Targeting Stripers with Glide Baits
As spring slowly starts to arrive in the Northeast, striped bass anglers are patiently waiting for the large migrations of their favorite target species to arrive. It varies from year to year and where the anglers live, but the stripers are coming soon. There are some holdovers every year that never leave, but the bulk of the large breeder-sized fish will be arriving in April and May, and the fishing will get downright ridiculous.
What's great about striper fishing is that the target is a ferocious predator, and there are many ways to fool them into biting. The same techniques and lures that have worked for decades will still produce. But some anglers are looking for more exciting ways to catch them, including borrowing some freshwater largemouth techniques, such as magnum flutter spoons, in recent years, and now large soft swimbaits and giant glide baits. It's a movement that is gaining steam, especially in New England, and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Glide bait photos taken by Liam O’Neill; On The Water
Why Throw Big Baits
There truly are countless ways to catch stripers, from live bait, trolling lures, throwing topwater baits, to soft swimbaits and hard glide baits. Each has its time and place, but this newest trend of large glide baits is gaining popularity because it's fun, according to On the Water's Anthony DeiCicchi.
"You can still catch striped bass the same way that your great-grandfather did, if you want to, but it's a lot of fun to utilize the advances in gear so you can catch these fish in a way that doesn't suck," said DeiCicchi. "I grew up fishing for stripers with live bunker or a bucktail with a piece of pork rind on it, and that's cool, but now you can use glide baits to catch these fish. It's like super-sized freshwater bass fishing, and it's so much more fun because the gear has caught up and you can take advantage of better rods and reels as well as braided line with a great fluorocarbon leader material."
Glide bait photos taken by Liam O’Neill; On The Water
DeiCicchi isn't alone in his love for large glide baits. Capt. Robert Taylor of Rhode Island's Newport Sport Fishing Charters is a huge believer in the approach.
"Glide baits are in, and since they are a little cost-prohibitive, not everyone is using them yet," begins Taylor. "Stripers love a giant bait fish, and that's what makes these such a great presentation. It's also a very visual technique. I'm looking past the lure the whole time, and then you'll see that big bass tracking behind it, stalking it, and you say to yourself, 'here we go,' and make that bait go sideways or do a 180-degree turn, and then it disappears when they eat it."
When and Where to Fish Them
Once the big migration of baitfish arrives, the stripers won't be too far away. This can lead to some insane fishing action as the stripers attack and "blitz" on the surface. In these instances, just about any lure will trick a fish, but glide baits are still very relevant.
"Migrating fish will always show themselves because it's a big biomass of fish and they're following baits, and there will be a massive presence, and you'll see bird activity," DeiCicchi said. "That's when they're easy pickings, when the herd is moving, and you can catch them with a lot of baits. Fishing a glide bait in these blitzes is fun, and you can also pick off some of the biggest fish in the school with a larger bait."
Glide bait photos taken by Liam O’Neill; On The Water
Taylor and his clients will also target the feeding frenzies with glide baits, but he says they excel even when the fish are not frothing on bait.
"When the fish are not really feeding hard, they'll still crush a glide bait," he said. "You can still entice them to eat with a bigger offering after they size it up because it has such drawing power. You can fish them out in open water or cruise flats and use them as a search bait or swim them by a boulder field and get those big fish to shoot up and attack."
Glide Baits and Gear
Glide baits come in many different sizes, but for stripers, the bigger the better. Both DeiCicchi and Taylor say that no size is truly too big for trophy stripers; it's more about what lure companies are producing.
Glide bait photos taken by Liam O’Neill; On The Water
"You can use 6-inch baits up to 12-inch baits, but guys would throw bigger if they had one," DeiCicchi said. "A full-sized bunker is a huge slab of meat. But the most common sizes are the 8- to 9-inch size."
Taylor started dipping his toes in the glide bait realm with the largest River2Sea S-Waver, an 8-inch lure, but now uses much bulkier custom baits.
"I use a lot of custom baits made by Nate Medeiros that are over 12 inches long and weigh over five ounces," he said. "They are tuned perfectly, and they're so much fun to throw."
Another trend is the use of low-profile baitcasting gear, which is a shift in a world where spinning tackle dominates many applications. DeiCicchi prefers a 7-foot, 6-inch extra-heavy rod and a beefy reel like a 300- or 400-sized Shimano TranX with a power handle.
Glide bait photos taken by Liam O’Neill; On The Water
"It's the saltwater version of what guys are using for swimbaits for freshwater largemouth," he said. "We use 65-pound Seaguar Smackdown braid as our mainline because it's so smooth and casts so great, and then use a short leader of fluorocarbon, just enough so it doesn't go into the rod guides when you make a cast."
For leader material, DeiCicchi uses either Seaguar Inshore or Gold Label® Big Game, depending on where he's fishing his glide baits, and he uses anywhere from 80 to 100 lb test.
"If it's open water, we like Gold Label because you can go up a size to 100 lb and have more stealthiness, but if we are fishing around boulder fields, the added abrasion resistance of Inshore is huge," he said. "When you hook those big fish, you can't stop them, and they head right down and start to rub their face on the boulders."
Capt. Taylor uses similar gear: a Jigging World Retro Rods 7-foot, 6-inch medium-heavy, paired with a Shimano Calcutta Conquest 400 reel spooled with 65 lb Seaguar TactX®, with a leader of 80 lb Seaguar Inshore.
"I like that heavy leader because those fish hit so hard, it's violent, and you want to have the strength," said Taylor. "Plus, you have the chance to catch fish with teeth like bluefish, and these baits can get very expensive. That's where a heavy braid and fluorocarbon combo works because you have all the abrasion resistance you need."
Fishing for striped bass is a way of life for anglers in the Northeast, and the season is on the countdown. If you are looking for a new and exciting way to catch big stripers, glide baits can be what you are looking for, and they have a knack for catching the biggest fish in the school.
Seaguar Smackdown braid is available in high visibility Flash Green and low visibility Stealth Gray. It is available in 150- and 300-yard spools in sizes ranging from 10 to 65 lb tests.
Seaguar Inshore Fluorocarbon leader is available on 100-yard spools from 12 to 80 lb tests.
Seaguar Big Game Gold Label Leader is available in 25-yard coils of 100, 130, 150, 180, and 200-lb tests.
Seaguar Gold Label Fluorocarbon leader is available in 25- and 50-yard spools in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 & 12 lb tests for freshwater use, complementing the 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 lb test leaders available for saltwater.
Seaguar TactX Camo Braid is available from 10 to 80lb test in 150 and 300-yard spools