Pro Talk: Floating Soft Baits in the Rips with Capt. Terry Nugent

Posted by Booster Apps on Jun 26, 2012

We spent 15 minutes on the phone with Capt. Terry Nugent to discuss floating soft baits in the Monomoy rips for striped bass with the Hogy 10" Original. Here's what we found out...

Capt. Terry Nugent
Website: www.riptidecharters.com
Instagram: @riptidecharters
Facebook: Riptide Charters

Location: Cape Cod

Tides: It's best to arrive at the rip when the current speed just hits 0.5 knots and fish the rip through the tide.

Approach: When fishing a rip line, the standard approach is to try and drift the rip rather than stem the tide. It's easier for clients to fight and land fish when they are not fighting the current as well as the fish. This also forces you to re-evaluate where your next setup will be rather than staying static in one section of the rip.

Bait/Rigging Selection: Hogy 10" Original paired with the Hogy 12/0 unweighted barbarian swimbait hook.

Why This Bait? The added weight and floating ability of this bait allow for long casts and great surface presentation.

Color Selection: Bubblegum or Bone

Retrieve: Since the one of the primary baits in the rip is squid and they are a very fast moving bait, I have my anglers work the bait very fast with a high rod tip. This gets the fishes attention as the lure jumps and splashes just like the squid. This does however make it hard for the fish to catch the lure. They will swing and miss at he bait over and over. While this is exciting it doesn’t put hooks in the fish. So as the fish swats at the lure I have my sports quickly lower the rod tip while continuing the fast retrieve. This quick lowering of the tip slows the bait just a bit and is usually all that’s needed to “feed” the lure to the fish. Once you get this technique down you can tease the fish for long distances and enjoy the repeated strikes, then just before your lure gets to the boat you can feed the fish and hook him up.