Title: My favorite Striper Rig.
By Jim Baugh
Reporting from the Flybridge
The fall Striper season from October threw December has produced some nice fish in the Chesapeake Bay, however for the most part, the large schools of hungry Ocean fish have not made their jaunt into the Chesapeake. I am looking forward to the winter Ocean season in hopes of finding the large schools of heavy fish.
The good thing about having to work harder for your catch is that it definitely
brushes up your rigging skills. When the bite is not on or slow, it can quickly
kill your confidence in your chosen bait. The truth usually is that it is
not the bait, but simply that the fish are not there, not feeding, or maybe
the current has gone slack. Fisherman usually spend way to much time worrying
about what bait they are using as opposed to actually worrying about finding
the fish. The fact is one can fish all the baits available I any catalog,
however if the fish are not there, all that is being accomplished is a nice
boat ride.
When it comes to putting a lot of Rockfish in the boat, finding the fish is
probably the most important thing. Any captain will tell you that once one
the fish and they are feeding, one can through pretty much anything and get
a bite. Rockfish do have some favorites that they like to chew on like Mo
Jo's, Stretches, Rappallas, Bucktails, and a wide variety of soft plastics.
Color is very important and you can use any color as long as it is Chartreuse.
There are as many rigs for catching Rocks as there are a variety of baits
to catch them. I have one particular favorite that I call the Baugh\Holden
split tandem bottom bouncer. I also affectionately call this rig the door
knocker. It is simple to rig and has caught more Rockfish than any other bait
presentation that I have ever used.
The history on this rig probably goes back to when the tall ships first sailed
threw the Chesapeake and saw that fish were feeding. My first true usage of
this rig was about 13 years ago fishing with a popular Maryland charter captain
named Captain Bob Holden.
Old Captain Bob would troll just about every lure one could imagine. His favorite
was a wire line that was attached to a door spring that was attached with
a heavy duty screw to the pilothouse of his dead rise. He would lay out about
forty feet of wire line and then attach a three-way swivel. He then would
come off the middle swivel with leader line and a lure. At the bottom of the
three way, he had more leader line with another piece of leader material attached
to another three way. There was about four feet of leader line separating
the two three ways. The second three way had a shorter line coming off of
the center eye of the three way with another lure attached to it. The leader
line off of the second three way was shorter than the above lure by about
three feet. At the bottom of the second three way was more leader material,
about three feet, that attached to a 16 to 24 ounce sinker. The entire rig
was thrown overboard. When a Rockfish would hit the rig, the door spring would
start making the loudest banging noise you have ever heard. "Some bodies
knocking at the door-Fish On!!!"
That rig caught more fish than anything else we put out. Since then I have
fished the rig constantly, and always catch fish on it. The only addition
the rig that I have made is that instead of using a sinker, I use a 24 ounce
Mo Jo with a soft plastic trailer. Many times I will catch fish on the Mo
Jo, other times it will be the other two lures. The rig also will catch a
lot of doubles, so make sure your knots are tight and you use a good leader
line. The other "change" I made to the rig is that I fish it on
wire line that is attached to a fishing reel, not a door spring. Yes, Captain
Bob's was a hand line in only rig, lots of fun!
All of my leader material is Berkley Vanish. The line is invisible underwater
and it is super strong fishing line.
The other good reason to fish this rig is that it will stick close to the
boat. It is very easy to fish multiple rigs and not get them tangled. This
lure presentation also covers a larger part of the water column than most
baits do.
Try it, I am sure you will like it.
January is an exciting time for us because the new 225 Suzuki four strokes
will be shipped and installed on our Pursuit. We cannot wait to see how she
performs with the 225's. Hopefully the offshore season will be booming this
year. We plan on posting the performance test on our web site and here in
the Sportsman's Magazine.
Tight Lines
Jim Baugh
www.jimbaughoutdoors.com
Sponsored by:
Suzuki Marine, Hampton CVB, Sunset Boating Center, the Radisson Hotel Hampton,
Boaters World,Marine Fabricators, Berkley Big Game Fishing Line, Sea Search,
Customs House Marina, KWC electronics
