Sometimes the fish want a bait moving, but barely. Bump trolling is a boat-handling technique that lets you present a live or rigged bait at a genuine crawl, slower than an idle troll, so it swims naturally through a specific piece of holding water. It is a deadly way to work a live bait past big striped bass parked on structure in current.
What it is
Bump trolling means exactly that: you bump the boat in and out of gear, a few seconds in, then back to neutral, letting the bait settle and swim between bumps. The result is a stop-and-go crawl that keeps the bait down in the strike zone and moving just enough to look alive, instead of blowing past the fish at trolling speed or sinking into the rocks at a dead drift.
How to do it
- Pick your bait. A lively live bunker or mackerel, a live eel, or a rigged bait, whatever the fish are eating, on a leader appropriate to the bait.
- Position on the fish. Line up so your bumps carry the bait through the seam, along the drop, or across the hump where fish are marking.
- Bump and settle. Ease into gear to move and lift the bait, then back to neutral to let it sink and swim, watching your line angle to keep it in the zone.
- Let them eat. With bait and a circle hook, resist the urge to swing, let the fish load the rod and come tight steadily.
Tip Use just enough weight to keep the bait in the zone at your bump-troll speed. Too heavy and you drag bottom on the pause; too light and the bait rides up out of the strike zone every time you bump into gear.
Gear
A medium-heavy conventional or spinning outfit with a smooth-drag Daiwa reel handles bumped baits and big fish well. For more on presenting bait, live-lining and chunking, see bait fishing basics; for after-dark eeling, see striped bass on live eels.