Big sea bass strategies for the boat or yak.
Spring fishing has exploded and we are now heading into my favorite time of year to be on the salt. Striped bass are fully entrenched, fluke are showing up in numbers and it is lock and load time on the largest scup of the year! One fishery, though, holds a special place in my heart as it was the first saltwater fishery I targeted on my kayak; black sea bass.
This time of year, black sea bass arrive in droves from their offshore wintering grounds ready to feast in anticipation of the spawn. Black sea bass are not just one of my favorite fish to eat, but are arguably the most beautiful inshore species a kayak angler can catch. With such vibrant blue coloration on spawn-ready males, they almost seem like they would glow in the dark! Black sea bass are part of the family Serranidae, which includes grouper, and that may explain why these fish just taste so darn good!
While this article is written from the perspective of a kayak fisherman (it’s kinda my thing), you can absolutely apply these same techniques and baits when fishing from a boat!
No Bait Is Safe
Black sea bass are absolutely voracious little predators and it’s a wonder that anything can survive on the same structures as them. Best practice I like to do is take a peek down the throat of any black sea bass I catch and see what they are eating. It’s no secret that black sea bass will jump at any chance to eat a crustacean and I really do feel bad for any juvenile lobster south of Cape Cod. Those aren’t the only crustaceans I see coming out of black sea bass gullets; crabs, starfish (not a crustacean), small clams and even the rare whole mantis shrimp have been seen in the past.
This brings me to what is probably the most deadly bait I have ever used black sea bassing, cut crab on a jighead. Over the last several seasons, this has accounted for my largest sea bass year after year. Black sea bass cannot resist the crab, even if the jig bite is off. The benefit of using cut crab is that it’s also a prime jumbo scup bait and I have even caught tog to 7 pounds as an incidental catch. Crab isn’t the only bait that works on them either, high-lo rigs with clam or squid is a time-proven method, although it seems to attract more of the smaller fish and there is quite a bit of interference with small scup.
Another extremely effective way to fish for black sea bass is to jig for them. Metal jigs are a great way to catch them, without the slime and stink of bait. Blade jigs have proven to be irresistible to these fish and are a great option fished by themselves. My go-to rig is basically the same as what I use for fluke with a few minor alterations: a double surgeon’s loop knot at the bottom of the rig with a dropper loop positioned 12 to 18 inches above it with a 3/0 Gamakatsu baitholder hook. I loop on a bucktail of whatever size is needed to tend the bottom to the surgeon’s loop and here is the secret teaser, Zman StreakZ Curly TailZ in Pearl or Coconut Ice Glow! These teasers have made my life so much easier and cheaper to boot!
Sea bass have mouths full of very small sharp teeth that can tear a soft bait apart in seconds. I used to use Gulp for the teasers and while this worked great, this was costing me a small fortune losing tails left and right. I made the switch over to Zman with their super-stretchy and durable plastic and haven’t looked back! Most years, I get through the entire sea bass season on a single five-pack of Zman baits… that’s some serious savings! For those with beat up flies from bass fishing, those would work great as a teaser as well!
Location, Location, Location
If there is one constant in my preferred locations, it’s rocky bottom. Plain and simple, this bottom holds the food that black sea bass love to eat. This doesn’t mean you can pull up on any rock and start banging away on big sea bass. The first thing I am looking for is access to deeper water in the 30- to 50-foot range. I find a much more consistent bite in this deeper water. Great places to find this kind of depth are the open bay as well as channels. Channels work extremely well as they turn into sea bass highways as these fish move around. In these channels, always keep an eye on your fishfinder as these fish show up very well on fishfinders. There is a good chance to catch a lot of fish in a hurry if you stumble across a dense school.
If I find myself fishing a deep channel, I try to lay out my drift to cover as much of the deepest water in the channel in one go. I always start on the shallow edge of the channel so my kayak has time to settle into a predictable drift before I find myself in the deep water. Resetting drifts takes a lot of effort so I want to maximize the amount of time in the fishiest zone. It is important to monitor the speed over ground that your vessel is going. I aim for 0.5 to 1.5 knots. The idea is to cover ground to find the fish while being able to keep the baits on the bottom where the big ones are lurking. A drift sock may become very important if the drift speed gets too high. These drifts, I am only jigging, no bait.
The goal is to find the roaming schools of fish. Once you locate them, mark a waypoint immediately and start short drifting the school, resetting as soon as you drift out of them. The amount of fish you can catch this way is mind boggling.
Isolated Structure
I also like to focus on small structures in the same 30- to 50-foot depths. There really isn’t a structure that’s too small to stop on. I always focus on my sidescan for potential rocks while underway from one spot to another. Once one of these rocks is located, I use the electronics to circle back and drop to it. You will know very quickly whether this spot i s good or not. I have gotten a limit of quality sea bass on spots like this in under 10 minutes.
The size of the structure you stop on, will dictate how to pick it apart. If I am stopping on a couch to vehicle sized rock, I am either anchoring on it, stemming the tide with a peddle drive or spotlocking right on top of it. The fish are going to be tight to the structure and to effectively fish for them, you need to get your bait right down into their living room. My first drops here are always with the jig and after 5 to 10 minutes of fishing, I switch to bait to build a bite on the more lethargic fish. The fish will tell you when it’s time to leave a small structure like this. If the rock is bigger, say the size of a detached garage, I will pick it apart in smaller sections.
Underwater Oasis
The last type of structures I like to target for spring/early-summer sea bass are small ledges surrounded by mud or sand. These spots are underwater oases for the sea bass and tend to be easier to fish with different techniques. I tend to stay away from larger pieces of structure, Cleveland Ledge for example, these larger named structures tend to attract lots of attention and see lots of pressure. Don’t get me wrong, there are fish in these spots, but you will be competing to scratch a limit together with lots of other anglers and these areas get picked over quickly. Find the spots people are missing and I guarantee you will find more and bigger fish. You may not get them on the first or second piece that you try, but you will find them.
When targeting these small isolated ledges, the technique is very similar to fishing channels with a few differences. Upon arrival, I do a very short test drift to determine heading. Doing this will save time in the event that the wind and tide make you drift in an unexpected way. I then line up the drift, in the mud just outside the structure so that I drift up the structure and then down the other side before the reset. Be careful of the drift into the upward slope of the structure as you want to be fishing just off the bottom so that you don’t bury the jig right into the structure. I continue this type of drift over the structure until I either locate large fish or move on to the next piece.
Once a large fish is hooked, and you will know it when that fish starts pulling drag on runs, I quickly drop a waypoint on that spot where it was hooked. Once landed, I start short-drifting the waypoint where the large fish was hooked. I have limited-out on sea bass all over 23.5 inches on four consecutive drops doing this. I find that during this part of the season, these large sea bass school tightly. If the jig doesn’t bring results, out comes the bait and usually this will be good for a couple fish.
While 2024 wasn’t the best year for large black sea bass in my area, there were plenty of small to medium sized keepers available. Using these techniques, it will help you find more quality fish in less time. If you catch your fish early, experiment with these techniques and find more spots. With more spots ready to go, you will be able to quickly find fish on every trip. Putting in this extra effort will certainly pay dividends over time and you will find a pattern that will get you – consistently – on the meat!
