Imagine fishing at the mouth of a tidal river for striped bass. If it has been a great season, chances are you catching stripers of up to 25 pounds in shallow water using little more than an artificial lure. Then stop and think what happens if someone flips a switch and the fish suddenly disappear.brbr Then you notice that as the waters become more transparent you see fish moving along in small groups. It seems that no matter how hard you work to catch a fish, they refuse to take a second look at anything you offer them. You start to wonder what it is that they are seeing that you cannot see.brbr After thinking about it, you downsize your tackle and land a small fish. Once you get them into the boat, you find tiny translucent crabs as he coughs up his breakfast. Now you know! It does not seem to matter what tackle you used these fish were determined that you would go home fishless.brbr These are precisely the situations we you can steal a lesson from the fly fishing world. It is called match the hatch and in essence what it means is that you need to find the bait that is similar to what the fish are feeding on. Not only does the size have to match, but the appearance has to be close. It has often been noted that some fish neglect any offerings that are not similar in nature to the current insect hatch. Saltwater species also share this trait. They get fixated on a certain size and type of bait and nothing else will attract them.brbrIn the Northeast especially in shallow water, this is fairly common. It is even more common in salt ponds and estuaries. For instance, when the sun to warm patches in the salt ponds, fish will almost always strike at presentations that imitate the worms. They tend to ignore almost everything else. Fly fishermen typically do pretty well in this type of environment. They generally will present tiny worms that it 2 to 3 inches long. Spinning anglers, find this a little bit more difficult because lures that tiny can be difficult. The best bet is to scale down your tackle and not just the lure.brbr10 pound test braid line and a medium action spinning rod will allow you to use these smaller offerings and still allow you to catch a fairly large fish.The Lunker City Slug-O usually the 3rdquo; size, preferably rigged with an offset worm is a fairly good substitute. You will have to experiment with bold colors and sizes to find out which ones will work best.brbr Long known as one of the least discriminatory fishes in the ocean, the bluefish will from time to time focus on tiny baitfish and regardless of what you offer them, they simply refused to strike. This is especially common is the season grows longer and the baitfish invade the shallow waters. Fishermen will find the tackle box stocked with small spoons and soft plastics allow them to still have a great fishing day. The secret to this is to keep an eye on what the fish coughed up on the boat deck. That will help you determine what size, shape, and color they are really after.brbrThe situations are not unique, and nearly every saltwater angler will run into them at one time or another. For whatever reason, fish will be particular at times however, are prepared fishermen will likely have the resources to still get the job done. These fishermen will almost always have the tools on hand to effectively match the hatch.brbrWhen you are out saltwater fishing it is important to make sure you have the right supplies. Some of the most popular brands include a href=http://www.saltwaterfishing247.com/shimano-fishing-reels/ target=’_blank’Shimano Fishing Reels/a, a href=http://www.saltwaterfishing247.com/penn-fishing-reels/ target=’_blank’Penn Saltwater Reels/a, and a href=http://www.saltwaterfishing247.com/daiwa-fishing-reels/ target=’_blank’Daiwa Reels/a.brbr