Rockaway

[Stash]

Hi folks!

New to the board here and was hoping for some advice. I'll be in Rockaway Beach Sunday (Aug. 5) fishing off my favorite floating dock 'cause i don't have a boat.

We'll be fishing off and on at all different hours, but mainly at night. Anybody have the hot setup on what the trout are hitting, or advice on how to go at them when the water is flowing and when it's not?

Thanks in advance,

Stash

[MOBass]

I like to fish a splitshot about 12-18" above a small bronze hook and half of a night crawler. You can also use power baits, power eggs, or corn. Make sure to use light line or leader. 4# should be good, but if you are having trouble getting bites you may want to pick up a small spool of fluorcarbon leader material. That should get you started.

[back2roots]

That's pretty much the rig to use. The only thing I do different is adding a larger egg weight to get out a little further. I use the splitshot as a stop for the egg weight. Other than that, small hook, powerbait eggs (any color with a white one added or a small piece of worm. If Rockaway doesn't produce, try going to Empire Park dock.

Have a great time!!!

Bill

[John Smoot]

The night crawler is really hard to beat. 2 things I do additionally.

1. Use the circle hooks, like size 10. Lilley sells them out of his bait shop. They work ridiculusly well. You hardly ever miss a strike, and, 99% of the hooksets will be in one of the corners of their mouth. No swallowed hooks means you can release the ones you don't want unharmed. The other hooks using a nightcrawler are notorious for gut-hooking.

2. Inject the nightcrawler with a little shot of air. You can get these "worm blowers" at Lilley's also. This keeps the bait off the bottom and in front of the trout.

Have fun!!

[MOBass]

Thanks for the info on the circle hooks at Lilley's. Is the tackle shop on the dock or someplace else at the resort? I'll be on the water in a couple of weeks and would love to tie up for a few minutes and grab some hooks.

[Stash]

Thanks all for the suggestions. We'll try to stop by Lilly's on Monday for those circle hooks. Never tried them before but is would be great to not have them swallow 'em.

Thanks again, all. I'll give a report when we get back to STL.