By Bill Pino
Palm Beach, Florida
January 25-28, 2008
Boat: Billfisher - Capt Joe Duffie
Our goal for this trip was to learn the proper way to rig live goggle eyes on circle hooks. The morning conditions allowed for the crew to deploy two kites and 3 baits per kite. The light winds of the afternoon forced us to abandon the kites and run the live goggle eyes out of the riggers. The crew made slight adjustments to the baits with each method of fishing.
Our crew members were Capt Jon Duffie and mate John Prather. John first showed us the method of rigging the eagle claw L2004 8/0 circle hooks for the kites.Our hooks were snelled on to 40lb fluorocarbon leaders.
Next a small black rubber band was cinched to the hook at the bottom of the bend. We used a modified rigging needle to pass the rubber band through the baitfish.
John used a pair of dikes to snip one side of the
eye of the needle to allow for the rubber band to hook on to the modified needle eye.
The needle was then passed through the back of the goggle eye. We then passed the hook through the rubber band and made three full twists on the rubber band to tighten the band snug to the back of the fish.
Lastly we pull the hook slightly away from the fish to expose the area before the first twist in the band and passed the hook through.
The purpose of the kite is to raise the leader out of the water and present a struggling baitfish on top of the water or slightly below the surface. We placed a red float above the swivel. The float is used as an indicator. Kite fishing is not a pitch and watch activity. The rod must be manned at all times. The goggle eye must be positioned directly under the kite but not out of the water or allowed to swim too deep in the water. Constant release and retrieve of the line is necessary to keep the bait in the optimal position.
We managed a double and a single off the kites. The circle hooks preformed flawlessly hooking each fish right in the corner of the mouth. The method of hook setting is rather simple with the circle hooks. When a fish grabbed the bait we were instructed to turn off the clicker and maintain total free spool.
The captain suggested that all fish react different so a standard count was not necessary but rather wait for a slight change in the speed of the line coming off the reel before engaging the drag. We then slowly reeled until the fish was tight and the kite clip popped. Once the clip popped we would reel quickly taking the slack from the line. Now with the fish tight the angler would make sure the rod was low and on the opposite side that the fish was swimming. The other method was actually easier. Sails would some times eat but not move away from the baits but rather continue searching for more to eat. Sometimes the sail's slight movement was enough to allow the hook to find the corner of the sail's mouth. The sailfish would then come up jumping indicating that the fish was already hooked.
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| The angler would then just crank up the slack, pop the clip and reel until tight. We even had a sailfish come in and eat two baits. The true benefit of circle hooks became apparent when it was noticed that even though the sail ate two baits, both of the baits were in each corner of the mouth. | ||
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The mantra that the captain and mate kept reiterating was to keep the rod low to the water, keep constant pressure and always have the rod on the opposite side of your body from the direction the fish is swimming.
Later in the day we had to switch to fishing the baits from the riggers. The bait rigging was the same except for the hook placement. We would put the needle just in front of the nostrils in a natural soft spot on the fish. This would allow the fish to swim better and dig a bit deeper when being fished from the riggers. We fished a bait off of each long rigger set back about 150 feet. The boat was bumped in and out of gear to maintain position. The hook up method was similar to the kites. We kept the rod tip low and on free spool and allowed the fish to take the bait. As the fish changed speed or we saw the fish actually come up jumping we would push up the drag and reel until it came tight. We managed to catch 2 for 2 on the rigger bites.
On the second day we had two different weather conditions. When we arrived at the fishing grounds we were welcomed with slight wind and flat conditions. The fishing was a bit slow but we did manage two out of five sails on the kites.
Two of the sails were missed on the hook up and one pulled off 10 feet from the official release. Conditions deteriorated rapidly and we were soon struggling to keep the boat in the proper position in the 20-25 mph northwest winds. When the winds reached close to 30 mph it was time to put the baits back in the riggers. We managed a single bite and released one sailfish.
Capt. Jon Duffie and mate John Prather of the Billfisher are two top notch fishermen who love to fish for sailfish. Their attention to detail and willingness to teach had us busy all day. They knew that we were there to learn how to correctly use circle hooks and allowed us to be involved with all the rigging, hook setting, angling and leadering.
With the exception of a couple miscues and train wrecks we managed to escape any catastrophes. There are many ways to learn how to fish but there is no substitute for actual hands-on experience.
Next stop on the World Circle Hook Tour is Isla Mujeres on February 7th
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