Matching Tackle

[Fish]

Every spring when the bite turns on, I see a fair amount of comments from small boat guys about "knockdowns" and missed fish. I have some questions for you.

1) Do you match the size of your tackle with the size of your hooks?

2) Are your hooks sharp? Do you really know what it means to have sharp hooks?

3) Do you check to see what the fish are eating?

4) If so, do you change to a similar bait and scale up or down to match?

[JABIII]

Bo. Are you trolling the trollers? Talking fishing vs reeling is going to be lost on the hoarde...

[ecu1984]

I wear a small lanyard with two things on it, a braid cutter and a hook sharpener.
I use Spro hardware, small and very strong

[Duck cutter]

I wear a small lanyard with two things on it, a braid cutter and a hook sharpener.
I use Spro hardware, small and very strong

I tournament fish on occasion,
One fellow I fished with a few years ago kept a small bastard file in his pocket.
If he caught a fish, he'd sharpen his hook.

[Griffin]

Na brah penn 80w for everything from the mouse trap to the way back brah. Eagle claw razor sharp 7/0 all the way around while I sip from my yeti cup to was down the blow from a strippers titty! Offshore life brah!!!

[scdiver]

We change leader size and hooks based on target species.

Most of our rigs have a wire trace for the wahoo that doesn't know he's eating a tuna bait.


We mostly meat fish.

Bottom fishing is similar, different rigs and leader based on target species.

[2thDoc]

i like to eat tuna and dolphin

[MolliesMaster]

i like to eat tuna and dolphin

.... I agree with 2th..

[2thDoc]

bout damn time.

and it was about FOOD too

[buckpro]

I see that a lot too, what’s even more dumbfounding is hearing people that say they lost 4-5 fish at the boat. We’ve never lost that many in a year, much less a day.

I once had a fella say my hooks were too sharp, he needed a box of band aids.

[sftull]

I drop it to the bottom and reel them up. I'm not SaltLife enough for the big leagues yet.

[Glenn]

We gettin' in the salt here? Cuz I can get in the salt if that's where you want to go.

[Highstrung]

2th does not like baitcasters.

[DRDUCK]

Let's get in it then. Slingers dude.

[Fish]

I see that a lot too, what’s even more dumbfounding is hearing people that say they lost 4-5 fish at the boat. We’ve never lost that many in a year, much less a day.

In the grand scheme of catching fish, how you handle the boat is just as important as how you manage your tackle.

I was unfortunate enough to fish with this one particular googan we just called squidly. Real name was David something. He sucked. Yankee. You probably know the type. Every time we got a bite that dumbass yelled wahoo. Anyway, we were fishing the Edisto tournament and we slaughtered the meatfish. But we didn't have anything particularly big. And the last day we were fishing our way back home and we hooked a pretty nice dolphin. He was 50ish, maybe a little better, and when he bit, he ran off to the side, like they always do. And I'd been trying to teach that idiot how to run that boat so when I saw the bite I told him to turn toward the fish, speed up, and head him off. Instead, he decided to keep the transom pointed at the fish, you know, all dramatic like. I swear to you, he put that boat in reverse. Anyway, he prolonged the tension and he pulled that fish off. Literally tore the side of his jaw hinge apart.

When you've been a deckhand long enough, you start to understand the concept, time is of the essence. Repeatable success is really just a simple matter of practicality. Close the gap and get the fish on the boat as fast as possible. If you want long fights, take up fly fishing.

[buckpro]

In the grand scheme of catching fish, how you handle the boat is just as important as how you manage your tackle.

I was unfortunate enough to fish with this one particular googan we just called squidly. Real name was David something. He sucked. Yankee. You probably know the type. Every time we got a bite that dumbass yelled wahoo. Anyway, we were fishing the Edisto tournament and we slaughtered the meatfish. But we didn't have anything particularly big. And the last day we were fishing our way back home and we hooked a pretty nice dolphin. He was 50ish, maybe a little better, and when he bit, he ran off to the side, like they always do. And I'd been trying to teach that idiot how to run that boat so when I saw the bite I told him to turn toward the fish, speed up, and head him off. Instead, he decided to keep the transom pointed at the fish, you know, all dramatic like. I swear to you, he put that boat in reverse. Anyway, he prolonged the tension and he pulled that fish off. Literally tore the side of his jaw hinge apart.

When you've been a deckhand long enough, you start to understand the concept, time is of the essence. Repeatable success is really just a simple matter of practicality. Close the gap and get the fish on the boat as fast as possible. If you want long fights, take up fly fishing.

Seen that happen before when I used to jump around on different boats, drove me nuts. I finally got to where I’d bring my own rigs with me too. I never understood people spending all this money on boat/tackle and putting a 10cent Walmart snap swivel on the line. Big dolphin get finesse and boat handling, smaller get horsed in and over with, on to the next. So many little things make a difference.

Another thing I hear that is right back to boat handling, pulling the hook on wahoo….. Never happened….the captain or the angler sucked at their job and didn’t keep pressure on the fish and he shook. I don’t see how you can pull a hook on a wahoo, we went 23 for 24 on wahoo in tournaments this year and the one we “lost” was about 1 second of drag pull and that’s it, he hit the head and missed the hooks. 25+lbs of drag on every fish, never pulled one. Had one fish I locked down past 36lbs of drag to stop.

[scdiver]

I hate when the guy driving the boat pulls the throttle back, after you repeatedly tell them not to do that, when using an in line planer.

[jws]

Na brah penn 80w for everything from the mouse trap to the way back brah. Eagle claw razor sharp 7/0 all the way around while I sip from my yeti cup to was down the blow from a strippers titty! Offshore life brah!!!

If doing blow off a strippers titty aint cool, I don't wanna be cool

[Fish]

I hate when the guy driving the boat pulls the throttle back, after you repeatedly tell them not to do that, when using an in line planer.

You should be able to pull the line three or four feet and let it go to reset any planer. But I understand your frustration.

The reality is, most people who aspire to "run" a boat, particularly here in SC, really, really suck at it.

[scdiver]

You should be able to pull the line three or four feet and let it go to reset any planer. But I understand your frustration.

The reality is, most people who aspire to "run" a boat, particularly here in SC, really, really suck at it.

My concern is when the wahoo shakes the hook when slack gets in the line.

Same goes for high speed baits, drag that guy all the way to the boat!