This one seems to be a no-brainer, but it pops up frequently. Despite the possibility that you are fishing in a well recognized “hot spot” like Scorton Ledge, the Fingers, Race Point, or the Elizabeth Islands, it does not suggest that you're in a hot spot for this particular trip.
Take a glance around the next instance you are on the ocean. On Cape Cod Bay in particular, the stripers could really be pretty much anywhere. There’s a bunch of water all over to cover! I by no means place a tube in water unless I mark a minumum of one striper on my sonar unit. Locating just one fish, amongst all of this often life-less ocean, is a big deal. Possibilities are that particular bass below your transducer is one of countless fish around the immediate vicinity.
The next time you head out onto the water, try out cruising using a focused pattern throughout all the local “hot spots” until you begin noticing striped bass or prey items. Next place the tubes in the water and fish around for 15 or 20 minutes. If hardly anything else shows on the sonar, keep on exploring around. Combusting a couple additional gallons of fuel cruising around is worth it-trust me!
2) Experimenting with various tube and worm colors first, instead of depth and tube size
There’s probably a boat load of individuals that will differ with me regarding this (that's A-OK) but I do not see a reason to possess tube colors besides black, red along with perhaps orange. In my opinion , hot pink, green, purple, brown and other color tubes are produced to catch fishermen-and undoubtedly a few fish every now and again. At one point I carried orange yet I do not anymore.
If you are not catching anything, but anglers close to you are catching striped bass, try paying closer attention to the depth and tube length they are using instead of color.
I found myself in this predicament not too long ago. The bass fishing was hot, but then surprisingly ceased. I actually first assumed the bite had turned off, but I realized that my pal was managing to still hook up. I tried modifying the number of colors that I was using followed by changing the tube color. I continued getting not a thing.
It took me a while to realize that my buddy was trolling a smaller red tube and worm rigs-18 inches, as an alternative to the 24 inch red tubes we had been fishing with all day. Unluckily I only had 18 inch black tubes on board. It did not matter to the fish, and as quickly as the stripers found that 18 inch black tube they bit it and we began boating fish for a second time. Sometimes bass can be very fickle creatures!
I have also had numerous cases through which I have been catching striped bass trolling 3 1/2 colors all day. Then simply, for some reason, we stop catching but continue on seeing stripers on the fish finder. An easy depth adjustment to 4 colors proved to be the ticket and we commenced hooking up for a second time. I may likely never ever comprehend the difference a half of a color makes to the striped bass-however I will in no way underrate the great importance.
If I am not catching bass, but I'm still observing striped bass on my fish finder I will in most cases:
1) First adjust with number of colors (depth)
2) Fiddle with tube length
3) Make changes with tube color
3) Trolling only 2 tube and worm rigs instead of 3
A number of fishing seasons back I would to troll 4 tube and worms off of my 21 foot boat the Miss Loretta. Today when I bring clients out angling, I’ve found that fishing 3 tubes, all on lead core fishing line, performs somewhat smoother.
Always having that 3rd tube and worm rig in the water is helpful for a handful of reasons.
1) It’s an additional hook in the water for bass to hit, which instantaneously boosts your striper catching potential. All additional criteria held constant, the fishermen using 3 lines will at all times out-fish the angler trolling just 2.
2) It makes it possible for you to fiddle much more with tube depth, length and color. That way you might be able to speedily figure out what the bass desire.
3) For some peculiar reason, most striped bass attack that tube placed down the center of the boat.
Usually once I uncover a productive color (depth) and a productive tube color and length, I will fish all three lines in the same manner. Put simply, all three tube and worms are set at the exact same depth, are the same exact color, and are going to be the same length. Because of how my rod holders are placed on my boat, the third line is placed down the center of the boat and is positioned a little bit more towards the stern of the Miss Loretta than the other lines.
Doing this generates in the water is a bit of a “trolling spread.” All 3 lines are fishing the exact same depth, but the one tube and worm rig that is being fished off the 3 rd line (which is arranged right in the middle of the spread) is fished just a bit behind the two other tubes. This is a result of that middle rod holder is positioned just a bit closer to the back of the boat than the port and starboard rod holders. The middle tube trails just a couple in back of the other two tubes.
It is the same theory that goes into umbrella rigs and squid bars. The principle is that you generally have one bait that trails slightly behind the school. With three tube rigs in the water, your are constructing a “school of worms” squiggling through the water. The middle tube (worm) has slipped a little behind the other two tubes (worms). Stripers generally focus in on the prey that stumbles behind the rest of the pack. I suspect this is the reason my center tube rig commonly hooks up more often than the port and starboard tube and worm.
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