How-To — Epoxy Jig Lures

Anglers are much more tightly lipped about their shore fishing than boat fishing and consequently, getting good shore fishing reports is difficult. I don’t even bother asking around when shore fishing; rather, I just run the playbook based on the conditions and season. WIND In a perfect world, an onshore wind is best for bringing fish close to the beach or shore. The only problem with an onshore wind is that it impedes your ability to cast lighter lures. As a rule of thumb, I especially appreciate an onshore wind in the night or very early morning when targeting big...

The Hogy Epoxy Jig Lure is a very unique lure in that it has the size and shape of a metal jig but is 1/3 the weight for its overall size. This means you can fish this lure in a number of different ways that you couldn’t fish a lead jig which would either be slow and deep or fast and just below the surface. The Hogy Epoxy Jig lure’s lightness will allow you to change action with rod-tip angle and speed very easily. Skippy Retrieve: This retrieve is probably the most exciting way to catch fish on the Hogy Epoxy...

No matter what they might be called in different areas, I think there are sand eels in every body of water. Sand eels can range from 2 to 9inches and nothing drives bass and albies crazier than big balls of sand eels. They can show up at all levels of the water column so be ready with lures of different weights to reach where the bait, and most likely the predator fish, are holding . Sand eels have olive backs and silver sides, so that is where you should start when selecting lures to use when you locate fish chowing...

You know the fall has either arrived or is imminent when peanut bunker show up. Like the bay anchovy, peanut bunker ball up in great numbers just under the surface. Peanut bunker typically range from 2 to 3inches. And like both the bay anchovy and the silversides, peanut bunker too have a very distinctive color patterns. When they are dead, they appear to be silver as they lose their coloration very quickly. Don’t be fooled! But alive and well in their habitat, Peanut bunker have an olive twinge, with pink colorations. Your go to color patterns will be olive, ideally...

Late summer and fall are the times when these small baitfish make their way out into the big ocean. Juvenile herring get balled up easily, but in my opinion often separate faster than other schooled baitfish. While schools of juvenile sea herring can appear at any time, juvenile river herring typically move out of their birthing waters and out into open water following a day or more of heavy rainfall. I personally find that predators keyed in on herring tend to be the easiest to catch. Their silvery blue tinge is a common color pattern. Juvenile herring are more chubby...