Fishing

The spring run of stripers may be over, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for slim pickings. Use these tricks to catch big bass even during the heat of summer.

Find the thermocline. During the daylight hours of summer, mature stripers often dive deep to cooler waters. The thermocline, a cool layer of deep water, is where you'll catch them. Find it by increasing the sensitivity on your fishfinder until you see a faint line between mid-depth and the bottom. Once you've located it, drop your baits there.

As we cruise along about 100 yards off the beach, I turn to guide Scott Hamilton and ask, "How will we know when we've found them?"

"Oh, you'll know," he says assuredly. "When they're around, they show themselves." A little while later, we see several mean-looking creatures leap out of the water, conduct some spectacular aerial maneuvers, then crash back down. We'd found them, all right-spinner sharks.

Gaff stowage is a common problem, and if you try to solve it incorrectly (right), you'll soon be facing another problem: an injured crewmember, which can ruin a day of fishing. Instead of stowing gaffs at low levels, where the hook can be missed by the eye, stow them vertically along your battlewagon's pipework with the hook at the top. Make sure the hook isn't near any handholds and secure it with a Velcro strap.

Fishermen are always looking for that silver bullet: a bait that will have fish opening wide no matter how tight their previous lockjaw. But such a magic bait just doesn't exist-or does it? Slow-trolled or live-lined flying fish can tempt tunas and billfish almost all the time. But where do you find spunky, live flying fish? They're not a mainstay in most tackle shops. Solution? Get them on your own; all you need are some powerful lights, a long-handled dip net, and a livewell.