maj92az

Ct. More specifically Niantic is where I keep my boat. And yeah bunker has been here and there (only in last 4 weeks though) I swear I notice a decline in bunker by the amount or lack of bait balls I notice. I have caught a small handful on chucked or live bunker so far but no monsters like I see online. Always a bigger fish online! I don't venture to block too often. Although with my coming boat.. I can stay out there longer.

My striper run is over.. haha now onto seabass and similar fishing here in New England. I have heavy conventional reels and light 3500-4000 Spinning reels. I'm looking to get a dedicated bottom fishing rig. But for light fishing, seabass flounder ect. My question is.. any issue or pros/cons with a baitcaster vs a conventional reel? A baitcaster seems so convenient to constantly be adjusting and jigging.. a conventional reel is convenient too, more than a spinning reel thats for sure. I use baitcasters for freshwater btw.

So you head out of the harbor, you snag like 4 or 5 bunker. But you've been on a dry run for over a week and can't find any stripers. What are you doing with the bunker? Live lining just random areas, heading somewhere new, chunking a deep ledge? But you've done all that already with other techniques - but now you snagged some bait. What comes to mind? This would be from a boat (new england)

Its a conventional reel. I thought of adding a sacrificial leader in between to break first. And yeah even my 50lb braid didn't give - and I already do that with the sinker, I use a surgeons loop off the 3-way. I use 30lb there to hold my sinker - usually 16oz. When pulling.. or holding on for dear life, I would point the rod in line eith the line, I even tightened my drag and tried to thumb it best I could but nothing. We probably have 500 drops at this area that uses the heavy leader and only happened once - not bad but still concerning. I did unspool my reel across my field, I only lost less than 100 ft, including all of the uses from last summer. I have about 500ft on there still.

Its very common to use 100+lb leader at this very popular striper spot. Occasionally blues come in and tear things right off.. But today, I snagged bottom and nothing I could do to stop it as our boat begins to drift. I had someone power closer but no matter how hard, and without breaking any rods, there was nothing to do but cut the braid after many attempts.. Anyone ever deal with this? Any tricks here....not about avoiding bottom but more about breaking off rather than sending the rod overboard..

First of all, I can never find this CT forum on the forum list. I always need to look at old posts and click the link from there. I boat out of Niantic. Want to fish The Race occasionally. Fished it years ago with charters and read lots of articles including a new one in the On The Water magazine. (I am aware of the conditions and hazards of the race. I take that seriously). But until I know I really like fishing the race, I'm not looking to buy a setup that I don't think I'd use elsewhere. I love light tackle. I'm curious if I can enjoy the race with one of my setups I have. When I fished the race with a charter, I used (older) bulky pretty stout fairly short rods with a conventional reel. Used 10oz weight and a 1-2oz bucktail and maybe a 10oz diamond jig. The only setup I'd think I could even come close with is this ugly stick tiger stick with a Penn conventional reel. The rod is 6' with a "lure" weight of 6oz. I have 50lb braid on it. Other than that I only have 3500 and 4000 shimano reels on 7' rods. I have 7 rods on my boat, I can't imagine fitting more!! Lol any advice here thanks.

I recall "whipping" a too heavy lure and snapped my line. There went my $10 floating popper. But it was right as we were drifting into a rip line and about to start up and reposition/restart, so we took a 30 second detour to go retrieve the popper as we tracked it into the rip. Luckily it was bone colored, so following it was easy.

Thanks everyone. I will kick my paranoia out of my mind when it comes to 20lb on my small reel. We're dealing with fighting a fish in water with the aid of a rod and drag. I need to remember I'm not hanging dead weight off the dock with it! I usually tie a leader for both abrasion and visibility too. Now I just need to make a decision on a rod and go catch fish.

