Circle Hooks in Isla Mujeres, Mexico

[Jer]

Isla Mujeres, Mexico
February 2008

Article by Bill Pino

Some people say that a sailfish bite is a sailfish bite regardless of the method of generating that bite. I agree to a point but if I had to mention a favorite it would be raising a sailfish on the troll and watching the fish attack a surface teaser. Nothing gets the blood pumping harder then seeing the pointy dorsal and bill pop out of the blue and crash a chain or teaser plug 20 feet behind the boat.

Last year we fished out of Isla on a boat that did not troll teasers but rather just deployed a double mullet dredge. The technique was very effective but did catch a few of us off guard. We noticed that a fish would come off the dredge right to our flat lines. That quick switch from dredge to flat line can be a great thing if you have a group of experienced anglers that are standing at the ready. But our group of anglers included boys and girls ages 10-16 with limited angling experience. Only one of the kids made the trip this year but we also added two adults that had never caught sailfish. I was very excited to see our mate John from the Big Hunter preparing two squid chains along with the rubber fish dredges for our day of trolling on this trip.

Our goal for this trip was to learn more about the proper use of circle hooks. The choice of hook on this day was the Eagle Claw 2004EL 7/0 rigged with a 60 lb billfisher swivel coming out the bottom lip and chin weighted with 1/8 ounce egg sinkers. We had the two rookie anglers set up on the long riggers and the more experienced anglers set up on the flat lines. The Set Spread Our spread on the Big Hunter consisted of 4 Shimano TLD 25’s with 30lb Moi Moi Diamond, 60lb Moi Moi clear leader and the 7/0 Eagle Claw 2004EL circle hook slipped through the 60lb billfisher swivel coming out of the small locally caught ballyhoo bait. The dredges were filled with 9inch Action Plastic black and silver rubber shads and a few dredge mullets trailing the rubber fish. Our teasers consisted of a 9 inch green Mold Craft squid chain in the left teaser position and a 9 inch Squidnation Blue and White Checker Board squid chain on the right teaser. Captain Brian Peele controlled both the teaser chains and the dredges from the bridge. The dredges were set at about 30 feet and the squid chains were set almost on top of the dredges, a little to the outside. Our speed was about 5 knots. The Hook up Procedure We were instructed to be at the ready with our flat lines out of the clip and rod out to the side in free spool with the clickers off. Something that I had not been instructed to do before was to also hold the line between the reel and the stripper guide out about 18-20inches. When a fish was behind the flat line and about to attack we should release the line and swing the rod from the side to pointing at the fish. This technique would allow the sailfish to turn on his bait without any resistance whatsoever.

The technique on the long riggers was to stand at the ready with finger tips on the line. When a fish was spotted we were to point the rod at the fish and free spool until we felt a change in speed of line coming off the reel. For both the long riggers and flat line bites we were instructed to inch the drag forward with our rod low to the water. Our drag was to slowly increase and hope to see line continually leaving the spool. If the line continued to leave as the drag was increased then our fish was hooked up. If the line stopped leaving the reel we were to slowly bring it back to the top to see if our bait was intact. Capt Brian would ask us to either bring it back to position or free spool it for a twenty count to see if the fish would pick up the bait.

Once our fish was hooked up Captain Brian would work a circle in towards the fish and clear the dredges. We would prospect the opposite bait for a 60 second count on the long rigger and sometimes prospect the flat line nearest the hooked fish for 20-30seconds. The idea is that if the Capt is turning into the fish then it will not fowl our prospecting baits because our hooked fish would be inside the circle. We were able to pick up a few fish prospecting. The hook up method for a prospected bait is similar except that sometimes the angler may not feel the fish because the sailfish may be swimming towards the boat. Our mate would ask us to just reel until we were tight on the fish. Our crews enjoyed a better then average hook up ratio with the help and instruction from our mate John and Capt. Brian Peele. Our rookie anglers had a better hook up ratio then our more experience anglers. The rookies listened to all the instruction and rarely took matters into their own hands to improvise. Our 13 year old angler also had a much better hook up ratio. This may be because as a young angler he has not had the opportunity to billfish with J-hooks. Our Eagle Claw hooks seemed to consistently catch the corner of the sail’s mouth. We also experienced very few spit hooks or chafed off fish and virtually no bleeders. We were extremely impressed with our crew and look forward to fishing with Capt Brian and John again next year.

[brad regan 01]

awesome job bill and jer

[OCcaptain]

Bill,

It looks like he is pushing the wire down throught the top lip. Doesn't that put the swivel on the top? Or am I looking at it wrong? BTW Great coverage and pictures.

Al

[Squidnation]

The wire goes through the inside of the bottom lip.

[gradywhite273]

as usual, nothing but first class stuff here from bill. outstanding bill.

[pitch bait]

Nice video Bil.
Very impressive, very calm and quite. Thats how I like it. Did the fish primarly come to the dredge then switch to the treaser, or come right on the teaser? Did you change hooks after every fish? Did you guys use a wind on, or just a 60lb leader to a snap swivel? Sorry for all the questions.

[Seaker]

Will watch it 20 more!

Incredible learning and knowledge here.

Thank you so very much for making this public.

[flatbottom]

I like the layout in this thread. Great job guys !!!

Now for the meat and potatoes. Fantastic read Bill. As Vin said above. I will watch all the video again. This is good stuff.

Thanks for taking the time Bill. I enjoy your Circle Hook Tour !!!!!

[Squidnation]

Bobby I have a little break in the show so I will try and answer.

They have a box full of 3 foot rigs ready. They use 20 foot wind on and snap the 3ft pieces as needed. They use new hooks everytime. Even when just switching out washed out baits.

The water clairity sucked so I can't say for absolute certainity that they didn't come off the dredge but I can say that we were getting all long rigger bites until we switched out teaser's.


The water did clear up a few times and the Capt called out a fish in the dredge. He faded off and we got him on the long rigger. That was on third day. I have not posted anything on the second or third day. I will do that after the boat show.

[pitch bait]

Thanks Bill I appreciate the clarification. god luck with the show.