Q&A: Best Lures for LI Sound Striper Jigging and Trolling

Q: I’m a big fan of your products but would like to get a better focus on what to use. I fish the Western Long Island Sound from a boat in water depths from 12’ to 60’ or more.

I target stripers and blues most of the season, though occasionally look for fluke and flounder. Most of the forage here is bunker, both full size, and peanut. What size, style, and rigging do you recommend for this?

I would appreciate recommendations for both surface and deeper water, and occasional trolling.

A: Thank you for reaching out to us. We appreciate your business very much. I’d be happy to give you an overview of some different products to use in various situations around LI Sound.

Shallow Water Topwater: When bass are feeding shallow and near the surface, often right around sunrise/sunset, the Original Series fished on an unweighted hook is an excellent topwater surface presentation. Here’s a recent video swinging these topwater baits in fast current. 

Shallow Water Bottom: When you’re trying to target shallow water fish holding near the bottom, our lightweight 2oz or 3oz Pro Tail Paddles are an excellent option for castings, sweeping the bottom and covering area quickly. If you’ve located a lot of fish in a small area, our 7” Pro Tail Eel can we twitched in a small area, imparting a lot of action. As you head out deep, targeting fish suspended or holding near the bottom in deep water, our lineup of sand eel imitating jigs and soft baits work really well. For these depths, these are my top three choices.

Sand Eel Jigs: Generally the 2.5oz or 3.5oz weights are best for deepwater jigging. Capt. Mike shows us a great technique in this video. 

Dancing Sand Eel Jigs: These ultra imitative jigs have been a longtime favorite and can really do well when fish are picky. They feature a replaceable soft sand eel tail. 

Finally, or largest and heaviest soft bait jigs, the SE Barbarian Eels are great at imitating large forage. They are available in weights up to 4oz and are perfect for targeting big bass feeding on big bait. They have replaceable tails, which can use either paddle or straight eel tails. 

Trolling: We’ve designed some very easy to use trolling options for striper. They work best on a lead core or wire-line outfit but can be used with additional weight on a conventional braid outfit.

Perfect Tubes: The 19” Perfect Tube is the #1 selling trolling lure for LI Sound. On sunny days, the Day Glow or Pink is best. For low light, the black or wine works best. These can be fished naked, or tipped with a sea worm on the hook. 

Heavy Pro Tail Paddles: Our heaviest 5oz and 6oz Pro Tail Paddle lures are an excellent way to cover water on the troll looking for bass. They imitate a bunker’s profile and hold up to a ton of abuse. Use a jigging motion with the rod tip low.