What this rig is all about:

Striper bass and bluefish are found along the Atlantic coast of North America. Stripers appear along the east coast of the U.S. all the way up to New Hampshire. Bluefish can be found all the way down in South Florida. This rig will help you maximize catching these species of fish in white water or calmer water. It’s a simple rig that only needs a few elements. I’ve mainly used this rig for surf/beach fishing but it should work off of a boat or pier.  It will catch stripers/bluefish anywhere from 16 to 32 inches.

Here is a list of materials/items that you will need to make this rig:

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– 30 pound fluorocarbon line for the leader (30lb Blue Label Seaguar Fluoro)

– 1 oz White Bucktail OR 6” wooden pencil popper for the lure

– 40lb power pro braid for the main line

– scissors/nail clipper

Optional:

– 1 Barrel swivel

– 9 foot + fishing rod for best results

 

How to use this rig:

If you are using the bucktail, cast the lure out, let it sink down a bit, and then start swimming the lure back to you with a bit of periodic jerky motion. The same technique can be followed with the pencil popper but you don’t need to wait for it to sink.

It’s best to find areas along the surf where there are drop-offs in the sand as that is where fish likely are.

Fish at the end of the incoming tide and the beginning of the outgoing tide to have good results. Water visibility of 1-3 feet is okay. Here’s a picture of the fishing conditions.

Since the bucktail lure is a bit light, it is advised to use a 9 foot + rod to get the maximum cast distance.  6- 7 foot rods are okay if you are fishing from a boat but for surf fishing, those rods will be a bit on the short side. Surf fishing using these lures is super fun and it won’t take long for you to hook a fish using this rig.

It’s also important that the majority of the lure or bait is white in color. This, in my experience, works best with targeting the striper/bluefish species.

Setup guide:

1. The first step is to attach the 30 pound fluorocarbon leader to your main line. Cut the 30-lb line long enough to tie knots at both ends and to have a leader about 1-2 feet long. To attach fishing line to the leader, use this tutorial:

Or you can use a barrel swivel to attach the main line to your leader. This is optional. Attaching the leader directly to the main line avoids the swivel from being reeled too much into the rod.

 

2. Attach your leader line to your lure whether it be the 1 oz. white bucktail or the pencil popper.

 

You can attach the leader to lure hole by using the following knot tying technique:

The finished setup looks like this:

It’s that simple. The key here is to know how to work the lure and what conditions to fish in. Go out there and test it out! Let me know if this rig is working for you and rate this rig at the top of this article.

 

Don’t forget to check out the Pro Fishing Rigs store for more cool stuff!