Capt Mike from Salty Cape and Hogy Lures steams out to Nobska Point aboard his 28′ Contender to do some rip fishing for striped bass on Cape Cod. Capt. Mike goes deep into the proper approach for rip fishing for striped bass at Nobska Point, such as boat positioning and the art of fishing “the swing” of the rips. From a deep dive on his fishing outfit, to the proper retrieve of the swimbaits, no stone is left unturned. You’ll also see some awesome striped bass action too. Enjoy!
Approach
- Make a series of short drifts. Both the wind and the tide going in the same direction made for very fast drifts, so it was important to find the areas of the rips holding the most amount of life.
- Not disturbing the ecosystem is key when fishing a rip. Often bait and predatory fish will sit right on the edge of the rip line, so being cautious of trying not to run this area over will significantly increase your odds of hooking up.
- Make sure to be fishing “the swing”. Cast up into the smooth water and let your bait “swing” into the strike-zone. This ensures an extremely natural presentation that imitates a wounded baitfish being washed into the rip.
Technique
The name of the game today was fishing “the swing” with our paddle tail swimbaits. When fishing a rip, it is important to ensure that your bait looks as natural as possible. Striped bass feeding in a rip are often picky in when and how they feed. They are usually strategically positioned on the backside of the rip waiting for bait to be flushed over top of them.
- Utilize a slow and steady retrieve of your swimbait. In this scenario, we were throwing the Hogy Protail Thumper Swimbait which gives off a heavy thumping action from the paddle tail. Not much rod action is need to have this bait swimming properly.
- Implementing a “reel, pause, reel, pause” retrieve is also effective as the action of the paddletail will continue to work as the bait is falling on the “pause”. This retrieve is especially effective when fish are being a bit finicky.
- Being aware of your surroundings is key. Sometimes the tells when fishing a rip are obvious; Birds diving, fish crashing. Other times relying on your electronics, as was the case in this video, is very important. Find an area that has the most amount of marks and continue to make a series of drifts in this section of the rip.
Outfit
*This is definitely your heavier duty inshore outfit. Keep in mind I switch hit this outfit with my lighter duty offshore fishing as well!
- Rod: 7′ Hogy Hybrid Spinning Rod
- Reel: Van Staal VSX2 200
- Line: 65lb Cortland Master Braid
- Leader: 30lb Fluorocarbon
- Lure: Hogy Protail Thumper Swimbait
Tips
- Match the hatch! Picking a lure that is the best representation of the primary forage is key. In this case, the Striped Bass were feeding on larger sized sea herring and squid. Although these two baits are identically similar to one another, a lure that does a good job at matching there size and profile, like the Hogy Protail Thumper Swimbait was key.
- Look for tells. Tells can be in the form of multiple things. Whether it’s birds sitting on the surface, fish crashing, or your fish finder indicating a good pile of fish, it’s extremely important to do your best to digest this information to get the best understanding on where you should position yourself.
- Lastly, you don’t know if you don’t go. We could have easily called this trip off and stayed at home due to the stronger than usual wind forecast. But we decided to go anyways and found the winds to be lesser than forecasted and the fishing to be great! Obviously be safe in your judgment calls, but don’t be afraid to go if the conditions aren’t 100% perfect!
