Lake Powell Anglers

Anchovy Fishing For Stripers

Anchovy fishing is often the most productive method to catch stripers. Often the numbers of fish caught is hard to believe. In years when the population of shad is low, the stripers school up in huge numbers and readily take anchovies. Anyone can catch stripers on 'chovies I mainly use 6' or 6'6" medium action spinning rods for anchovy dunking. Occasionally the kids want to use spincast reels and these are rigged on medium action 6' casting rods. On all these rods I have 8-10 lb. monofilament or 20 lb. Power Pro braid. Sometimes the medium light rods and 6 lb. line come out for the fun of it.

I mainly use two methods: jigs and Carolina rigs. On Carolina rigs, I use a 1/4 to 3/4 oz. egg sinker, a swivel and 8 lb.Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon leader. I like the fluoro not only because of its invisibility but for its abrasion resistance. It really stands up to the rough teeth of the bigger stripers again and again without tying on a new leader after just a few fish. Baitcasting gear works fine too. Any length rod works but I prefer to stick to 12 lb. or lighter line to optimize the sink rate of the rigs. Now on the business end of the 8 lb. leader I have a 1/0 to 3/0 light wire circle hook. The circle hook helps decrease the number of gullet hooked fish. This makes it faster and easier to remove the hook and get back to fishing for the next one.

The jig method is the easiest rig to fish. I mainly use a 1/4 to 3/8 oz. head with a 3/0 hook. Normally, I use the jig head alone with a chunk of anchovy. When the fish are fussy, adding a chunk to a jig rigged with a curly tail grub often helps get more action.