"Will teasers take big fish, or are they just magnets for school bass?" With the large numbers of small bass falling to teasers this past fall, many newcomers to the surf game had to be wondering if this has always been the case. The most resounding affirmative to this question came back on November 3, 1983 on Nauset Beach, Cape Cod when surf high-liner Tony Stetzko rocked the Striper Coast by beaching a 73-pound giant! Given the choice between a black feather teaser or the live 16-inch eel following it, the great fish chose the teaser.

CONVINCING EVIDENCE
Need more proof? I recall a run of big bass on the North Shore of Long Island back in the early '80s when impressive numbers of bass between 20 and 40 pounds were taken from the boulder-strewn shoreline of Lloyd Neck Causeway. May was the time and, yes, feather and red gill teasers were the key. Casters who slowly retrieved a teaser in conjunction with a 5-inch minnow plug caught the attention of the Causeway’s bigger bass while swimmer worked solo drew few strikes.