.

            Not so many years ago it wasn’t uncommon to see many early-season boaters trolling umbrella rigs.  A few still do, but now it just isn’t necessary.  Not with the advent of the sluggo.

            The lead-head jig and bucktail, long a mainstay of bass fishing, could only be improved with the addition of a soft plastic tail and the sluggo once served this function well.  It did the job so admirably, the bucktail seemed superfluous and soon the jig and sluggo proved itself as the premiere combo.

            The versatility of this package is working the bottom thoroughly where the fish usually are, but also covering the other depths just as well simply by starting the retrieve sooner.  Even sluggos without the lead-head, either floating or barely sinking on the hook weight alone, can be devastating, bringing strikes from fish willing to come up from the channel depths to hit this irresistible offering near the surface or out of grass beds on the short strike.

            A close second (I’ll get to fly fishing later) would be a small plug, a floater/diver.  Something like a Bomber in 5/8 oz. and 4½  inches, white or red gill pattern if you can find one, or a Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow in 5/8 oz. and 5¼  inches, C59-blue/pink, or any of the other fine mid-sized surface plugs with good swimming action.

            You don’t get near bottom with these — three feet of dive is about maximum — so working them along drops, over grass beds and on the flats is optimal.  What these lack in depth they make up in built-in action, and a steady retrieve is usually the rule.

            If the bass seem to want stop and go, then a small popper like Yo-Zuri’s 3D popper, 1/4 oz. and 2½ inches, clear minnow color, is a deadly choice.  Other poppers exist, but you want one with maximum pop for minimum movement to keep it working over the fish as long as possible – often this means very light and wide-mouthed designs.  Yo-Zuri’s Mag-Popper at 5/8 oz., and 4 1/8 inches would give you a bit more casting weight, if necessary.

            Spoons are also versatile early in the year and have that jig-like advantage of working all the depths.  Single hook, bucktail types, like Acme’s Fiord spoon, 5/8 oz., blue/chrome, have a good wide swing-action at slow speed.  Like poppers, you want max action for as little travel as possible to be fishing more and reeling and casting less.

            A single hook spoon lets you snag less and sometimes ride over loose spartina grass with a surface retrieve early in the year when you’re likely to be fishing the backs of bays and up rivers where the water is shallower and weather breaks loose more grass.  The best of these surface retrieves is with the Tony Aceta spoon, if you have to fish in salad.

            Finally, there’s fly fishing.  Well, not finally, there’s also chunk baiting for the keepers inevitably around this early, but that’s night fishing and patient stuff mostly for old-timers who like bass steaks in May.

            Fly casters have one of the best approaches to early bassing, deep jigging Clouser-type flies and working the bottom where most of the bass are.  Flies, being smaller, are more of what schoolie bass are used to predating too, so are taken with less hesitancy than bigger offerings. 

            Interestingly, two schools of thought diverge on the best flies.  Everyone agrees on chartreuse/white or olive/white; the controversy is on small or large – really on short versus long.  That’s not much difference, if you think about it, and since so many successful fishers use either, the question may be moot and more dependant upon where and how one fishes than what’s better.

            Everyone agrees on near bottom and stop-n-go retrieves.  The other question is whether deep is three-to-six feet or eight-to-18.  If the water is still cold, then farther inland from the ocean where warmer water exists usually means shallower.  Once the bays and coves warm up a bit more, increased depth may be better for numbers of fish.

            The way to keep that fly down there is sinking lines, heavy lines, 400 grains or more.  They cast into the wind better too.

            Early season schoolies are looking for food, that usually means those killies and silversides up in the shallows, around comfortable water temperatures.  They congregate shallow inland first and move back closer to the ocean as temperatures allow.  You should, too.

5/15/08