Home Forums Fishing Saltwater Tips on surf fishing for stripers?

I'm planning a trip to the south coast of Maine next week, and am hoping to spend an evening or two on the beach fishing for stripers. I've caught more than a few from a boat during my time spent in CT, fishing in the Long Island Sound, but I've never fished for them from the beach.

From what I've seen online, it looks like chunks of fresh mackerel is the bait right now... any other tips on bait, tackle, rigs, locations, etc.?

Tides look to be in our favor, as we'll have high tide around 9-10 each night.

Any tips or suggestions are appreciated...

Thanks.

don't leave a bucket of live eels in your car over night.

Up there in Maine large sand worms might be good bait. Best bet is to ask at the local bait & tackle place. What worked in Ct. ( rig style,bait,etc.) may not work in Maine

I've done a bit of traveling surf fishing over the last twenty years. Very localized. If you can find a blog or daily fishing report on the specific area you are at that is best. Sometimes local bait and tackle shops have daily reports. I would start there. Once your there head to the shops for advise and your bait. I always buy something whether i need it or not. This at least gets you started the first day then pay attention to what the locals are doing.

Thanks for the responses guys. From what I've learned, it sounds like mackerel are still in the area, and fresh mackerel chunks at night from the beach seems to be hot right now. I've found a couple local bait & tackle shops that I'll stop by once I'm up there and hopefully get some help there too.

stx... good tip on the eels. Also, I've heard eels will keep overnight in a refrigerator crisper drawer with some damp paper or seaweed in there... but make sure the drawer is shut tightly!

Thanks guys- I will keep you posted if we have any luck.

yes they will, learned that from leighton. with the eels in the back of his 4runner what happened was one managed to get out of the bait bucket and get under the seat. we didn't find it till 3 days later when it was getting ripe.

I put eels in a cooler with frozen water bottles with a wet towel on top. Put ells on top of the toel. The chill makes them sluggish so easy to put on a hook. Once in the water, they revive and swim like crazy.

+1 to the above.

Eels in a lot of water seem to want to escape
Eels in a little water slime up and choke out.
Eels on moist towel/seaweed w/ice seem to jsut chill out and last.
A 3 day old plastic bag with a dea eel inside is not a lot of fun.

I just came back from Nantucket. The Stripers were hitting the eastern shore of Great Point in close to the surf early in the morning around sunrise. Too early for me, but I think a lot of people cast a #4 long Deadly Dick with a 12" or 18" steel leader.

I had best luck surf fishing for stripers in S Maine and NW using thhe large i believe 12 inch sluggos. I caught a doz over 40 inches over the years on these. hey mimic mackerel and eels. A local friend/guide turned me on to these. The big stripers go nuts over them

I caught a ton on fly rod using hand tied mackerel patterns on a 10 weight.

http://lunkercity.com/sg.html

I would put mackerel smeely jelly on my lures too and sometimes would insert rattles would seemed to increase hook ups especially at night

Nothing cooler than watching a 50 inch striper chasing a sluggo on top of water!

I was up in NY for business last month, and one of the guys I was meeting with lives in CT. He hired a guide to take us out one morning striper fishing. We used a large weighted treble to snag "bunker" (schooling baitfish that were about 8-12" long I guess). Then we'd hook them with a circle hook and "cast" them out (we were fishing from a boat so didn't have to cast far). We ended up catching 3 nice stripers and 2 bluefish - was a lot of fun!