I'm going to start with bait. The reason is the size of the bait should generally determine the size of the hooks you will need. For BTB fishing there are basically a couple rules of thumb.
1. Use whatever bait occurs naturally in the surf at the time you are fishing.
Here's what I like, in the order I like them:
A. Skipjacks - very oily, bull reds and sharks love em!
B. Mullet - easy to come by most of the year. Normally the first bait I use. a mullet head is usually my first bait in the water. It is very hardy, lasts a long time and is difficult for gafftops to eat. Large chunks of mullet work very well, but don't last as long and tend to wash out if they soak for a long time.
C. Whiting & Croaker - I lump these two baits together as my third favorite bait. They can usually be caught easily in the surf or in the same area you are fishing.
D. Sand Trout - these are just as effective as Whiting and Croaker, but they don't come as easily.
E. Pinfish - A live pinfish is almost a guaranteed bite. The problem is that they are not easy to keep alive when you're fishing BTB. Most of the time you're not carrying a livewell with you.
F. Crabs - a half a crab fished October through March is deadly on bull reds. In fact it is a go-to bait. The problem is that you won't catch many sharks on them. The good thing is that you also won't catch any gafftops on them either. Most of your bites on crabs will be either a redfish or a black drum.
2. From March through October - bigger is better! - Large and I do mean large quantities of gafftops and little sharpnose sharks can be a royal pain in the butt during these months. The bigger the bait the better! Generally speaking, a bait the size of a large mullet head or a softball will be enough to keep the gafftops off. They'll pick it up and run with it. But they have a really tough time eating it. On that note, they'll drive you nuts because the bite can be really aggressive. And you'll think you have a bite from a bull red or a shark. But 9 times out of ten you'll merely pull the bait away from them.
Now if you fish smaller baits, you'll get covered up by these pests.
A really big bait demands the use of a really big hook. I use 15/0-18/0 circle hooks with 16/0 being the preferred size. Don't be afraid to use big baits and big hooks. You'll be surprised at how big a bait a bull red will eat.
If you're fishing 20lb and smaller baits, you can get away with a smaller circle hook such as an 11/0 - 14/0 hook. But I would try to stay away from this especially from March through October. The catfish will just tear you up.
The Jolly Roger Cocktail
If you've managed to use up all your big baits and you're left with smaller croakers, whiting or whatever, you have the perfect ingredients for a "Jolly Roger Cocktail." Just take a couple baits and put them on one hook and fire it out. That's it! You'd be surprised how well this works!
Leaders
Leaders need not be complicated. But there are some important considerations when building your leaders. If you're out for bull reds you can simply splice a piece of 80lb mono to your main line, tie on a hook and be done with it. But you'll lose most of your sharks you hook.
I use a modified version of a surf leader. Basically I have crimp a black ball bearing swivel to a piece of 150-200lb mono. Then I crimp a 100lb-150lb black ball bearing snap swivel to the other end. This piece is normally about 3.5 feet long, at most. Then I'll crimp a loop or a welded ring eye in another 2' piece of 200lb mono or 135lb coated wire. Then I crimp the hook on to the end.
What you end up with is a leader extension and a short piece that you can replace after each fish. All you need is a few of these "shorties" to take out with you. Those who fish the Beyond the Breakers High Island event on Sept 24 will receive a leader pack that is rigged like that.
The reason for the very heavy mono is so that sharks won't rub through them if they wrap up in the leader or on the jumps. And you can control your fish much easier when they are boatside.
Next BTB Tip #3 will include techniques for fighting and landing big fish from a kayak. And BTB TIp #4 will include accessories you'll need to be effective for this style of fishing.
BTB Tip #2: baits and leaders
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Parrothead
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spiny norman
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Some of us folks going to the Round up don't have any King experience.
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Waterborne
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Leaders
A question for Parrot Head.
Do you know of anyone using Gel spun leaders? I was looking at some 300lb GSP and it was really tuff stuff, it required compound bolt cutters to cut and would give a loud crack when you cut through it.
Seems some fish shy away from steel leaders, like red fish, but this stuff should hold a medium sized shark. You can knot it but i would probably crimp at least the swivel end. Any thoughts or experience?
Also would like advice on artificials for trolling and casting.
Do you know of anyone using Gel spun leaders? I was looking at some 300lb GSP and it was really tuff stuff, it required compound bolt cutters to cut and would give a loud crack when you cut through it.
Seems some fish shy away from steel leaders, like red fish, but this stuff should hold a medium sized shark. You can knot it but i would probably crimp at least the swivel end. Any thoughts or experience?
Also would like advice on artificials for trolling and casting.
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buzhazzard
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Parrothead
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Hey Cutbait,
I've never used that leader material. But I'll tell you that bull reds are by no means leader shy. We catch them all the time on wire. Most of the time the water at High Island tends to be on the murky side. So it seldom matters.
And on the occassion where the water is really green or much clearer, you can just drop down to Mono to get bit. I've actually caught sharks on mono and circle hooks. Almost every shark I've ever caught on a circle hook is hooked in the corner of the mouth. You just have to get lucky.
Certain times of the year, I don't even bother with wire because I know there are very few sharks such as October through March.
When that happens, I'll often simply splice a piece of 80lb mono directly to my main line and keep tying new circle hooks on if I have to cut a fish off.
