On the Spot
Live-lining spot is the ticket to summer fun.

From the Bay Bridge to the Choptank to Cove Point to Point Lookout, summer fun begins with a livewell full of spot and ends with a cooler of kickin’ stripers. You want to get the fish snapping this season? Live-lining is the ticket to bent rods—here’s how it works.

Making Bait
Before you put live bait on a hook, you’ll have to go and catch it. But spot isn’t the lone option; white perch and bunker will also work for tempting those stripers—though for the past few seasons, the fish have definitely preferred spot, then bunker, then perch, in that order. When fishing for stripers in the 18” to 26” class 3” to 6” baits are about right, and when targeting larger fish, look for 5” to 8” baits.
   
Spot and perch can be caught fairly easily, by fishing bloodworm bits, grass shrimp, or artificial bloodworms (like Fishbites) on top-and-bottom rigs. Use very small hooks (#6 are about right) and fish dead on bottom. Look to find these baitfish along drop-offs and around shell bottom. If you don’t catch them in short order just pick a new place and try again, because when they are present they usually bite fast.

Menhaden can be caught with two methods: cast-netting, and snagging. Cast nets are effective for catching these baits when they are in relatively shallow water (a 12’ net will work in water up to 20’ but smaller nets only work in water half that depth, because they sink slower and the fish have time to swim out from under them,) and can be spotted easily. In the late summer and early fall, for example, when schools of juvenile menhaden (called “peanut bunker” or “peanuts”) are visible flipping and swimming near the surface in small creeks, it’s relatively easy to find a school and load the livewell with three to four inch baits. If larger fish are on the menu you’ll need to snag big bunker from schools in open water. This can be accomplished by rigging a treble hook on your line, with a two-foot section of line below it, tied off to a one-ounce sinker. When you spot a school of baitfish simply cast out beyond it, let the rig sink a moment, then retrieve it rapidly. Hopefully, that treble will snag a menhaden as it passes through the school.

On the Hook
One question regularly heard when discussing live-baiting: how do you hook the baitfish? Through the jaws, or the back? Actually, the answer is both and one or the other, depending on where in the water column the fish are feeding.

Baits hooked through the jaws or nose (they will live longer when hooked through the nose, but they also escape off the hook more often) will swim relatively high in the water column. Those hooked through the back, however, will almost always attempt to swim down. Chose which method to use depending on where the target species is feeding. One exception: In a heavy current or when adrift, go with jaw-hooking. Those hooked in the back won’t be able to keep up with the moving water, grow tired, and soon look like they are being dragged backwards—not exactly a natural-looking presentation.
Whenever stripers are feeding at or near the surface, live-lining with no weight whatsoever works well. Night fishing around light lines is another situation in which weight-free live-lining shines. And when you’re fishing around a balled school of baitfish (and you believe stripers are prowling the periphery) leave your weights in the box and allow the bait to swim freely with the other baitfish.

Bonus Trick: When you put a frisky bait over the side, clip off one pectoral fin with a pair of scissors. This will cause the fish to swim in erratic circles, appearing injured and primed for a predator’s dinner.

Another live-bait debate revolves around what type of hook to use. Some folks like trebles for live-lining, and there’s no questioning their effectiveness. But remember that many of the fish you catch will be gut-hooked, or hooked deeply enough in the gullet that cleanly releasing them will be nearly impossible. Using 4/0 to 6/0 circle hooks, on the other hand, will cause a few missed fish but will also allow you to release some unharmed.

Double Bonus Trick: When you reel up a rockfish while live-lining, do not lift its head out of the water prior to netting it. Quite often the fish won’t actually be hooked, but will merely have the bait lodged in its jaws—that’s why so many fish seem to “fall off” right next to the boat, while live-lining. Instead, scoop with the net while the fish still has its head in the water and often they’ll hang onto that baitfish right up until the moment you lift them out of the water.

Location, Location
When you’re ready to fish you can live-line while anchored, or adrift. If the fish are focused on a specific item of structure, such as a wreck, drop-off, or underwater hump, anchoring is usually the way to go. If they’re scattered over a large area, however, drifting is likely to be the more effective tactic. Also take the prevailing conditions into consideration. If the current is ripping along, then drifting is usually a better move so the baits don’t appear to drag in the moving water. If the wind is pumping then anchoring is usually the way to go; otherwise you’ll find that the baits have the same problem as your boat blows across the water’s surface.

Where should you start? In the Upper Chesapeake, some reliably good live-lining hotspots include Love Point, the mouth of the Magothy River, the bridge pilings at Kent Narrows, and the rockpiles and pilings of the Chesapeake Bay Bridges. In the middle bay, head for Gum Thickets, just north of Bloody Point, The Hill at the mouth of Eastern Bay, the False Channel at the mouth of the Choptank River, and the drop-off along the channel edge near buoys 72 or 74. If night fishing is in the plans, head for any tributary which has a bridge that creates a good light line, such as Kent Narrows, the Severn River, or the Patuxent River.

Keeping ‘Em Alive
Remember that a key factor in live-lining is keeping your baits healthy and frisky. In fact, you’ll discover that a spunky, kicking bait will get hit twice as quickly as one that’s been mouthed and spit by a striper, and only has half its scales left. Caution: do not overload the livewell! Generally speaking you should put no more than two fish per gallon of water into the well, assuming yours has good water flow. You can load white perch a little heavier than that, while large menhaden over 6” long require a gallon of water for each and every fish.

No livewell on the boat? You can use a five-gallon bucket, but be sure to place a portable aerator in it (these are inexpensive, and available in any tackle shop) and every 15 or 20 minutes, dump some fresh water into the bucket. Livewells can also be made from coolers. Take an old one in the 50 – 60 quart range, and mount a bilge pump in one corner. Then mount bilge pump’s hose near the top of the cooler so it shoots out across the surface of the water, aerating it. Now rig a power cord with alligator clips on the ends, so you can attach the pump’s wires to your boat’s 12-volt battery.
So: are you ready to bend a few rods on stripers this summer and fall? Then apply these live-lining tactics—wherever you fish on the Chesapeake Bay, it’s a proven way to fill the cooler.

About Lenny Rudow: You can find more striper-specific tactics and how-to/where-to fishing information by getting Lenny Rudow’s books, Rudow’s Guide to Rockfish and Rudow’s Guide to Fishing the Chesapeake. Check ‘em out at www.geareduppublications.com.

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