Striped Bass Fishing Tackle recommendations for Cape Cod and the east coast.

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Choosing the right tackle is often harder than catching the right fish. You want to have a rod capable of casting far enough and handling the pull of fish up to 35 pounds without overwhelming the two pounders. Your line may be fairly light if you have a good drag and take your time. The rigs suggested below work well in a broad range of applications while remaining sporting and up to the task.

Here are some tackle recommendations for striped bass (blues and tunas) fishing from shore or boat:

Light Spinning:

Rod: 7' to 8 1/2' medium to medium heavy (not a surf rod by any means!) with ceramic guides.

Reel: Good quality, smooth drag, open faced reel (probably $80 and up)

Line: #14 test (#12 may break casting 1 1/2 oz. lures and #17 is max without loosing lure action.)

Leader: Only for bluefish, 9" of 15# test.

Lures: Jigs (white and yellow, 1/4 to 3/4 oz., hair and curly tail); Spoons/Tins (5/8 oz. to 1 1/2 oz., silver, blue/silver and green/silver); Poppers (white and yellow, 7/8 to 1 1/4 oz.); Plugs (white, yellow and blue, 1/2 to 1 3/4 oz.).

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Ultra-Light Spinning:

Rod: 5' fast action graphite.

Reel: Mini spinning with large spool.

Line: #8 "Fire Line" or such, or #6 to #8 mono (not nearly as tough or slick).

Leader: For Mono only, #12 flouro.

Lures: Plugs (3/8 to 1/2 oz., silver and blue/silver swimmers); Softbaits (3" to 5", "sluggo" type in creme and "shad", texas rigged); Jigs (1/4 oz. white, hair and curly tail); Spoons (1/4 oz. "Silver Spoon" type, weedless)

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Fly Fishing:

Rod: 6 wgt. (minimum), 8/9 wgt. average and adequate, 12 wgt. for big wind or exceptionally big fly days.

Reel: Saltwater with a good, smooth drag.

Line: Usually an intermediate sinking does the job for stripers in 3' to 20' feet of water but a shooting head system with four lines from floating mono (flats) to rocket sink (ocean and channels) is handier for changing conditions.

Leader: Stripers, usually 3' to 9' (open water to flats) of 12# tippet. Bluefish require steel. Tunas benefit from 8# flouro.

Flies: Clousers (chartreuse/white & olive/white, #2 to 1/0, flats to shallows); Deceivers (blue/white & green/white, #1 to 2/0, shallows to open ocean); Bunny (white, 1/0); Sand Eel (#1); Surf Candy & Bonito Candy (white, pink and red, #1)

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Bait Fishing:

Rod: 6' to 8' heavy action casting or boat type.

Reel: Revolving spool or Spinning, larger for heavier line.

Line: #14 to #30 depending on whether you are casting eels or drifting live herring.

Leader: Unnecessary unless bluefish are present, then steel.

Hooks: Circle, #1 to 5/0.

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Fish carefully, and release all undersized fish as soon as possible. We all share the same resources, which means that we all depend upon each other for our future. And good luck! If you need more info, try some of the sites below. . .

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