Long, slender, soft plastics are effective replacements for live eels, but they have a wide range of applications beyond that.
Giant soft-plastic eels. For many Northeast striped bass anglers, their vision fuels a hair-raising, sweaty-palmed, white-knuckled daydream. In my version of this dream, pinpricks of infinite starlight twinkle overhead and a marshy salt air gently nudges my kayak down-current in the fragile silence of the ocean at midnight, a silence broken only by two sounds. They are the floppy plop of a 13.5-inch soft-plastic eel landing somewhere near shore and, shortly after, a strained zip-zip-zip as my rod and reel struggle to slow the freight train of a cow striped bass that just inhaled my bait. Sinker Molds
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In my role as a tackle-shop manager at Black Hall Outfitters in Westbrook, Connecticut, I spend hours every day talking with anglers about which baits catch big striped bass. I’ve fished, or know how to fish, every bait in the shop, but there is none I am more confident in recommending than a slender, soft-plastic eel imitation like the Gravity Tackle GT Eel. I am a devout believer in its versatility and effectiveness. It is a big, nondescript, dangly, confidence bait, but there is a lot of hesitation from anglers new to this style of fishing.
By a large margin, the first question I get when showing anglers the Gravity Tackle section of the shop is, “How do I fish these?” It’s a simple question with dozens of answers. Are you blind-casting the banks? Going deep? In slow-moving water? On a ripping reef? Picking apart a current-driven point or specific shoreline feature? These baits are initially intimidating to some, but if you dedicate yourself to fishing them and fishing them properly, it will not take long before you become a solemn devotee. One night near Block Island with Gravity Tackle owner Gabe Ravizza was all it took to ensure my conversion. I started the night from scratch, not even knowing how to rig one, but by 4 a.m. when we headed back to the dock, four of us had boated over three-dozen striped bass larger than 40 inches (and lost quite a few more), all on GT Eels. Since then, I have not wavered from my commitment to them, even buying a rod-and-reel combo dedicated solely to these baits. More than any other bait in my arsenal, this one delivers giant stripers in a variety of situations.
In current-heavy waters, most large striped bass are structure oriented. If you want to pull them away from that barnacle-crusted boulder before they can shred your 60-pound leader line, you’ve got to have a stout rod and reel with stopping power. I use a fast-action rod with about 2/3 reserve power—meaning the parabolic bend of the rod stops about one-third of the way from the tip, and from that point down to the reel seat, you’ve got a whoopin’ stick. I’ve used three different but effective rods: a 77MH Daiwa Proteus Inshore, a 710XH Tsunami Carbon Shield, and this past summer, I found a favorite, the 8H Daiwa TD Sol. Its tip tapers quite a bit so that I can still feel the scrape of bottom or give the bait a lively twitch, and the backbone is stiff and strong, able to wrench bass away from structure when the time comes.
The TD Sol was designed in Florida for big plug and live-bait fishing when chasing snook and tarpon. When I read that, I thought, shoot, if it can bully a silver king, then it should be able to match wits with a 50-inch striped bass. I beat the heck out that rod last summer, fishing it 3-4 times per week from May through November.
Regardless of which rod you choose, look for something with backbone as well as sensitivity. After you’ve selected a rod, the reel is a bit easier. Consider something in the 5000- to 6000-size range. I prefer 40-pound braid and a 50-pound fluorocarbon leader, but strengths above and below that also work.
Shallow water of 15 feet or less is my favorite depth for big soft-plastic eels. In my opinion, shallow water is where this bait truly excels. It doesn’t require much action to swim well, it can be rigged a variety of ways, and once you dial in the gulches and bumps of your favorite spots, you can really put the bait right on a striper’s nose.
The key to fishing it in shallows is to know the depth you’re casting into. A soft-plastic eel is most effective when fished between one and three feet off the bottom. If you’re casting into 10 feet and not getting down deep enough, you’re going to wonder why everyone loves these baits. You’ve got to “put it in their living room,” as I like to say. In shallow water, I recommend a ½-ounce jighead with an 8/0 or 9/0 hook and a decent shank length. That size jighead lets you get down into the strike zone quickly, which is particularly important if you’re fishing shoreline structure. You don’t want to spend half of your retrieval waiting for the bait to get where it needs to be. By that time, you’ll likely be too far from your targeted structure to pull a strike. When using a ½-ounce jighead, cast out and pause for only a second or two while the bait sinks, then begin a slow but steady retrieval. If you feel the bottom, raise your rod tip and reel a bit faster. If you fish the same structure consistently, you’ll learn the right cast-sink-reel cadence and dial in your presentation.
A key point for fishing big eel plastics at all depths is not to overwork the bait. Most eel styles, regardless of the maker, have tapered tails that wave and wobble in the current on their own. The only action I typically add is a quick wrist twitch every four or five turns of the reel handle. Don’t jerk the bait and don’t jig it; just give it a little twitch. (I often describe this movement as making a little checkmark with the rod tip.) These eels are almost always designed with a lighter color on the bottom, like a baitfish, so when you twitch it, that bottom color will roll and flash just like a fleeing baitfish. It’s a dinner bell for big bass.
