Whole Bunker or Chunks ?

[danno1]

Which is better, whole or chunks ? I know SB have no trouble downing a whole one. If chunks, how big of a piece ?

[reelinron]

In D-bay, people use chunks 1" wide to 4" wide, the head with an inch or two of meat left is common too. If your casting, too big could be awkward.

[wentfishn47]

On the surf I like the to use the heads best and the gut bag chunk cut in 3 inch pieces I don't use the tails. Now if the bunker are small like 6 inches or less I just cut the tails off and stab the hell out of it and heave it out there.

[danno1]

I`d be fishing from the boat.

[Leadchucker]

If based on actual body count of fished hooked and boated, for us it have to be chunks. And as contrary as it might sound, all our bigger bass (30# and up) came on smaller chunks around 2 1/2" size. But don't be afraid to experiment, as you never know what the fish will take on any specific day.

[BENT ROD 23]

Its what ever their in the mood for. Ive got big ones on both small pc's and large pc's. I caught my 55 lber last november , on a whole bunker with just the tail cut off ( very little pc of the tail) and my girlfriend got a 42" right after I got my big one on a chunk. Just try a little of everything

[finally]

We always put out different size chunks, but also put out a whole bunker on one rod, usually if that rod goes off it is a big one.

[Darrin G. DGREENEMACHINE]

the answer there is simply yes...

we use everything from whole. don to simply cutting them in half, then allt he way down to 1" chunks depending on what they want that day.

We start large and work to small, in order to avoid the many junk fish that tend to inhabit the bay during striper season.

[Dick_O'D]

Whole live bunker, chunk if blues are around I like heads, the bass under blues are eating chunks from the blues anyway.
O'D

[bailboy2]

Like Finally said, if you use the whole body (we cut the tail off) usually its a big fish. When just out screwing around, we use alot of chunks for more quantitiy fish, but when it comes time to tournament or to try and catch that cow, we use the whole thing minus the tail. Have always caught our biggest fish on the whole body. :)

[Reel Nice]

Both!! :) :)

[phish4fun]

whole minus the tail. learned somethin new. why no tail?

[reelinron]

Like Finally said, if you use the whole body (we cut the tail off) usually its a big fish. When just out screwing around, we use alot of chunks for more quantitiy fish, but when it comes time to tournament or to try and catch that cow, we use the whole thing minus the tail. Have always caught our biggest fish on the whole body. :)

How do you hook it to keep from spinning?

[TTT-TBONE]

whole minus the tail. learned somethin new. why no tail?

To keep it from spinning. The tail on keeps it sputtering...tail off more arodynamic.

To repeat what others have said....try everything! To start, we never have all four rods with the same cut. One or two heads, and two different size chunks. Then if one rod starts to outproduce the others, we switch to all the same bait.

[zar2754]

1st off let me say this is getting me excited for striper season.

It will vary from day to day, we caught our biggest 35lbs last year on a whole bunker, but we had also had bass in the 25lb class eat 1" X 3" chunks, we generally vary our spread, with always one rod, set out a rod with a whole bunker, we then generally put out 5 other rods, 2 with head sections, and the three others with chunks which all vary in size. We often utilize our outriggers to keep baits seperate so we dont have to clear lines when we get a fish, this also acounts for far less tangles. We make sure to start with a wide array of leader lenghts and then make changes depending on conditions, generally the lighter the current the longer the leader, the stronger the current, the shorter the leader. I use high seas camo mono 30 - 50# I always make sure my chunks are hooked in the fleshy part of the fish to ensure the hook will easily rip out of the bait upon the hookset making for the highest hook up ratio. I hook all of my chunks in the dorsal part of the bunker to eliminate spinning, whether it is whole, a head, or a chunk I insert the hook no more than 1 inch down on the bait. Bigger the hooks the better in my opinion, my favorites are 10/0 gamigatsu octopus hooks. I always put them to the hook sharpener even right out of the package. Im currently am working on a double hook rig for whole bunker in which i will incorporate a stinger hook to the leadered hook, possibly using the owner brand braided nylon stinger hooks

(sorry for the novel, can you tell I'm getting antsy?)

-Josh

[Reel Nice]

Zar you are loaded with good info tonight..I agree with you totally about the larger hooks and the rest of your post ...We do something similar.... I also use gamakatsu's #9/0 & #10/0 as long as the bait doesn't spin in the water you are good to go..Toss the tails and smaller pieces into the water as long as the current is not too strong.. If it is strong you can hook a chumbag to your anchor and you will get good dispersion under and around your boat.....

[TRAVELER SPORTFISHING]

I will use both when possible, but the majority of our larger fish have come on heads. FRESH is the key. Our biggest fish this year came on a purple stretch 25 (44 lbs.). I would post pics if I knew how.

[Jim19053]

Last fall was my first real serious effort on Delaware Bay for stripers. In my very limited experience, 6 weekends in a row, smaller chunks worked better for us than heads and whole bunker. We always threw a head and whole bunker out there to see what happens. Chunks won out, but like many have said that can change form day to day and plenty of big slobs have been caught on whole bunker.

Elephants like peanuts, maybe big stripers like small chunks! :D

http://members.aol.com/w3atv/chunk3.jpg

[Mako13]

They Both Will Work. It All Depends What The Fish Want At That Time. Experiment Till You Find Out What They Want

[Reel-ality]

If I'm using 4 rods they are all baited different until one starts producing better than the others. Always experiment, you won't know until you try. I can't wait for the run.

[MEGERA]

i use heads only when the season is at it's peak( halloween week)