You can catch big stripers up and down the East Coast each year, using a variety of methods and many kinds of tackle. If you wish to take full advantage of your chances for a striped bass longer than 40 inches, then live bait on a 3-way rig is your best option. Standard baits in the New England region are eel, hickory shad, scup and menhaden, also called porgy or bunker. Live baits work well no matter the time of day or day of the week. Start fishing seriously for stripers in May, and you can keep on until ice becomes a problem on the boat’s deck in late November. Big bass over 60 pounds have been caught at night or during broad daylight.

How often can you honestly say that anyone strong enough – from a child to your grandmother – to land one of these monsters can have a great day fishing! Some of the heaviest bass from 55 to 78 lbs have been caught in New England. Valiant Rock, Sugar Reef, Plum Gut and the Sluiceway have all bragged about stripers in the weight range of 55-70 lbs while Al McReynolds landed a 78 lb striper at a jetty in New Jersey using a 3-way rig. The next big catch was made at Montauk Point and the proud fisherman that day was Captain Rod Rochetta who was also using a three-way rig. These rigs have made bass fishing so simple that with a few pointers, anyone can land a great fish once you find out where they like to be.

Even if it sounds a bit complex, a three way rig isn’t difficult to assemble. It’s merely a three-way swivel to get started, a leader, your main line and a dropper loop. The dropper loop is just what it sounds like – attach a sinker to this loop and it allows the running tide to create a bouncing motion. Your sinker will depend on the area you’re fishing — you may need a sinker as heavy as twenty ounces or as little as four ounces. Your second line should always be a fluorocarbon line leader that is between four and five feet in length. Balancing out your line is critical, combining strength and stealth can be a bit tricky but if you use a fifty pound fluorocarbon you will find that it works great especially if the water is very clear and the day is bright. Maintain the proper balance between strong and stealthy by using the right weight line for the weather conditions.

Heavier line in your main line (around 55lb) and a heavy leader line (50) allow you the option of using a dropper loop of about thirty pounds. This can help cut down the cost of your rig, which can add up quickly especially if you are losing them. This type of setup allows the flexibility of snapping your dropper loop and saving everything except your sinker. Spro Swivels, Gemakatsu hooks and Seaguar Fluorocarbon can quickly turn your fishing hobby into something very expensive if you’re losing them each time you fish. The ability to drop the least expensive item (the dropper) can help contain costs.

For the main line, use naught but braided line. Using braided line has a few distinct benefits for this application. One is that its smaller diameter offers less resistance against a moving tide, letting you use less weight to keep the bait in the strike zone. Possibly an even bigger advantage is that braided lines offer minimal line stretch. With monofilament, you can typically expect up to 10% line stretch. With almost no stretch with braid, you can feel everything that is going on, and you get excellent hook sets. You can plainly tell if you are fishing over a sand bottom, mussel bed, or boulders as a result of the line’s sensitivity. There are many effective brands available, such as Fireline, Stren, Daiwa, and Power Pro. The definite advantage that Daiwa has is that the braid is weaved from eight strands, while many others use four. Most braids feel as though you have to break them in before they are useful, but Daiwa is a very limp and smooth line.

Striper fishing with live bait can be an extremely fun adventure. To make it more enjoyable, you should make sure you have the right type of reels. Some of Daiwa’s most popular reels include: Daiwa Saltiga 30T, Daiwa Seaborg 300FB, and Daiwa Viento.