Striper Fishing the Hudon in Albany

[ActiveTrapChecker]

I am interested in trying my luck striper fishing in the capital district. If anyone has tips on how to catch smelt for bait would you please PM me. Don't need GPS locations as I am willing to give it a go and learn via trial and error.

Thanks in advance for any guidance and happy opening day!

[Izayah12]

The bait fish are herring. Pretty easy to catch 2 popular methods are sabiki rigs or using a stoolie and netting them

[ActiveTrapChecker]

The bait fish are herring. Pretty easy to catch 2 popular methods are sabiki rigs or using a stoolie and netting them

See, completely clueless, don't even have the bait right!

Thanks for the info, much appreciated

[LooseEye90]

Dropped you a pm

[rakerdave]

I bet you could  catch  one with a smelt .

[trapper2000]

hey  do  any  of you Hudson fisherman  ever use  clam?

[fontona19]

I personally have never had luck with anything other than live herring. That statement is 80% accurate. 

Clams and chunked herring = Catfish and eels.

[trapper2000]

I have  never fished the  Hudson  but I have  chased  stripers in the  salt   tossing tins and  flyfishing ..... do tins  such as diamond jigs and deadly dicks  work well ?  any idea what  flies  might  be a good choice?? I assume  clousers and  surf candy

[Raquettedacker]

I personally have never had luck with anything other than live herring. That statement is 80% accurate.  :laugh:Clams and chunked herring = Catfish and eels.

    Can you catch eels and use them for bait..
That's all my dad use to use when we lived in Connecticut..   

[ship of fools]

You can use anything you want as bait .....  whether it works is another issue 

Seriously though they key in on the herring. On top of that the river is loaded up with herring so when you have free bait that is the primary food source why bother with anything else.

The bigger question is chunk versus live. I don't know why but some years they prefer chunk and others live.

The one thing that makes a monstrous difference with either chunk or live is to make sure the bait is fresh 

[RIVERRAT2]

I have  never fished the  Hudson  but I have  chased  stripers in the  salt   tossing tins and  flyfishing ..... do tins  such as diamond jigs and deadly dicks  work well ?  any idea what  flies  might  be a good choice?? I assume  clousers and  surf candy

all those things work at times,worked real well when you could fish mohawk lock-2-3-4-5-6-and it was also great
for herring,all in the details.
 
RAT

[fontona19]

You can use anything you want as bait .....  whether it works is another issue 

Seriously though they key in on the herring. On top of that the river is loaded up with herring so when you have free bait that is the primary food source why bother with anything else.

The bigger question is chunk versus live. I don't know why but some years they prefer chunk and others live.

The one thing that makes a monstrous difference with either chunk or live is to make sure the bait is fresh 

My experience is much more limited than some of you guys for sure. I have yet to see the year of the chunk. 

[Reel Force]

Below 53 degree water temps use chunk, above 53 live.

[step2jimi]

Second what reel force said. This is only my 6th season but we've hit it hard each of those yards and through lots of failure figuered them out pretty decent. When the waters colder we chunk when it's dirty we chuno other then that's it's all live. Baits don't sit 15 minutes without being freshened.

[ship of fools]

My experience is much more limited than some of you guys for sure. I have yet to see the year of the chunk. 

I've seen seasons where chunk was king regardless of the water temp  ......   like 25 fish on chunk and 5 on live.

Believe me i would much rather fish with live herring too but i guess the trick is give them what they want