seeking advice on shore fishing with bloodworms

[newbie40]

I am brand new to striper fishing -- the white perch are DEVOURING my bloodworms, and it is killing me.

Any advice on avoiding it? I'm throwing from one 9' surf pole, and one 7' boat rod, with usually a 2-oz. sinker...will a 3-oz. sinker make enough of a difference for casting distance? I imagine those perch peckerheads are ALL OVER the river anyway....

Thanks in advance for any and all help. I am already thinking about throwing herring chunks next time...

locations -- midHuson valley, anywhere i can access, but mostly Potwon/Esopus/Kingston areas (though i have already fed the perch in Croton, too...lol)

[maddbmxjumper]

I havent personally tried it yet, but Ive heard using hooks with floats keeps the worms up off the bottom and away from perch and eels.

[KeiThLoUcH]

My brother and I have the same problem here. I think I caught more junk fish than anyone on the river last year. When I go I use both worms and herring (or bunker) on seperate polls. I set the pole w/ the chunk bait down and keep an eye on it, and hold on to the pole w/ the worm. When ever I get a nibble I wait a few secs to see if it's gonna turn out to be a nice hit. If it's nothing, I just bring the line in most of the time w/ a perch or cat on it. Still loose tons of worms tho. If you leave your line out there while you get those nibbles you will def go through a ton of worms. Hope someone else has some more tips cause I spent a lot of money on worms last year.

[BlueFin16]

depending on where you're fishing (i.e. > 20' of water) you can try a Zig Rig (google it) ...to get it 5-10' off of the bottom. another alternative if you're not elbow-elbow is to float-fish with a slip-float...set your stopper 10-15' down would be a good start.

bloodworms are great for targeting suspended fish when drifting. I personally have only caught non-target species on bloods when the presentation is in close proximity to the bottom.

[Shorebound]

"Bag" your Bloods-
Get 2 of those 4" square mesh net pieces used for Salmon Roe, one right on top of the other (or something similar).
Drop Bloodworm onto center.
Gather up around and over Bloodworm, wrap elastic thread tighly around top area of "bag".
Cut off excess mesh(and DON"T throw on ground/Litter)
Put hook through opposite side from tied part.
That's it, pretty much.
Makes a HUGE difference, no longer are White Perch eating all your expensive bait.
It will still take a LOT of time spent on Shore in most areas before you even get a run, so extra patience is required.
Stripers seem to feed by smell on Bloods in the Hudson.
A more common Shore tactic is to use a 5/0 Gami or other J hook, thread the hookpoint through the top of worm, get as much as you can fit on the hook, then break off the rest.
You are basically presenting a "J" of Bloodworm to the fish, not natural at all, and countless Stripers have been caught that way- perch still get your bait though.
Bagging them with mesh has worked for me, bait generally lasts far longet than with other methods and Fish don't seem to care.
Hope it helps!

[BACKBAYJ]

Try plugging or jigs instead of letting your bait sit on the bottom in one spot just waiting for a perch to come near.

[WRENCH17]

I acutally use the perch as a good striper indicator.
I use a high-low rig on one pole with little pieces of bloods
the pearch hit so often where i am there is barly time to put the pole down
when the perch stop hitting it usually means the stripers are on the flats
then i put whole bloods on multiple poles for the stripers.

also i use 2/0 hooks or larger for the stripers withc cuts down on the smaller fish

[newbie40]

Many thanks for all the help...shorebound, i really like the idea of using the mesh material to bag the worms...

I have been tempted to try fishing lures, but other than trolling, i have not heard of many people catching stripers in hudson using lures...and from shore presents many limitations...

Tight lines -- other than weather, it looks to be a good weekend.