Jetty rocks, slack-adjacent · built for fast releases.
CENTROPRISTIS STRIATA
1 FISH · 12.5" MIN
THE NEAP-DAY UPGRADE
Gentle-current windows: swap the whole rig for a 3/4-1 oz white bucktail (S7) tipped with a 2" squid strip, worked vertically along the rocks. Bigger sea bass eat the jig, and a doormat fluke is live bycatch on the same drop.
Measure keepers WITHOUT the tail filament. Nearly everything goes back: wet hand, pliers, back in the hole.
RIG FIELD GUIDE v3.0 · SALT · SEA BASS16 / 38
Sea Bass Hi-Lo — How-To
SALT / R1
SPEC
BACKBONE
30 lb fluoro, 30-36"
HOOKS
2/0 baitholder x2 on DLs
SPACING
Loops 10-12" apart, low one 8" up
SINKER
Bank 2-4 oz on 20 lb breakaway
BAIT
Squid strips · clam bits (p10)
WHERE
Jetty rock faces and holes
WHEN
Slack ± 90 min · park hours 8a-4p
RIGGING SEQUENCE
1Cut 36" of 30 lb; UNI to swivel.
2Two DLs (p7), 10-12" apart.
3Hooks: loop through eye, over bend.
4Surgeon's loop at the end; sinker on 3" of 20 lb breakaway.
5Pre-tie 3 backbones at the house (S1).
FISHING IT
1Drop vertically down the face or lob 10-15 ft.
2Tight to the sinker. Lift 2 ft, lower to tick, pause. Hits come on the drop and pause.
3No bite in 5 min = move 10 ft. You find sea bass; they don't find you.
KEYS
Expect the undercard: bergalls, blowfish, triggers, small tog — everything under 12.5" swims immediately. Your one keeper is a deliberate late-session choice, not the first legal fish. Sinker donations to the rocks are a cost of doing business — that's the breakaway's job.