Best Striped Bass Lure

Striped bass are very plentiful along both the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia coast and they enter many of our rivers. There are a number of popular methods for hooking stripers. Bait, retrieving lures and top water plugs are effective but nothing hooks more stripers than an artificial eel rigged to look alive.

We import eel bodies, salt water hooks and lead-head spoons from “Felmlee” A pre-rigged “Felmlee” eel has an 80 lb steel wire joining the head to the rear hook. Over a several year period I landed quite a number of large stripers on these pre-rigged eels but one time I also lost a very large bass when the metal crimp holding the wire to the hook let go. Not only did I lose the bass, I also lost the rear hook and wire leader. This appeared to just be a rare defect in the rigging.

Being a smart angler and a wanting to salvage the eel, I took the remaining eel body/ lead head and I then retied the eel with a salt water hook and 100 lb test soft braid line.

WOW!! The eel was now much more flexible and had a superior action! It looked alive as it was trolled or reeled in. The standard Flemlee eel has the same action but it has to be retrieved or trolled at a slightly faster speed. Over the years I have landed many very large stripers with the standard Flemlee eel but the modified version appears to have the upper edge with large and lazy stripers. I say “lazy” because I,ve read that big stripers are looking for an easy meal without exerting a lot of energy.

One time I was with a good striper fisherman on the Saint John River. Larry was using a top water plug, which can be effective at times, and I was using the modified “Felmlee” eel. Larry managed to have only one striper swirl for his plug while I was into my seventh striper of the morning when Larry borrowed one of my spare modified eels. He immediately hooked a big striper on the borrowed modified eel.

Here is a 46 inch Striped Bass with the modified eel lure still in her mouth. Notice the 36 inch tape measure behind the striped bass to give perspective

It has been my personal experience, based on fifty years of striper fishing, that nothing hooks more stripers than a modified or the standard “Felmlee” eel.These eels come in several different sizes but the most popular two sizes are – an 11” with a one ounce lead head and a bigger 16” with a three ounce lead head. Both are very effective but generally speaking, the 11” model is best suited for casting and the 16” model is best for trolling.

Doiron Sports in Saint John have a large stock of Flemlee eels in all sizes and in several different colours.

Our Modified Flemlee eel is available at:

Better-Buy-Sports in Moncton and in Dartmouth

Oromocto Canadian Tire

Hunt Outdoors in Truro, NS

Leno’s Stop & Shop in Elmsdale, NS

Lequille Country Store in Lequille, NS