Ralph and I spent a day offshore with one of Charleston’s best guides, Captain John Irwin (Fly Right Charters) for the purpose of testing one of our new products, the Striper Eye (TM) jighead. Like all our jigs, the Striper Eye is built on the amazing Mustad Ultrapoint hook, in a 6/0 size. Striper Eye jigs will be available in 1/2 oz, 3/4 oz and 1 oz sizes, and like Trout Eye jigs, they will work on all species of fish, in this case, larger and meaner fish!
Our mission was to seek out Cobia and maybe a grown Amberjack or two, to test the effectiveness of the jig and also put the hook to a good test. In both cases, the Striper Eye passed with flying colors, as can be seen below.
Our first stop was a reef in 60 ft of water. There were a handful of boats there and not much life or activity going on. We did manage one AJ about 15 lbs, but no brown fish to be seen, so we pushed out to a reef in deeper water.
On the way, we found a floating palmetto tree and when we pulled up it was covered in schooly dolphin…in just 65 ft of water! We quickly stepped down some of our offerings to catch them, and just managed one before the school disappeared. But shortly after arriving, we saw a grown tiger shark, approximately 12 ft long. John had told us earlier that he had been catching cobia off the backs of larger sharks and sure enough, there was a Cobe on this one. I made a quick cast with the Striper Eye and one or two twitches and he slammed it. Fish on! A few quick pics and we put him back, as he was on the smaller side of what we were looking for.
At the next reef, in approximately 90 feet, we found what we were looking for – a few grown Amberjack slammed the Striper Eyes, rigged with a perfect matching plastic, the Z-Man 8″ Mag SwimZ – basically an oversized paddle tail made with ElaZtech material. Super tough, with great action.
It wasn’t long before a Cobia came up to the boat to investigate. John pitched the Striper Eye at him and he turned and inhaled it instantly. Off to the races and a nice brownie close to 40 inches hit the deck.
A few more Amberjack rounded out the very successful first test of the new, and soon to be available, Striper Eye jighead
Check back in the coming weeks at StriperEye.com for the new jigs to be available!
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We are one of the few places where you can purchase the brand new Z-Man Swimmin’ Trout Tricks online. We have several colors in stock, including the hot new color Festivus! Pick some up at our Store, they pair really well with our new 1/8 oz Trout Eye jigs.
