Snag-And-Drop Must Stop For Stripers

This is our moment for striped bass.

There are lots of big stripers in our waters right now, and since anything over about 20 pounds is going to have to be released this year, I and all the other striped bass fishermen on the East Coast beseech you to take every precaution to catch these big fish in the least harmful way possible.

It’s no secret: The big bass are under the bunker schools that are stretched out from Fire Island to Block Island now, and even the most googan of googans can catch a trophy striper when they are feeding on bunker by simply snagging one and letting the wounded baitfish spiral around until old bucketmouth inhales it.

But this snag-and-drop fishing needs to be stopped. Now.

For some reason, the state chose to put off the change in the regulation that will ban the use of treble hooks — as well as J-hooks and offset circle hooks — when fishing bait for striped bass, until next year. So, this year, it is still legal, and from what I have seen over the last week, it is still how pretty much everyone is fishing — and from the pictures circulating, a lot of big stripers that have to be released are going back with certain death from the wounds of snag hooks in their future.

Snag-and-drop fishing is the single most mindless, unskilled method of striped bass fishing there is. Even drifting eels and trolling wire require a certain amount of skill and attention.

So, if you aren’t a good enough fisherman to know how to manage snagging a bunker, get it in the boat and put it on a proper hook before you toss it in to be devoured, go fishing with someone who is smarter than you.

Here’s a quick tutorial: You have your snag hook on one rod and a circle hook on another. You snag your bunker with the snag hook and reel like mad to get the bunker out of the school before a bluefish bites it in half. You remove the bunker from the snag hook and put it on the circle hook. Then you send it back to certain death. The whole process should take about 30 seconds.

Snag-and-drop has always been bad, and we did it anyway (guilty), because it was effective and because we as a species are callous and lazy. At least before this year, if you got a real biggie that swallowed the treble (guilty) and was certainly a goner, you could keep it for the grill and for big bags of fresh bass for friends.

But no longer, and since those big fish that the slot limit is protecting are the future of our fishery in both the short term and the long term, it’s in all our best interests to treat them well and thank them for the fun they bring us each year.

Full disclosure: The way I have been fishing lately will be illegal next year, too, because I’ve been using offset circle hooks, since that’s basically all I have ever bought, never thought there was a difference, and still have hundreds of them in various boxes throughout my house, truck and boat. That is going to be a costly changeover for me, but one that will just have to be made.

For surfcasters, shedding trebles is both difficult and simple: Few, if any, are going to be willing to lose the trebles entirely from their surf plugs. I’m not making that transition just yet — but I have a few single-hook rigged plugs ready for when there’s a night of really easy fishing, just to see if the ratio of bites to hook-ups to lost fish is the same.

So, until we’re all using singles only, for now, just remove the trebles from the rear of your plugs and replace them with single hooks — or no hooks at all — and enjoy the far fewer bluefish you will catch.

At least it’s nice to have something to think about other than disease, injustice and unemployment.

Catch ’em up. See you out there.