dressing & presenting bucktials

[twofishbabz]

Barners, could someone get me on the right track with bucktails? I've tried bare, dressed with grubs, fresh & salted whole & strip clams...I've jigged, dragged, droppered...you know where this is going right? No strikes...

Appreciate all experience & recommendations..& I'll try technicnics tomorrow at the rips.

thanks in advance, twofishbabz

[TWIN D'S]

The bucktail guys are over in the Striped bass forum. I'll send this there for ya'. I will say though, that you want to fish the bucktail slow and on the bottom, unless you can develop some other pattern.

[BUCKTAIL WILLIE]

I use bucktails for EVERYTHING,best advice I can give you on stripers is slow jig ,most of the time the bass hit on drop back
I use 1/2 oz white with white 6" twister tail.
Let it go to bottom and jig slowly,if working a sodbank get righ under the sodbank.
I like to troll right up against the sodbank,you get hung up a lot but also catch a lot of fish

[Fishenough]

B Willie is right. Fish it slow and bounce off the bottom. Let the current do the work for you while you bounce the bucktail. It always seems to work for me.

[chunking]

Try some variations. Everyone rips a bucktail out of the package and starts casting. Whats the hot color. Whats the hot grub or worm. Fish it fast or slow and we keep casting.

These are some things that work for me. I swear by this one. I like to trim the hairs off about a half inch behind the hook. This way I can use a short grub or worm and the hairs don't cover it. Sometimes a small presentation draws more strikes than a large one.

I start fishing a bucktail slow and if it doesn't do the job then I speed up with each cast. We don't realize how often a fish will follow a retrieve only to loose interest and turn away. I always assume that fish are out there and I just have to figure out what it will take to fire them up.

My pattern will usually work like this. A few slow retrieves bouncing it along the bottom. Next will be a faster retrieve but slowing down enough to let it touch the bottom a few times. After that it's let it hit bottom then rip it towards the surface as fast as possible.

My favorite is a real fast retrieve then stop dead. This can cause a trailing fish to inhale it out of self defense. Fish are curious and will take a few looks at anything moving. Eventually something may trigger an attack response if you give the fish enough chances and variations.

One thing I can book on is when the fish aren't aggressive a smaller bucktail will work better than a big one. I see guys in our store asking for three, four or five ounce bucktails. When I say to them, knock them out, I mean it. :D

[Billy BaitSlinger]

I had some good results with a 1 1/2 oz chartruese w/ bulging ruby eyes. I had a 7" pearlescent twisty tail (worm) w/ a trimmed body.

The best presentations we got with the boat held above the rip (with the motors), and casting and dropping back to the edge of the deep water. Friday, we had three fish slam it, and hooked nicely in the corner of the mouth. smile.gif

[twofishbabz]

thanks Barners, much appreciated as always. I did get the skunk off Sunday with a 33" and one lost to knot failure...guess I was a little excited tieing on the second tail.

have a good turkey and tightline to you all.