The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has released some updates to the commercial regulations for Striped Bass and Black Sea Bass. The changes are summarized below as well as a link to the Press Release:
Striped Bass
Season opens Monday June 25th, and is open every Monday and Thursday thereafter until the Quota is reached. The regulations of 15 fish at 34 inches remains unchanged. The one new update is that if July 3rd, July 4th or Labor day fall on a Monday or Thursday and the season is still opened, then that day will be a closed fishing day.
Black Sea Bass
Season opens on July 9th, actually the first allowed fishing day is Tuesday July 10th and will remain open until the quota is reached. One additional change this year is the to open days where you are allowed to possess Black Sea Bass commercially are now Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Daddy Mac Lures should be right in the mix of commercial fisherman, please be safe out there.
For the press release, please visit the link below:
The Daddy Mac Lures WAHOONBOX Series ViperSnipers are now available for purchase at canyoncandytackle.com. You can buy naked baits or full dredges using our patented fabric linked technology. The ViperSnipers are simply put “Offshore ready.” They swim true at any speed, 1 knot to 10 knots and have teased in the winnoing fish in Big Rock 2017 for the sweet prize of 1.1 million.
Jack Houghton, Co-Owner of Daddy Mac Lures will be at Red Top Sporting Goods Saturday, April 7th from 8AM to 5PM EST. If you are in the area, make sure you stop by and say hi. All Daddy Mac Lures are buy 3 get 1 free.
We are proud to announce that you may now purchase Daddy Mac Lures at Clark Marine in Manchester Maine. We met Rob, the owner this past weekend at the Maine Sportsman’s Show in Augusta, Maine. He was so impressed with our lures, that he had to have them. So the next time you are there, getting your boat serviced or looking to pick up a new Crestliner, get some Daddy Macs and tell Rob that we sent you!
Special thanks to Daddy Mac Lures Pro Staffer Captain Matt Trombley and his better half Tina of 3rd Alarm Charters for their hard work this past weekend representing Daddy Mac at the show in Augusta.
Clark Marine will have some of our Viper 3″ and Viper 5″ Minnows available in assorted colors.
By Daddy Mac Lures Pro Staffer Tim Moore from Tim Moore Outdoors
Which lures work best for striped bass often varies based on geographic location. Stripers are migratory. As they migrate north each summer they have a variety of different food sources, but this variety changes along the way. This can alter the size, profile, and color of the most effective lures in each area. No matter where the stripers are along their range, they have three main prey types that they key in on. Small baitfish, medium to large baitfish, and eels. Here are three types of lures that closely imitate these prey items, and ones I never leave land without when pursuing striped bass.
Shads
Soft plastic paddletails, often referred to as swim shads, vary in size and mimic small to large baitfish, such as mackerel, alewives, or menhaden. A 6” swim shad is a staple in my striper tackle box. Paddletails are designed to not only mimic bait in size, color, or profile, but get their name from their large paddle-like tail designed to create thumping vibrations in the water. As much as a baitfish swimming through the water will entice feeding stripers, it’s the vibration created by the paddletail that calls them in and triggers strikes the best. You can cast and retrieve, or rip them through the water column and pause to let them sink briefly as if to imitate a wounded fish.
Soft Baits
Stripers find eels irresistible. They find the erratic action of a soft plastic eel-imitating bait even more irresistible. Soft baits, such as the original Hogy imitate eels, a favorite forage for striped bass. You can rig a Hogy weightless and twitch it in slow moving shallow water to entice cruising bass, or rig it on a jig head and fish it along the bottom in rocky areas where eels might be most likely to hide out. Slowly twitching a Hogy is a favorite of many kayak anglers due to the explosiveness of a big bass when it hits.
Vertical Jigs
Daddy Mac Lures Pro Staffer Tim Moore from Tim Moore Outdoors with a nice Cape Cod Striped Bass caught on a Daddy Mac Lures Elite Deluxe 2.8 jig in Sand Eel Green vertical jigging.
Vertical jigs, like most lures, vary in size, color, and profile. The name vertical jig often leaves many anglers fishing them straight up and down, but these lures are deadly when casted and retrieved. Daddy Mac Lures makes one of the most comprehensive lines of metal vertical jigs on the market. The wide range of sizes and profiles allows you to tailor your lure to what the fish are eating, or match the hatch. While vertical jigs are very effective when fished below your kayak or boat, they really shine when casted out, allowed to sink to the bottom, and then retrieved back. Vertical jigs are my first choice when stripers are holding on deeper structure in fast moving currents.
There are many lures on the market that work well for striped bass. The ultimate choice of which lure we use often boils down to our confidence in a specific lure. We use the lures we believe work best and we use our favorites most often, sometimes to a fault. If space is limited, such as it is in a kayak, it becomes important to narrow down the options. Regardless of where you fish for stripers, walk into any tackle shop and you’ll see these three types of lures on the shelves. Partially because they sell, but mostly because they work.
Tim Moore is a full time licensed NH fishing guide and owner of Tim Moore Outdoors. LLC. He is a member of the New England Outdoor Writer’s Association and the producer of Tim Moore Outdoors TV. Visit www.TimMooreOutdoors.com for more information.
The Big Rock 2017 $1.1 million winning teaser bait, the Daddy Mac Lures WAHOONBOX Series ViperSnipers are now available at Haddrells Point Tackle in South Carolina (Charleston & Mt. Pleasant). Check out both stores and tell the Daddy Mac & Marty “WAHOONBOX” Hiatt sent you.
