YACK’S TACKLE TIPS is an article I’ll be writing on a regular basis, showing tips, lure modifications, rigging and what was hot the last trip out. This will help our customers use the right gear at the right time…

Most of my readers know I seldom fish any live bait. I prefer to catch them on lures and jigs specifically. Last week while fishing with Dan Kilroy we had a good bite on Stripers of all sizes up to 36″… North of the bridge, this is a very nice grade of fish for summer. We caught best on a few specific baits. Using 3/4 and 1 oz. BKD and DOA jig heads on the various plastics and “Snap Jigging” thru the fish caught steady all day. The Jig shown below is a one ounce BKD jighead, with a standard skirt attached and a BUST’EM BAITS Lick’n Chicken color 5” bait. The tail was dipped in Chartreuse SPIKE-IT Garlic Dye. This gives color and scent while the skirt gives a fatter profile and slows the fall of the jig.

The next lure is a combination that also caught well that day. This is a very durable bait made by Z-MAN, the color is “Space Guppy”. Even Bluefish don’t bite thru these easily, the soft plastic is very elastic and resilient to bite offs. The head is a DOA jig that I am testing to see if we want to carry it in the shop. These are nice jigs but the hook is too small for my liking. I dropped several fish on this jig and switched back to the BKD jig and my hook ups were more consistent. The short shank wide gap hook on the BKD jig is perfect for fishing plastics. The addition of PRO-CURE scent in Herring flavor helped the bite on the bigger fish. As summer continues I generally switch to Menhaden flavor of Pro-Cure scent. This Z-MAN bait is one of my favorite summer time colors. hope you like it too!

Using the right baits at the right time will help you catch more fish in 2017…  I hope to see you in the shop or on the water.