Spilling the beans on my early Spring Striper Rigs

    During the days I attended the 2018 New England Saltwater Fishing Show, where I was doing 7 free seminars over the course of 3 days, I was asked what are my favorite rigs for early Spring schoolie Striped Bass. You should've seen the odd looks I got when I mentioned that I use Marabou Crappie jigs as my favorite "go to" rigs. If you haven't guessed it yet, Crappie, are a freshwater species of fish.

    In the past 4 years, I've used Marabou Crappie jigs from Bass Pro Shops. They are weighted with a 1/16th oz. black jig head, painted with white eyes, with a orange fuzzy body, and finished off with a brown feather tail. They come in a packet of 10 for just $3. This color combo is my all-time favorite lure in the early Spring. It crushes the competition whenever I show up among the other kayak fly fishermen. Most of the time they leave whenever I show up after the second cast out.
    I have them in other colors as well - purple body/purple tail/grey head, white body/white tail/ pink head, black body/yellow tail/red head, and grey body/grey tail/grey head. Below are some of the colors that I use.

Some of the Marabou Crappie jigs that I use. The top one is my all time favorite.

Photo Credit: Jeff Hall 

    Believe it or not, I actually gave away a few of my pre-made rigs to a guy that was just getting into kayak fishing for the first time this year. I'm hoping he joined our fishing club in hopes of one day seeing him at one of our launch spots.

    This year, I decided to make the switch to soft plastics, and have chosen a few colors that match the cinder worm hatch in early Spring. Below are a few of the soft plastics I intend on using this year. I will still continue to use the other rigs as well.
    Top color: Monkey Milk (Ice Blue), Middle color: Pink Ice (glow in the dark), Bottom color: Black/Hot Pink.

Photo Credit: Jeff Hall

    The cinder worms are a strange breed of "worm", and that's putting it lightly. I showed another member of our kayak fishing group these soft plastics, and he said the middle one (pink ice) would be a good color match to "match the hatch". Cinder Worms can vary in color every season. But from my experience, they are usually greyish in the head, light pink in the body, and reddish in the tail. So, we'll see how my color choices go for this year.
    The photo below shows what these worms really look like.

Photo Credit: SkinnyWaterChartersRI.com

Photo Credit: Reel-Time.com

Photo Credit: FlyFishRI.com

Photo Credit: AnglersJournal.com

    As for the rigging, I normally use braided line, but when rigging light rigs such as these soft plastics and Marabou jigs, I'm using clear mono line, 10 - 12 lb. test, 15" - 17" in length attached to a swivel that attaches to a Hi-Vis floating cone bobber. I'm including a diagram below plus a rig that I've previously made.

Photo Credit: SaltwaterSportsman.com

Though the photo above shows a white cone bobber made from high density styrofoam, I chose to use a high visibility Neon/Chartreuse Yellow which can be seen better near dusk and early evening. The cinder worm emergence happens best during a full moon. 

The photo below shows a rig I made previously using 15" - 17" of clear mono with one end attached to a gold swivel, and the other end attached to the soft plastic. The above diagram shows you how the rig is attached.

One of the newer rigs I plan to use this year. The milky white portion of the jig, under the pink part, glows in the dark.

Photo Credit: Jeff Hall

Other rigs in my arsenal of soft plastics include several from a local lure maker named Al "Gag" Gagliarducci. His chartreuse 4" "Whip-It Eels" were killing it at Fort Adams last year at the point next to the fog horn. The photo below shows off my collection of Al Gag's "Whip-It Eels" in 4", 6", and 8" lengths  with ( 4 ) 1/16 oz. heads, ( 4 ) 1/4 oz. heads, ( 1 ) 1/2 oz. head .

The "Whip-It Eels" that look white with a pink pearl are actually like a translucent pearl green when held up towards a light source. Fish will see it as a milky clear green with a pink pearl undertone. The 3 lures on the lower left are rigged with Al Gag's 1/4 oz. heads. The 4 lures on left, above the Al Gag's lures, are rigged with Bass Pro 1/16 oz. jig heads. The lure on the top right is a chartreuse Al Gag's 6" "Whip-It Eel" rigged with a Cabela's 1/4 oz. jig head. And the lure on the lower right is also an Al Gag's 8" chartreuse "Whip-It Eel" weighted with a 1/2 oz. no name jig head. 

Photo Credit: Jeff Hall

    So, these are just a few of the rigs & lures that I plan on using this year for the early/late Spring and early Summer during the cinder worm emergence at Ninigret Pond (Charlestown,RI), Potter Pond (South Kingstown,RI), and Fort Adams (Newport,RI).

    As usual, keep those lines tight & wet!  - J