I've never used that leader material. But I'll tell you that bull reds are by no means leader shy. We catch them all the time on wire. Most of the time the water at High Island tends to be on the murky side. So it seldom matters.
And on the occassion where the water is really green or much clearer, you can just drop down to Mono to get bit. I've actually caught sharks on mono and circle hooks. Almost every shark I've ever caught on a circle hook is hooked in the corner of the mouth. You just have to get lucky.
Certain times of the year, I don't even bother with wire because I know there are very few sharks such as October through March.
When that happens, I'll often simply splice a piece of 80lb mono directly to my main line and keep tying new circle hooks on if I have to cut a fish off.
Let's assume a fish picks up a big bait with a circle hook and swallows the bait down pretty deep. When you reel tight, is the circle hook suppose to pull off from the bait or does the bait/hook get pulled out and hook onto the lip?
I ask because I see a lot of people using zip ties to keep the hook(s) on the bait. Hard to imagine a hook pulling loose from a chunk of bait when there's zip ties around it.
I ask because I see a lot of people using zip ties to keep the hook(s) on the bait. Hard to imagine a hook pulling loose from a chunk of bait when there's zip ties around it.
Let's assume a fish picks up a big bait with a circle hook and swallows the bait down pretty deep. When you reel tight, is the circle hook suppose to pull off from the bait or does the bait/hook get pulled out and hook onto the lip?
I ask because I see a lot of people using zip ties to keep the hook(s) on the bait. Hard to imagine a hook pulling loose from a chunk of bait when there's zip ties around it.
The zip ties are to make sure the hook is exposed well so it can grab the fish. If your hook is burried in the bait it wont catch onto the fishes mouth. they also help keep bait stealers like gaftops from pulling your bait off the hook.
Robert
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Parrothead
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UofHYaker wrote:
The zip ties are to make sure the hook is exposed well so it can grab the fish. If your hook is burried in the bait it wont catch onto the fishes mouth. they also help keep bait stealers like gaftops from pulling your bait off the hook.
Robert
This statement above is 150% false.
The only way we fish with circle hooks is to bury the hook in the bait. I'll take that even a step further. When we fish with mullet heads we often bury the hook by starting in through the back of the head and out the gill plate, which as you should know is the hardest part of the mullet.
When a bait is hooked in this fashion, it will not get stolen by bait stealers and we still have no problem hooking big sharks and redfish.
In all my years, I've never seen anyone secure a bait with a zip-tie. But I suppose it can be done. On the other hand, I have seen baits sewn to a circle hook with a piece of dental floss. That works very well, but is time consuming. And, your bait stealers will have a very good chance at taking the bait.
Here's what happens often. You cast your bait out and it hits the bottom. Several bait stealers will nibble it, pick it up, move off with it, drop it. This creates a lot of scent in the water and the activity brings in bigger fish too, such as redfish and sharks. In this scenario, your bait needs to remain on the hook long enough for the scent to disperse and the big fish you are targeting to come in and zero in on the bait.
You also need to understand the mechanics of how and why circle hooks work before saying that if a fish takes a bait deep on a circle hook that it won't pull out into the fish's jaw.
Circle hooks, unlike J hooks seldom set deep. And when they do it is seldom set in a damaging place like a gill raker. In fact with little exception I've been able to retrieve a very high percentage of my circle hooks that get set deep with little to no damage to the fish. And with the exception of one fish, they've all swam off really strong.
Having said that, I'd say a solid 80% of the fish I catch on circle hooks are hooked in the corner of the jaw or in the bottom, right in the middle. Unlike J-hooks a circle hook has a very limited offset between the shank and the bend of the hook. In addition the point itself, being curved in allows the hook to pull through the fish's head, from down deep. As a result because of the design of the hook, it can generally set in only two places if it didn't catch an edge down deep. As a result, the hook generally sets in the bottom jaw or corner of the mouth.
The fish that are hooked deep are almost always the fish that eat a bait and come at you. These are the fish that have longer to consume the bait.
You have to understand that redfish have very powerful crushers. Once a redfish really takes a bait, it very quickly becomes a soft pulp that is easy for the circle hook to pull out of. So setting the hook in a redfish when the hook is buried in the bait is seldom a problem.
Lastly, if you're burying your hooks deep in a bait, and missing fish there may be three reasons for it.
1. Your hooks are too small or your tackle too light to put enough pressure to pull the hook.
2. Your drag setting is too light. If you don't have a lot of drag on a fish when it takes a big circle hook you'll miss a lot of fish, and it will seem like you can't pull the hook out of the bait.
3. Your hook setting technique is improper. If you like to swing the rod like Bill Dance to set the hook, you'll find yourself missing a lot of fish. I never use the rod to set the hook. Anyone who has ever fished with me will hear me often say "wind, wind, wind."
When a good fish takes a bait, I figure I have about a 85-90% hook-up ratio. I miss very few fish on circle hooks.
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Parrothead
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Normally what I would do is to slide a bead, followed by a snap swivel and another bead on to the extension. Then you can adjust your weight for the current.
However, if you're fishing off Sea Rim or High Island, current is usually not much of an issue. Besides t hat, the bait itself is pretty heavy itself.
However, if you're fishing off Sea Rim or High Island, current is usually not much of an issue. Besides t hat, the bait itself is pretty heavy itself.