Baitfish and stripers are drawn to tide-swept riprap.

A ripping current sizzles around the rock-strewn stanchion of the towering Verrazano Bridge, creating back eddies and pockets of calm water along the inside seam. I’ve fished striper structure all over the Northeast, but this looming architectural marvel and adjacent serrated bank is stupendous. With so many classic ambush spots under this span, you just know a fat striper could blast a baitfish in a New York second. Every second.

But after a half-dozen fly changes and pinpoint casts on this picture-perfect overcast morning, my tail is between my legs.

Plenty of peanut bunker flip-flopped along the rocks. Where are the bass? On the verge of calling it a day, I pick up a light spinning rod with a beaten-up popping plug I had used earlier to catch a few bluefish for the table. I flip the plug inches from a shoreline rock and an inside seam. Expecting nothing, I jerk the rodtip and the popper spits and rattles. I let it sit and am about to jerk it again when water exploded in a geyser and a tail the size of both my hands put together slapped the surface. Like the jackass I am, I rip back on the rod and the plug went flying, and I ducked quickly enough to avoid its trebles. My heart pounds as I maneuver the boat upcurrent to flip the plug to the same spot. One pop, two pops, let it sit. A big fish boils on it, exposing its massive flanks. “Holy...shhhii...!” I said to myself. One more pop and a 30-pound bass launches itself at the plug. My drag sings a short note and it’s over. My reply would embarrass the saltiest of sailors.

To add insult to injury, that was the only popper I had, but the experience taught me a valuable lesson. Big, finicky stripers on the rocks can’t resist a noisy, obnoxious popper. I carry lots of ’em these days.

Choose a Popper

The noisier the better. Choose a fly-rod popper or a popping plug with this golden rule in mind. I gauge the quality of a popper by how much noise it makes. If you tie on a popping bug that gurgles a little bit, it certainly isn’t going to catch as many fish as one that spits and splashes. The same applies for plugs. Though a floater/diver plug or a walking plug such as a Zara Spook will entice wary bass, fishing around the rocks calls for more commotion. I prefer to use full-floating popping plugs that have built-in rattles for extra noise.

Loud poppers can often light a fire under larger, finicky stripers.

It’s tough to make as much noise with a flyrod popper as you can with a popping plug, but it’s possible. I use the commercially made EdgeWater Boilermaker No. 2/0 large foam bodies, and tie them on a 4/0 long-shank hook. Instead of pushing the hook through the pre-made hole in the middle of the foam popper body, I drive it through the bottom so the eye pushes out the bottom portion, making its own hole. This makes the popper dive deeper when pulled under, pushing more water and making a larger splash. Instead of the retail versions that have bucktail tails, I tie mine with 2-inch-long hackle and a bit of Flashabou because I feel that additional material gives the feather tail a bit more action. For additional sound, I add a 5mm glass rattle by hollowing out the pre-made hole in the middle of the foam popper body with a pair of fly tying scissors and just push the rattle chamber in there, sealing it with epoxy. This customized popper rattles, spits, pops and makes noise like no other. I don’t believe color is nearly as important as the noise-making properties, but still I opt for the highly visible colors. My favorite is chartreuse with yellow, or all white.

Let’s Hit the Rocks

Getting back to the current, seam, back-eddy and calm water properties of riprap and other rocky structures, the first section to focus on is the seam. Remember the seam lies inside of where the current cranks around the rocks. The seam is particularly easy to make out because it appears as a clear line between the calmer water and the cranking current. Inside that seam are the back eddies and calmer water where the “hogs” are hanging out waiting for bait to fly by. First, make a cast to that far current-side rock where the water rips around. Work the popper in short quick bursts past the rock and current and into the seam. Then let it pause for a second before continuing the retrieve into the back eddy. Usually, if there are fish around, that popper will get smashed right on the seam. If not, work the calm water and back eddies on the inside of the seam. As the current takes you down the rocks, get as many casts as possible against the rocks on the inside as quite often there are fish right up against the rocks and even behind them. Depending on how strong the current is, this may require bumping the motor throttle to stay close enough to the rocks to get a cast onto them.