"I want to fish at night for stripers, trout, and blues!"

When it's hot during the day, sometimes it's nice to fish at night when
the hot sun is not baring down. Anglers fish the Route 50 Bridge, Oceanic
Pier, Shantytown Pier, the inlet, and the bulkhead from 2nd through 4th
Streets for trout, blues, and stripers. Sometimes anglers get surprise
catches of flounder or croaker at night as well.

"Can we fish just anywhere at night?"

It is best to fish underneath some bright lights. That's why the pay piers
(Oceanic and Shantytown) and the Route 50 Bridge are so good. The bright
lights attract the baitfish, which in turn attract the bigger fish that we
would like to catch. If you go to the bulkhead from 2nd to 4th Streets there
is a switch where you can turn on the lights at night. Fish near these
lights. Some anglers go to the finger piers beneath the Route 50 Bridge at
night after the businesses located there close down. Always be neat and
clean up after yourself if you are on private property.

"I want to catch a big striper!"

If you want to get a keeper striper, your best bet is the Route 50 Bridge
or one of the Inlets. The Route 50 Bridge is notorious for catches of
good-sized stripers. Anglers want to fish the tide for these fish. Two to
three hours before high tide and one or two hours after high tide is the
night fishing "rule of thumb." But you will probably find that 80 per cent
of the big stripers are caught in that one hour when the high tide slows up
and starts to turn and go out. If you miss the tide, you'll miss the fish!
And you may have to "pay your dues" to catch that big one this time of year.
You may have to go out on the Bridge several nights before you get lucky.

"Anglers are catching fish all around me! What am I doing wrong!"

We hear this all the time and yes, it can be very frustrating. You have to
realize that some of the anglers that are fishing on the Route 50 Bridge go
there all the time and are very good. Watch them closely, and you will see
that they are very precise and deliberate about where they are casting and
how they are working their lure. It's not just "cast and retrieve" from the
Bridge. It is more like "cast," let it sink near the bottom, jig it up, and
let it work with the tide until it gets just beneath the Bridge, then jig
some more. It is a fine line. If you let it go too far, you can get
snagged, but if you don't let it go far enough, you may not catch the fish!

Anglers also change the weight of their lure with the tide. For example,
if you are using Got-cha Plugs, you will want to use the 2-ounce Got-cha
Plugs when the tide is running hard. You can switch to the 1-¼ ounce
Got-cha Plugs when the tide eases, and even go to the 7/8-ounce Got-cha
Plugs when the current is slacking. (When you go to the tackle store, the
2-ounce Got-cha Plugs are marked on the package but the rest are not. Sea
Striker makes two numbers of 1-1/4 ounce Got-cha Plugs and you can tell
which ones these are because the length of the colored head is longer. Sea
Striker only makes a red head with a white body (#1401) and a yellow head
with a white body (#1402) in the 1-¼ ounce sizes. The rest of the Got-cha
Plugs available are 7/8 ounce or smaller.)

"How do you work a Got-cha Plug? Are they good for stripers?"

Got-cha Plugs are excellent for the stripers, trout, and bluefish. In
fact, it is a very good "all around lure". Cast it out diagonally, let it
sink, and then work it back towards you with short, sharp jerks of the rod.
If you watch the anglers on the Bridge or pier, you will see that they keep
their rod tip "down" when they do this. On the Route 50 Bridge, anglers cast
out, let the Got-cha sink, then work it back towards them with the tide, let
it go beneath the Bridge, keep on jigging, and hopefully get a bite!

"What other lures are good?"

Got-cha Plugs really work best when the tide is not running extremely
strong. When the tide is running hard, the bucktail jig with a 6-inch
curltail grub is your best all around lure. Cast it out; let it sink
towards the bottom, then jig it back in. If you are at an inlet, cast the
bucktail jig up current, let it sink on a count of 10 or 15, then jig it up
and down, and THEN reel in. Too many times, anglers cast those bucktails
out there, and start reeling as soon as they hit the water. You won't catch
as many fish this way, because most of the time, the fish will hit the
bucktail or other jig on the FALL.

"Match the hatch" is a common saying among night anglers. Anglers try to
match the baitfish that are skipping about beneath the lights. This is why
soft bodies attached to a lead head often work well at night. You will find
that the baitfish in the early part of the summer are smaller and that the
bait fish in later part of the summer and fall are larger. Think about
it-bunkers, spot, and finger mullet are tiny in the beginning of June and
are much larger by September. Anglers in the early part of the summer have
good luck with soft bodies such as Sea Striker Trout Killers in the 4 to 5
inch range. Later in the season, 5 to 7 inch soft bodies such as Fin-S Fish
lures work much better.

"The smaller soft bodies on a 3/8 or ¼ ounce lead head are just not heavy
enough to sink to the bottom!"

Many good anglers make a tandem rig of the two lures so they have small
baits but enough weight to sink them down! Tie one lead head to one end of
a 45-inch piece of leader and tie a second lead head to the other end of the
leader. Tie a dropper loop or double surgeon's loop knot "offset" in the
leader material so one lure will hang below the other. If you aren't good
with knots, use a 3-way swivel and tie two lengths of leader, one about 12
inches and the other about 18 inches and attach the lead heads and soft
bodies.

Work these lures just like you would the bucktail jigs or the Got-cha
Plugs.
"How about live bait?"

You can do great with live eels or live spot at night from the Rt. 50
Bridge or inlets at night. Eels can be kept in a cooler on ice, but spot
need to be kept in an aerated bucket. When you use live bait from the
Bridge or Inlets, you need to make an egg sinker rig. Tie your #3/0 to #5/0
live bait type hook to end of a piece of leader material in the 24 to 30
inch range. Tie a barrel swivel to the end of this piece of leader. Tie
about an 8 inch piece of leader material to this barrel swivel, slide on a
one to 1 ½ ounce egg sinker, and attach another barrel swivel to the end of
the line. This lets your egg sinker slide up and down. Attach the live
bait, and cast out and let sink just like you would the lure. If you are on
the Bridge, let the live bait come back to the Bridge pilings. If you are
at the inlet, work the live bait much the same as the bucktail. Cast out,
let it sink, and well. if the fish are biting, it won't last that long. (Be
sure to give the fish enough time to take the live bait before setting the
hook.)

Good fishing..