I’ve been at The Fisherman long enough to witness a lot of “bait and tackle” trends in the striper fishery. When I first started in the early 2000s, clam bellies with heavy chum was the way to go when anchoring up along the rips and shoals for stripers. This was about the time of the bunker reduction bill here in New Jersey that would eliminate commercial harvest for menhaden reduction inside 3 miles, which in turn caused some menhaden bait harvesters to “blacklist” anglers who had pushed hard in favor of the bill. That friction quickly subsided, especially as inshore bunker populations soon exploded.
If you remember those “olden days” the spring run in particular was punctuated by bunker busting bass, which saw the return of big-bodied striper lures like metal lips and large woods, somewhat of a renaissance in the plug turning world. The softer Storm shad became a big seller as well, soon followed by the Tsunami swim shad which would evolve in new shapes, sizes and colors to match the hatch, by boat or by beach.
When Tony “Maja” Arcabascio began selling his time-tested bunker spoons, he was more than willing to share game-changing tips and tactics, something that many of the “bunker spoon” guys in the NY Bight weren’t so willing to disclose. With more and more menhaden came the now ubiquitous Stretch from Mann’s – the national tackle version of Xerox or Kleenex – though Rapala also had their Magnum while Bomber released their Certified Depth (CD) trolling plugs.
I remember picking up a feature story from our old Mid-Atlantic edition on the mojo sometime in the mid-2000s, a big ‘ol skirted jig to which an unrigged swim shad was attached. For folks trolling along sandy bottom, this would become the new hot thing for another 15 years. Surfcasters meanwhile continually relied on the old Finnish style plastics (Bombers, Red Fins, et al), until Daiwa released its Salt Pro (SP) Minnow in 2017 soon becoming the one plug that no bag should be without; well, until maybe Yo-Zuri’s Mag Darter.
I’m just scratching the surface, obviously; there have been hundreds of “must have” tackle advances in the world of striper fishing, by countless manufacturers, many of which have been crossovers from the freshwater arena. There’s the Ben Parker flutter spoon from Nichols transitioning about 10 years ago, along with all of the soft and hard plastics, jerkbaits to spinnerbaits and everything in between.
Which brings me to something that The Fisherman’s editors reference for writing and editing, our “stylebook.” It’s essentially a standard guide to spelling in the boating and fishing world. We haven’t updated it in a number of years, so honestly, I can’t say if jerkbait should be one word or two! And then, out comes the hottest thing in 2026, by boat or by beach, the glidebait – or is it a glide bait?
“I think glide bait (two words) is the common use,” said The Fisherman’s publisher Mike Caruso, adding “That’s how most tackle companies, retailers write it when referring to the lure category.” Long Island edition managing editor Matt Broderick concurred, saying “I’ve commonly seen glide bait whenever I do a search on them.”
“I typically write it glidebait,” said New England managing editor Dave Anderson, adding “I based it off of other things like spinnerbait, jerkbait, wakebait…all accepted parts of fishing vernacular.” I spent a day plugging on the Raritan last month with Chris Bishop from Yo-Zuri, testing their new 7-inch Hydro Twitchbait coming out later this season, which is essentially another crossover from the freshwater world that’s not defined in our editorial “stylebook.” In vernacular terms, I’m not sure if it’s a twitch bait or twitchbait?
I don’t know how it is where you work, but around our shop these are the profound watercooler discussions we have on a daily basis.
Or is it a water cooler?
