Fishing Lure

 

How do you imitate a small, one inch bay anchovy? Think small offerings that have the right  movement and profile.

I was into a big blitz of stripers today that lasted from morning till evening.  The stripers were feeding on huge schools of small bay anchovies.  We are talking bait about and inch long. Put millions of those together in massive schools and they can turn water the size of a football field brown with bait.  Add schools of finicky stripers feeding on them and you have one of the toughest situations to imitate with a lure. Luckily, I found something that worked pretty well for me today.

You can't snap on anything at the end of your line that will imitate a one inch bay anchovey, but you can attach artificials that move like them, and have a silhouette like them and those are the keys to success. Small artificials that have the profile and movement will be your best bets.  Today I was using a white Albie Snax.  This has been one of my go-to lures when fishing this situation.  Snax have the natural movement of a small baitfish and that's why stripers will hit them even when feeding on small bait.  I landed big numbers of stripers on the Snax today.

Good size stripers like this slot can be feeding on small bait that is difficult to imitate.

I looked around me at the few successful guys who were catching today.  One of my friends was using a small Joe Baggs jighead/ paddle tail. He was catching.  Once again, good profile and good action.  And, to my right there was a fly fisherman who was really scoring using some type of fly. The fly had it all- small, right profile and good movement, and this guy knew how to work it.

In these situations where the bait is small and the fish are fussy, I will often rotate through several offerings in my bag if what I'm using is not catching.  I like the Albie Snax if I don't need a long cast.  Next, I might try the wooden egg float with a fly. I might go with a small bucktail jig or a small NLBN paddle tail. Usually, one of those artificials will get the job done.

I can tell you that as I looked around today, most fishermen I saw using large poppers, big jigs, swimmers and even metal were not catching any stripers for the most part.

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