If you’re fishing flats or a larger boulder field, consider using a smaller soft plastic around 9 to 10 inches and rigging it weightless. I prefer Owner Beast Hooks in 8/0 or 10/0 for this application because they have a nice screw lock that ensures the eel will still swim naturally. They also come in belly-weighted styles if you want to get down a bit deeper or are fishing faster current.
Another factor to consider is the time of day. Shallow water is where many big bass are at night, and they sometimes move into areas that might not hold bass during the hours you fish. If you’re out at a known big bass haunt at night, throw some large soft-plastic eels and really pick apart the area. Whether it’s a boulder pile, a field of eel grass, or a gulch in a sandbar, if you fish these big baits well, you’re going to pull strikes.
If I’m fishing a big eel plastic in midwater depths of 15 to 30 feet, I have a seek-and-destroy mindset. I look for a particular spot, rig my bait on a jighead that will get in there, and attack, casting up-current, beyond the target, and getting it down into the strike zone near the structure. The right jighead in this depth range might be ¾ ounce or it might be 1.5 ounces. It depends on the depth and orientation of your structure and what the tide is doing—hence the focus on learning the nuances of your favorite locations.
If I’m targeting a big boulder pile at 25 feet, I often try to “swing” the bait around the boulders, presenting it like a hapless baitfish that got caught in the current and tumbled around the structure. If there’s a gulch you want to attack, weight the bait to get it down, orient your cast to drift the bait through the gulch, and give it twitches once it’s in there. For big fields of eel grass at this depth, try a weighted swimbait hook so that your bait swims just above the grass.
Another application for big eels at this depth is as a follow-up to a topwater bait. As the sun gets high, the fish that were previously obliterating topwater plugs will start to short-strike or merely follow. In this situation, a weightless-rigged eel imitation of 9 to 10 inches should be at the ready. When that fish follows but won’t commit to the plug, immediately grab the eel rod and send it flying back out, working it like a giant fluke with a snap-snap-pause cadence. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes that eel gets slurped right up.
I don’t know many anglers who use big soft-plastic eels in water deeper than 30 feet, but when worked properly, they can be absolute killers. Two additional factors become really important if you’re going to use these baits out deep—electronics and current strength.
Using big plastics as deep-water search baits is best done with a paddletail swimbait. I love paddletails and use them often, but for the purpose of this article, we will stick to eel-style baits. In deeper water, I often switch to a 3-way live eel or a big flutter spoon, but sometimes those big stripers want something with less hardware than a 3-way rig or something that requires less work than beating on a spoon. Queue up a slow-moving, slow-twitching soft-plastic eel.
Electronics are the key player here for locating marks worth drifting over. Most anglers are accustomed to hunting down nice arches on their favorite pieces of structure. The challenging part can be presenting to those fish and getting them to bite. Often, a bait is not in the strike zone long enough, or at all, before a drift must be reset. That’s why current flow goes hand in hand with electronics at this depth. I use a 2- to 3-ounce jighead at this depth and always try to slow the drift. In my kayak, I simply pedal gently against the tidal flow to neutralize the drift a bit. If you’re in a boat with a trolling motor, the same concept can be applied. Slowing your drift does a couple of things. It lets your bait stick in the strike zone longer, which means you can get away with lighter jigheads so your bait presents more naturally.
To drift big soft-plastic eels out deep, position yourself above the target area and drop to the bottom. Crank up a couple turns of your reel and hold the rod steady. The current will impart movement to the bait, and since the goal is to present an easy meal, keeping your rod steady is usually a good first option. Every 5 to 10 seconds, give the rod tip a little twitch to flash that lighter-colored belly. Often, you’ll get strikes right after these twitches.
While drifting, keep an eye on your side imaging. Many times, a striper will come in hot to check out your presentation. Use sonar in tandem with side imaging to prepare for climbing up a reef or going over a boulder field, and adjust your bait’s depth accordingly. It’s a lot to keep track of all at once, but if you’re fishing a familiar location, you’ve probably already got these nuances etched into your mental Navionics chart.
Another way to attack deep structure, particularly from a boat, is to position yourself up-current and take a long cast down-drift at about a 45-degree angle. Count your bait down until it’s near bottom and then begin a retrieve. Since your cast was down-drift, by the time the bait is near bottom, you’re probably pulling it perpendicular to the boat or along with the current flow, a much more natural presentation than retrieving against the current. This is a great way to cover a lot of ground on larger pieces of deep-water structure.
When it comes down to it, learning to properly use large soft-plastic eels requires the same dedication as learning any other style of fishing. Its profile is simple, but there is a legitimate difference between using one and using it effectively. You must know the depth you’re casting to, rig your eel to get into the strike zone quickly, and don’t overwork the action. If you can do all of those things, there is a very good chance you’ll be a new convert to the big soft-plastic party.
Weightless Soft Plastics for Backwater Stripers
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I used a weightless gravity eel on the flats at night; 1-4 ft deep and couldn’t get a bit. I reel slow with no action, reel and pause, twitch and a mixed my cadence with no luck. Others on the boat had already boarded their 3rd bass on eels. I switched to live eels and bam! First cast, a 40 pounder. I boated about 10 more 20-40 lbs fish for the night with live eels. I’ve never touched a gravity eel again.
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