Stripers around Structure

[walkercope]

Those of you fishing for stripers around a lot of structure, how are you handling the fight and what gear are you using?  Are you using heavy enough gear to horse it in and just don't stop reeling?

I broke off what would've been my artificial PB recently and want to do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I'd say I had the drag set around 15lbs with a 8ft 30lb leader of the sunline stretch fluoro.  The fish dove straight down and broke me off and I had about 3ft of leader left with a lot of abrasion on the last ~6".  I wasn't playing the fish but I wasn't letting it run either.  Just wish I had the drag cranked down a bit more and had been a bit more aggressive.

Also I've heard mixed reviews about loop knots on heavier mono - anyone using a nonslip loop on 30lb or higher?  It didn't fail this time but I've been skeptical of it.  I'm thinking about just ditching the leader and using straight braid with a palomar knot...

[ChesterChompsCheeseburgers]

Iv been using 80lb braid with no leader after losing to many on a 30 maxima leader. Still get lots of bites on sneaky Pete’s and megadogs on striper in the not cal rivers 

[rwp]

I fish around heavy cover in about 30-40 feet of water. If the fish run, I'm done.  I caught a striper today while slow pitching for redfish, and I was lucky that there was no current at the time, because I had my lightest rod with my smallest reel. I still had to stop the fish by thumbing the spool with ~17lbs of drag.

My striper set up is a tranx 500 PG with smooth drag washers set as tight as I can make it. I use 60lb hollow braid with 100 feet of 60lb mono.

I use a centuari knot for any leader 30lb and up. If you are going to use straight braid, use a modified uni (twice though the eye and 10 twists), its far stronger than a palomar. I would also use 80lb braid if you aren't using a leader, mostly so you don't cast off heavy lures if you get a birds nest.

Keep in mind, braid has terrible abrasion resistance when compared to mono. 60lb mono is where its at.

I've also caught many striper with a tranx 300/400, they just don't have the line capacity. I like to have enough line to strip off 30 or 40 feet and still keep my braid out of the water while fishing.

Here's a pic of some of the stuff I fish around, I've had 40lb sliced off in a second with bigger fish.

[browniez]

I fish shallow rivers for them mostly. Fish are coming out of timber.

Straight 80, locked drag, 3x hooks. Winch them out (or at least turn their head before they get to the wood). 
 

It’s kind of like grouper fishing. Won or lost in the first 10 feet. 

[danthefisherman]

That must have been heartbreaking.

I'm no expert when it comes to striper, but I've had old timers tell me that sometimes you just have to learn how to play the fish instead of horsing them in. It's risky to let them run when there is structure nearby, but I've had enough fish gator roll and straighten hooks/hardware to know where their suggestions are coming from.

Do what you have to to horse them out of cover, but I'd take my time playing a hot fish in open water. Wait until you have the net ready before bringing them to the surface and close to the boat. I've lost more fish at the boat than landed unfortunately.

Good luck!