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Spring striper help


sbascombe

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1 minute ago, sbascombe said:

Boy I would love to get one like that... thanks for the info chowder

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

Don't underestimate the time it can take to learn this fishery. If you want to shorten the learning curve hire a guide in the specific part of the river where you think you will fish in the future.

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I am pretty sure there is a LOU member (that we should probably put a missing person's report out -Ray Koziotek) used to fish stripers with nightcrawlers.  Saved a ton of money.

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Just now, Gill-T said:

I am pretty sure there is a LOU member (that we should probably put a missing person's report out -Ray Koziotek) used to fish stripers with nightcrawlers.  Saved a ton of money.

Unfortunately Ray is not really missing (lol), he's just in stealth mode...

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We used to go out of Albany every mother’s day weekend. Never bought bait, we used sabiki rigs and jigged up our own herring. Always had best luck with live herring. We used baitrunner reels with a 2oz pyramid sinker on a slider, 30lb flouro leader to a 4/0 octopus hook. I believe they call this a “fish finder rig”. Toss it out and let it sit, once they pick it up let them run with it for a few seconds (reason for the baitrunner reels) and then set the hook! They are a blast to catch and really good to eat as well.

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Live Herring works best up at Troy where you can catch Herring on Sabiki rigs as you are fishing for Stripers in the river itself. If you are not going to anchor you need excellent boat control and a good grasp of etiquette  Down in the bigger/wider reaches of the river you pretty much have to go up into one of the creeks a ways to catch Herring. They are fragile. To keep em alive you need a 55 gal drum cut in half and pump water through it aggressively.

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When the run is on and the river conditions are good I'm usually fishing stripers 3 or 4 times a week in the Albany area and sometimes Catskill for a change of scenery.  If you're launching at Dutchmens landing in Catskill it's usually pretty easy to jig some herring on sabiki rigs in the Catskill creek right around the corner from the launch up in the first hole about a half mile up the creek.  From Kingston north it's a herring game and a lot of guys also troll Kingston up to Catskill with stickbaits on riggers and do well though it's usually smaller bass they are catching that way.  The biggest bass are caught on herring, live or dead or chunked.  I would suggest that if you're used to trolling, have the gear and only have one day to make it shine I would just troll either in the channel or on the edges.  You're going to run stickbaits about 15 to 25 feet down or longline deeper divers and you should get into a bass or maybe multiple fish that way.  Fishing herring can be quite a learning curve as mentioned and half the battle can be getting enough bait to fish and you can burn up 2 or 3 hours of your morning just trying to bait up if you don't know the ropes.  If you do try that and find enough bait quick then I would just look for all the boats anchored up on what's called the "bridge run".  It's just the west side of the channel north of the launch and just north and south of the Rip Van Winkle bridge.  People anchor off in anywhere from 10 to 30 feet on an incoming but usually outgoing tide and fish chunk and live herring on bottom and just wait as the bass will often follow the channel edges as they travel.  I almost always drift live herring and do well but I will anchor sometimes depending on the bite.   If we get a lot of rain and the river is muddy don't waste your time and during a full moon the bite usually sucks also but otherwise good luck.  Catching big stripers is a ton of fun and remember you can only keep one bass under 28" or over 40" with the new slot and you're allowed up to 10 herring a day.

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For rods what you have will be fine and you really can't go too heavy. They are big fish in strong current.  I run baitrunners with 30lb braid for a mainline and 25lb floro leaders.  For hooks a 7/0 or 8/0 circle(snell them if an up eye hook)will work although I prefer to run 7/0 octopus hooks for drifting and only run circles when fishing chunk herring off anchor but lots of guys use circles and do well for drifting.  Circle hooks you let them run a bit and just tighten up with regular J hooks I hit them immediately to avoid gut hooking bass since most of them fall within the slot and have to released anyway.

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Awesome info slipbob. Thanks a ton. I think my plan right now is to drift bloods and chunk herring but that may change depending on boat traffic. With all this great info from everyone I feel a lot more confident thatll ill be able to put it all together and get a few. I cant wait. Thanks everyone.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

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You're welcome drifting chunk herring is not the norm but it's worth a try.  Message me a couple days before you come and I can give you an update on river conditions.  I included a link to the tide predictions which is helpful but I just use an app called Tides Near Me on my phone.  

 

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/noaatidepredictions.html?id=8518974&units=standard&bdate=20180501&edate=20180531&timezone=LST/LDT&clock=12hour&datum=MLLW&interval=hilo&action=monthlychart

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