We are proud to announce that you can now purchase Daddy Mac Lures at Two Rivers Canoe & Tackle in Medway Maine.
We are looking forward to building this relationship with Barry & Nancy after a great discussion at the Maine Sportsman’s Show in Augusta Maine this past weekend. Two Rivers Canoe & Tackle are initially carrying our Daddy Mac Lures Viper 3″ and 5″ Minnows in assorted colors. Please stop by and tell them that Daddy Mac sent you!
A huge shout out to Captain Matt Trombley and his better half Tina of #rd Alarm Charters for their work representing Daddy Mac Lures in Augusta Maine.
To keep in line with the Black Sea Bass theme, check out this episode on In Season Outdoors TV with host and Daddy Mac Lures Pro Staffer Tim Moore from Tim Moore Outdoors. We embark out of Falmouth and fish the wrecks and humps between Falmouth and Marthas Vineyard for jumbo Black Sea Bass. We end up at Middle Ground fishing top water for Bluefish and Schoolie Striped Bass. In this video we use the following Daddy Mac Lures jigs/lures:
Check out the Hot Cape Cod Black Sea Bass action with Tim Moore from In Season Outdoors TV and Dennis “Daddy Mac” MacDonald and Jack Houghton from daddy Mac Lures below (Special shut out to Chuck Fritz on the camera):
It was August 2013 when Dennis MacDonald (Daddy Mac) and I were chasing birds in Vineyard Sound. We were hoping for some Bonito or False Albacore, but honestly it was one of those carefree days where what we caught didn’t really matter. I hooked into the first fish and it took me for a long first run, that unmistakable run that lets you know you’ve hooked a False Albacore or Bonito. As I walked around my sport cabin fighting what turned out to be a nice Bonito, I heard Dennis yell out, “Fish On!” It was in that moment, on the bow of the boat, that I saw hundreds of jumbo Sea Bass darting all over the place actively feeding. I looked back at Dennis to find him pulling a five-pound Sea Bass over the gunwale. That day in August that forever changed the way we target Sea Bass, and the result has been a considerable increase in our Sea Bass catch. Sea Bass are not lazy bottom fish, so why do we fish for them that way?
The success of vertical jigging versus bottom fishing bait was never more evident than it was on July 19th, 2015. Dennis and I were “mothershipping” Tim Moore (of Tim Moore Outdoors) and his kayak into the middle of Vineyard Sound to record an episode for Tim Moore Outdoors TV. Tim knows his Sea Bass, and also holds the New Hampshire State Sea Bass Record. We started early, at first light. My experience has been that Sea Bass are most active at that time. Vineyard Sound happens to be home to many ship wrecks, all of which provide great starting points to find fish. As we approached the first wreck, we saw a common sight which was a charter boat fishing on top of the wreck fishing bait on the bottom. They appeared to be leaving as we approached, but decided to stay, presumably to see if we’d have any luck finding the fish. We dropped our jigs to the bottom and started to fish them up in the water column and bam! We doubled up right under the surface. This continued with every drift. The charter captain, probably tired of his clients seeing our success, moved on. We ran into the same charter later in the day only to have the same thing happen. Before the days end, I asked Tim Moore for a tip on sea bass fishing in New Hampshire and he said, “Sometimes you will have to increase the size of your jig when the current picks up. For instance, I use a lighter jig during slack tide, but as the current increases, so does the size and weight of my jig.” I also inquired about Tim’s favorite Sea Bass lure. His response was “Daddy Mac Elite Deluxe 1.4oz. Sand Eel Green, the exact lure I used to catch the New Hampshire State Record fish!”
We no longer carry bait on our Daddy Mac boat. Our success now comes from fishing the entire water column with Daddy Mac Lures vertical jigs. Here are some tips we’d like to share:
Get out early! Fish first light.
When catching smaller fish, increase your jig size. The size of your catch will increase too. For Sea Bass, fish jigs from .5 ounces to 4 ounces.
Recommended setup for Vertical Jigging Sea Bass: Shimano Trevala Rod with a Shimano Stradic 5000 reel, spooled with 30 to 50 lb. braid (there are always bluefish and stripers in the area) and a shot of 20 to 30 lb. fluorocarbon leader (Seaguar is recommended).
Lower the jig to the bottom and increase the action of the jig as you get higher in the water column. The higher fish are more aggressive and like more action.
Fish the lure all the way to the boat. Sometimes you can see the Sea Bass hit right under the boat.
When bite slows, fan cast away from the boat and jig as you reel. Locate the fish and then move the boat.
Leave the bait at home. Bait is a small fish and “other fish” magnet (scup/dogfish).
Wrecks are great to fish, but are usually overfished. Don’t be afraid to find little humps and bumps on the chart. They hold fish too.
Be aggressive with your hook set. The fish will quickly realize that the lure is metal and will spit the lure, so as soon as they hit, be sure to quickly set the hook.
Recommended Daddy Mac Lures: 1.4 Elite Deluxe Sand Eel Green, 1.4 Elite Sand Eel Green, 2.8 Elite Sand Eel Green, 3.5 Trophy Sand Eel, 4.0 Diamond Sand Eel Green. Notice that green is preferred. Pink is a close second.
Daddy Mac Lures on New England Fishing which aired on NESN in 2017:
