Soaking a clam bait on a sun-warmed, outgoing tide is a great way to search for your first keeper of the season.
The accepted theory is that during a storm, the raging surf dislodges clams, tumbles them about, and smashes them against each other or on the bottom with such force that the shells crack and the gooey insides spill out for scavenging stripers to slurp down. Somewhere along the line, a surfcaster made this discovery, and uncovered one of the finest baits you can throw for spring stripers.
Clams are, in some ways, a regional bait. From South Jersey to the South Shore of Long Island, and again from Boston to Downeast Maine, every tackle shop worth its salt keeps fresh clams—or at least fresh salted clams—in stock during the striper season. From Connecticut to Cape Cod, however, it’s a rare thing to find a surfcaster slinging clams. A migrating striper doesn’t suddenly stop eating clams as it passes through this zone, and a surfcaster who spikes a rod with some fresh clams in Rhode Island or on the Cape could be handsomely rewarded with several large bass during the opening weeks of the spring run.
I’ve always liked clams as an early-season bait—something to throw before large baitfish, such as bunker, show up in numbers. In recent years, it seems like the bunker schools have been arriving before the stripers, yet clams still shine in the early season. The reason, most anglers agree, is because in cold water stripers are more likely to be scavenging on the bottom for an easy meal than chasing baitfish.
Clams are best fished on circle hooks, as even small stripers will quickly swallow them. Thread them onto the hook, starting with the soft “belly” and ending at the more muscular…