At the end of the season I got a sweet Shimano 3500 reel. I paired it with a inexpensive diawa rod. I am eyeing the st croix inshore rod for this coming season. Probably be a 7.5' 15-40lb MH fast .75-1.75oz rod. Closer to 2oz lure the better... I fish from a boat out of Eastern CT (niantic) fishing reefs, rips, and blitzs. I really enjoy top water. Or shallow soft plastics. My concern is my line size. I currently have 20lb. I would like to get new powerpro superslick. But questioning 20lb again. At 30lb its only .003 or .004" thicker. I'm paranoid that I'll find the monster this year and 20lb won't handle it...my largest fish on my 20lb was a 42" striper and some fast ablies and my line and reel did great... the rod. Shes light.

Last few trips out of Niantic (eastern ct) I located some of the largest bait balls ever. I accidentally snagged a bunker on a little epoxy jig..suddenly that fish grew..a striper took him probably as I pulled him out of the school. I did see the bass circling the school minutes prior to catching a nice 40" bass. But after that.. I've Located miles of bunker but no bass...(or blues). I can snag all day long and live line a bunky or toss top water or sp minnows.. but nothing. No marks on the screen except solid 30ft thick of bait. Big bait too. 8-10" bunker. Any tips for bass when I can locate tons of surface bunker? Multiple schools too. Almost like maybe there's too many options for the bass and I need to keep looking??

Thanks everyone. Yesterday got on some more. We checked out an area after a slow early morning. Waited under 15 minutes and birds started piling in. Before long there were 10 boats. Everyone mostly plays nice. I witnessed about 5 albies caught. But somehow I ended up getting a blue and a 25" striper in the mix. Afterwards I wasn't sure what I was chasing. I was just happy to catch some fish (stripers/blues) outside of a raging rip. But some of you are right. There's a point where running snd gunning and playing nice with 15 boats in casting distance isn't much fun anymore. I'm not a "I hate people" guy btw. Its just not the same enjoyment when your in your own space... Either way, my wife caught the blue, she liked that. .

Yes it is in that section that has the 3 rocks. I use navionics as well as C map and I see those rocks too. But for example the 4th one says 16ft. Or I can recall others in 25ft that indicate a rock. So I'm unsure what the "rock" indicates..if its submerged or not. It certainly is a bit more north than where most boats travel over it.. but I have seen some go in that general direction. Possibly too comfortable passing other areas..eventually leading to areas not safe. Technically I did it.. luckily I was drifting..

It was on the inner edge. About .3 mile from the green two tree island Channel. The chart does show the area having the a shallow circled area. But never goes below 5ft. Mid way towards the fog horn there us another rock but it must be deeper but it does swirl some water..I'll double check that one and sound it when I go out. Possibly Wednesday.

I've traversed and fished bartlett reef for years..anyone familiar with the reef knows anyone travels right over it. Plenty of ground clearance. 5+ ft. Avg 12+ft. But Saturday I went out, happen to get a phone call and I started to drift in neutral. I came within 4ft to my side of hitting a rock that was 1ft beneath the surface. I just so happen to look down. I even poked it with my dock stick to make it was real... After I passed it, I saw waves crashing over it. At that very spot my chart read 5ft. I left the area being a bit disturbed as I never knew that obstruction was there and maybe 100 times I've buzzed right next to it. Anyone familiar with this reef or rock...

Last week out of Niantic CT, I went my usual striper fishing. I fished what I thought was a bluefish blitz, but ended up being 100s of Albies. I landed one and I'm hooked. I've since learned lots. Types of common lures, longer floro leaders tied direct. Faster than usual retrieves, ect. But my question is locating them. Twice now it was by total coincidence. Including yesterday RIGHT off a golf balls distance from the black point houses, 10, 15, soon 25 boats all started circling for albies. They were in the area for over an hour. But let's say I go out again. Any general strategy or fish characteristics that might help me get the upper edge on locating? Currently I'm thinking just cruise a few miles looking for topwater or lots of bait. But boy i feel funny blind casting. Thanks.