Vertical Jigging Striped Bass with Daddy Mac Lures

Several times every year I am invited to fish with the crew from Daddy Mac Lures. One trip I hadn't been able to make was vertical jigging for striped bass, until this year. I was invited to fish with Daddy Mac Lures co-owner Jack Houghton and his son Jack Jr. We planned to launch from Marshfield, Mass at 4am and travel across Cape Cod Bay to fish the infamous Race Point off of Provincetown, Mass.

When my alarm went off at 1:30 AM the thought, "What's wrong with you?" probably should have crossed my mind, but it didn't. I was too excited to fish with the DM crew because they never disappoint. I was equally excited to fish Race Point because it is such a well-known striper hotspot. I hit the road at 2 AM and arrived at Jack's house in Abington at 3:30. We headed to Marshfield to launch his boat and after a stop to catch some live mackerel, we headed across Cape Cod Bay toward Provincetown, or P-Town as most refer to it. We caught mackerel as a backup in case that's what the stripers were keyed in on, but our plan was to fish top water and vertical jig if we could.

Just a few of the boats at Race Point

After arriving at P-Town and figuring out where the fish were, thanks in part to some fellow Daddy Mac Lures pro staffers at Reel Deal Fishing Charters, we realized that we were in luck because the vertical jig bite was on. This was all confirmed when we made our way around The Race and saw the fleet of boats drifting in the same area. It didn't take long to find the fish, but they were eating sand eels and with the amount of sand eels for them to choose from, getting them to eat what we had was tough.

The future Capt. Jack Houghton Jr.
Mark my words!

The fish pick the winners and It didn't take long to figure out that they wanted the DM 3.5 Trophy Series in Blue Mackerel, followed closely by the 2.8 Elite Series in sand eel green. We started finding fish in around 100' of water, but as the day progressed the fished moved into around 70' of water. Drift of of the 70' depth and we'd drift off the fish. We had a good time and hooked into some nice fish. At the end of the day there were more missed fish than fish landed. Some days are just like that, you take what you are given. I did land my biggest striper of the season, and my biggest ever vertical jigging. I also got in an entire day's worth of vertical jigging with Jack who is one of the best vertical jig fishermen I know, which was invaluable. I'm a huge fan and if you want to find me on the water, you might want to look for me over deep water in my kayak vertical jigging for stripers.

Interested in a New Hampshire striped bass kayak fishing charter? Visit the kayak fishing page at TimMooreOutdoors.com for more details.

Striped Bass Blitz in my New Old Town Predator XL minn kota

I have a few trips with my new Predator XL minn kota under my belt and all I can say is, wow! I have mainly fished for striped bass so far. The thing about fishing flats for striped bass during the day is that the fish are feeding on schools of tiny baitfish such as silversides and sandeels. The bait is always trying to get away from the schools of hungry stripers which means they are always on the move. The fish will come up in one place, feed for as long as they can keep the bait condensed, and then they go back down to reform the bait into a tightly packed ball. Where will they come back up? Well, if your in a kayak it seems like it is always a half a mile away. Often times they go back down before you can paddle to them making for some very long and very tiring days.

Last Saturday was this was and I was fishing with my good friend Chuck. Poor Chuck paddled his arms off for one or two fish while I, with my Predator XL minn kota, caught at least 30 fish. There was no denying that I caught more fish because I had the motorized kayak plus the fact that the smaller profile of my kayak didn't spook the fish as easily as a boat does.

Fast forward to the following Tuesday. I headed out for some recon because I had an upcoming guided trip. The skies were overcast and there was little wind. Both perfect conditions for striped bass surface action. As I was unloading my Predator and gear I noticed a few distant birds working some bait on the surface. I quickly unloaded and got on the water as fast as I could. As soon as I approached where I saw the birds I could see schoolie stripers feeding on the surface. Backs were coming out of the water and fish were tail-smacking bait. Tail smacking is a common technique used by stripers to stun bait and swing around to eat the stunned prey. There were fish blitzing everywhere!

I made my first cast and hooked up immediately. I caught several more schoolies between 20" - 24" before the fish went down. I remarked to myself that days like this are when the fish stick around for long periods of time. Sure enough, within minutes the fish were right back up and continued to blitz for hours. I played with using different lures, but the stripers were so fixed on what they were eating that it was only a paddletail shad which was able to get their attention. I have no idea how many fish I caught that day. I had the GoPro running and put together a nice short video. Eventually my arms were so tired from catching fish that I couldn't set the hook anymore. I left the fish blitzing just the way I found them five hours earlier.

Interested in a guided striped bass kayak fishing trip? Visit the kayak fishing page at TimMooreOutdoors.com for details.