Spring and early summer striper fishing at Montauk offers an angler many choices. To cash in on this great fishing it pays to have assorted swimbaits outfits aboard to be ready for any situation that may pop up. The old standby of trolling green parachute lures on wire line will work a majority of the time. As we’ll cast swimbaits and other top water lures into surface feeding schools of migrating stripers,my favorite method is to drift live baitor assorted lures such rubber swimbait on 3-way-rigs.
Finding early season stripers is usually all about finding the bait. At this time of the season Montauk stripers have recently finished up their annual spawn, and are eager to fill their bellies during their migration to summer feeding grounds. This results in stripers often feeding voraciously during thismigration. Spring time bait schools off Montauk can vary from year to year, but usually the bulk of the present bait consists of sand eels, butterfish, bay anchovies, and squid.
One can never go wrong when seeking stripers by first looking for the bait. To find the bait I suggest using the current to help you find it. During slack current bait spreads out and rarely will a concentration of bait be found during the slack. However, as the current strength builds, this causes the bait to concentrate into tight schools for protection from predators like striped bass. Once the bait is tightly schooled it is often a matter of time before stripers begin to take advantage of the easy pickings. Knowing what the currents will be doing for the day’s trip will help you have a successful day on the water.
The KastKing RXA70 baitcasting reel is an excellent choice to use for many types of Montauk striper fishing. I spooled up my reel with 30-pound Super Power multicolored braided line. This reel and line class is an excellent choice to use on the assorted sized stripers that are normally available in spring and early summer off Montauk. Other necessary bait and tackle itemsto have along on the trip is 30 to 60-pound spools of Seaguar Fluorocarbon leader. In the spring, the water off Montauk can be surprisingly clear, and when this is the case it pays to rig your terminal tackle with Fluorocarbon leaders that are pretty much invisible when in the water.
Spring time surface feeding blitzes are common off Montauk. As appealing as this type of fishing can be, this surface activity can at times be dominated by smaller bass, and lots of bluefish. In my opinion, there are always more and bigger bass feeding down deeper in the water column. This type of scenario is perfect for drifting Mad Shads, Stinger Shads, or otherMadBite swimbaitson a three-way rig. The three-way rig I use is constructed by starting with a large sized three-way swivel. To one eye of the swivel attach 20 to 24-inch length of medium weight monofilament for the sinker tether. Another eye of the 3-way swivel gets a 6-foot leader of 60-pound fluorocarbon Seaguar leader that is tied onto one of the lures mentioned above. Finish this swimbait rig by attaching the main line from your reel to the final eye of the three-way swivel.
To fish the three-way swimbaits rig properly drop the rig down, and let the sinker touch bottom. Once the bottom is felt immediately take 3-cranks on the reel handle, and position the rod tip by pointing itat the water. The instant a bite is felt strike back hard to immediately set the hook. If you are not quick, the bass will spit out the lure in a flash. Be sure to work the bait and tackle rig up and over any bottom structure that is drifted over, always trying your best to keep the rig within 5-feet of the bottom.
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