Shore scup guidance. Time techniques baite

[JimKu]

From shore what conditions and bait provide the best shot at Keeper scup?

Time of day more important than tide? What time?

High low tide?

What about water depth?

Time of year or water temp for larger scup?  Seems bigger scup are around earlier in season. 
 

 

 

[Kidfo]

High tide.  I cast as deep as I can, relatively speaking.  I prefer squid as it tends to stay on better than clam IMO.  As a personal preference, I never liked to work with worms.  

[Chrishockey]

I like to use blackfish jigs with either clam or squid. Sometimes I will add a dropper loop on the top with a bait holder hook. 

[JimKu]

Went out this afternoon and caught three nice size ones on pieces of worm. I think I would have caught more if I went earlier. I showed up on the last hour of outgoing. Caught two fairly quickly when I arrived then it was dead. 
Wife and kids like the scup. First time in years I brought some fish home. Typically fish for stripers and blues and catch and release. 
long time since I bought bait. $11 dollars for 12 worms. Wow. Almost a dollar each. 
 

[PSegnatelli]

Scup & sea robin keep me fed.  

[CWitek]

If I had to fish for scup from shore, I'd choose the last half of the incoming tide, during daylight.  Early morning would be my first choice only because fewer people would likely be out.  If I could find a place with a cobble bottom--rock, but not so irregular that I snagged up a lot, that would be my first choice; regardless of bottom, I'd want to find a place with deeper water within casting distance from shore, and not too much current sweep.

 

As for bait, I'd pick sandworms, clams, and squid, in that order.  As others have noted, squid stays on the hook better, particularly if you're trying to stretch a cast, but I think that worms and clams get more bites.  I'd rig with a standard high/low rig.  Some people get very finicky about hooks, but #1 beaks work just fine.

 

I'd also want to fish earlier in the season.  In many places, scup spawn relatively close to shore in late May/early June, and that's when you'll catch the largest fish.  In summer, you might find yourself picking through quite a few shorts to find fish big enough to taie home.

[BrianBM]

^^^^ what he said. The deepest water you can reach, top of the incoming, early in the day. And if you have a choice of locations, avoid inlets with lots of boat traffic.

[calebk]

Squid from the grocery store -- I go to a local b&t for a bag or pint of clam necks. They also stay on the hook pretty well. If I'm using whole clams I'll make a small cocktail/sandwich with pieces of squid strip. 

 

Back when I was in CA I used to pack short gulp sandworms and throw them on a carolina rig for surf perch. Thinking about giving that a try this summer on light tackle.

[JLew]

I like to do hi / lo with clam on the bottom and a piece of squid on the top to get bigger porgies. I find the clam brings all porgies in and the bigger guys get caught on the squid

[buddha162]

Gulp 3" minnows and grubs work just fine for porgies. Fishbites work too. 

[PSegnatelli]

Small bucktails (1/8-1/4 oz on 1/0-2/0 hooks) on light tackle (6-7ft fw setup w/ 10-12lb line) are alot fun.  I use all my chewed up GULP pieces for some scent.  Plus the by-catch is great too.  Literally anything swimming by.    

 

Chumming as well.    

If ur gonna chum from shore please use containers that will biodegrade.  

The chum basket/bag will get snagged at some point and be lost to the depths. Even steel will biodegrade better than nylon.    

 

I use 100% cotten tube gauze.   I make my chum with rocks mixed in.    Tie a knot in the gauze, fill.  Tie a top knot. And over it goes.  Cotton will rot in no time and all that's left is the rocks.     Bags like nylon onion sacks won't.  Burlap yes.  But those are hard to find.  

[JimmyBean]

Worms>>>> everything else. I frequent many of the scup honey holes on the north shore of LI and guys fishing sandworms almost always get more bites. 

[GarbageFish]

scup attracts the worst fisherman, change my mind.

 

 

3/8oz jighead, even 1/2oz bucktail will weedout keepers only.     get up high on a rock to minimize snag risk.

[HugeDinghy]

You can’t get away from them here. You can basically get as many as you want. 

[PSegnatelli]

24 mins ago, GarbageFish said:

scup attracts the worst fisherman, change my mind

who cares.  We all start somewhere.