Topwater Tuna

[Rhode Island Popper]

regardless of core temp.
3 fish now have lip jewelry impeding feeding, with varying lengths of line trailing.
if they inhaled the plugs, like many do, how will they be faring.

I'm sure the one doing death circles is fine today though.

I'm with sashamy. fish for them with appropriate tackle, period.

Well that's one reason i don't use the Stainless Steel hooks on my casting baits because firstly they don't rust out and secondly they don't hold a sharp enough edge. I'm not sure which lures they lost fish on but I'm pretty sure they weren't any of mine. Hopefully the tag was broke short and the fish will only drag the hook for a short time.

The spinning gear they are using today and braid lines are as strong as the 50 class conventional and are capable of putting more drag on the fish. It's amazing how quickly they can get fish in with it.

Jimmy welcome to the forum.....nice job!!!

Armand please post close up pics and a link to that plug.....I'd like to try one to the South....

Sure here you go: http://shop.atlanticoffshorelures.co...8&categoryId=4

[Backtothesea]

Well that's one reason i don't use the Stainless Steel hooks on my casting baits because firstly they don't rust out and secondly they don't hold a sharp enough edge. I'm not sure which lures they lost fish on but I'm pretty sure they weren't any of mine. Hopefully the tag was broke short and the fish will only drag the hook for a short time.

for what it is worth, we only use non-stainless hooks and the 3 lost where not on Armands plugs. The first 2 where do to a wind on and a knot failure with short mono/flouro. The third was a short break in the braid due to rich slipping as the BFT did a 180 degree turn across the bow from port to starboard with the braid grazing my pop up nav light bracket. This was accident rather than an error as he knows damn well to keep the line off the boat.

As to BFT mostly inhaling hooks, we have found it is pretty rare for us on topwater and on bars. Sluggos and live bait, depending on how you fish them, can be a different story but we rarely use either. Enjoy the sight fishing aspect of topwater more and my OCD interferes with being able to consistently live bait fish.

[rirockhound]

The spinning gear they are using today and braid lines are as strong as the 50 class conventional and are capable of putting more drag on the fish. It's amazing how quickly they can get fish in with it.

first of all, shit happens and we all lose fish, period. You guys are experienced and it happens

This is not a common ratio though, and I have to imagine a decent release mortality on fish trailing line with a set of trebles in the mouth. Maybe not you guys, but I have seen the OTI poppers, and if one set of those is inside the mouth, that fish is not eating for a while!

you can tell me in words Armand about the drag and such, but I have talked to enough experienced people who have done both spin and convention, and they have all agreed, that you can put more heat on a fish w/ a 50W, and appropriate stick than with the fanciest spinning set-up.

you can put 18lb of drag on them but with a 10-25lb rod it is not the same as 18lb of drag/fight on a 30-80 stand-up rod w/ a 50.

[sashamy]

if you enjoy the sight aspect so much put a single sidewash hook or even better no hook at all....

[Rhode Island Popper]

first of all, shit happens and we all lose fish, period. You guys are experienced and it happens

This is not a common ratio though, and I have to imagine a decent release mortality on fish trailing line with a set of trebles in the mouth. Maybe not you guys, but I have seen the OTI poppers, and if one set of those is inside the mouth, that fish is not eating for a while!

you can tell me in words Armand about the drag and such, but I have talked to enough experienced people who have done both spin and convention, and they have all agreed, that you can put more heat on a fish w/ a 50W, and appropriate stick than with the fanciest spinning set-up.

you can put 18lb of drag on them but with a 10-25lb rod it is not the same as 18lb of drag/fight on a 30-80 stand-up rod w/ a 50.

Brian I don't use any trebles on my tuna plugs for that very reason. The style hook forces a deep penetration and lever action placing it most often in the jaw. They are great hooks as far as the fight your rigth about getting more brute force on the fish because of the gear and myself with my back problems would do much better with conventional but I've seen these guys pull fish very quick with spinning.

[striper swiper]

The reason you can put more heat with a conventional set-up is the harness 18# of drag from a 7' rod applies more pressure to the hook than a 5' rod
As far as a fish dying because it has a hook and line attached. I've sold about 4 dozen tuna that had various ornaments of gear. One in particular had part of it's gill raker and plate grown around the line from longline gear. That fish didn't die till we shot it many years after it had escaped from that gear. The larger fish that I lost are unphased by the fight physically. The core temp proves this.The 7-9/0 live bait style hooks we use will hardly impede they way they feed. The two leader failures had about 5' of material and I know one fish was in the same class as the one I landed. The last lost fish had maybe 40' of line which it would go to the bottom with and rub off. Same way they rub off parisites.
If any of these fish were hooked deep they would chaff off rather quickly. To think they died because someone with no real experience said so??
How many of you have earings,nose rings lip rings or clit rings??? Did you die yet??

[cape_rover]