"If at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving"
Join Date
Mar 2005
Posts
128
Blue Marlin questions
How many pounds of drag do you use on strike Marlin fishing with lures. The outfits will be 80's and the lures will be mold craft chuggers (Wide range, Bobby Brown special). How much drag are should I say tension on release clips when fishing these lures in the short and long positon from outriggers. Do you single are do you double hook. My team lost three Marlin last year during the Big Rock, two of them where weigh fish, one of them was freaking huge, got the better part of a 130 in 60 seconds only to have the hook pull 10 minutes into it. The drag was 35 pounds, the lure was a Bobby Brown with a single hook exposed just beyond the skirt fished in the short right postion. Would tighten of the release clips increase a better hook setting.
SORRY DUDE....I WROTE AN ESSAY HERE...MIONIMIZED IT....AND HAD A MICROFT STAB IN THER BACK.....I WILL GET ER DONE SOON!
I THINK MANY ARE A BIT GUNSHY HERE.....BUT SHOULD NOT BE. IT COULD BE ONE LITTLE DETAIL THAT SOME OF US MISS AND THAT COULD BE THE KEY TO HANGING ONE OR LOSING ONE
In stead of tigthening the clip, I like to use a tag line. Your clips will last much longer. Nothing sucks like hearing your expensive clip explode under too much pressure. As far as your drag settings and hook sets go, it sounds like you just had bad luck. I run my single hook rigs the same way. I only run double hooks on my lures 12" or bigger. I seem to have better hook ups on my single hooks though.
There are several different schools of thought on how you should achieve the initial hookup as far as hook rigs, drag, outrigger releases etc. The good news is that thanks to the internet you can get the opinions of some of the world's best lure fishermen either directly (Bart Miller, Roddy Hays) or via the Melton forum. The bad news is that all these experts seldom agree exactly so you will need to pick out what sounds the most sensible to you and work at it from there.
But if you had him on for 10 minutes before he came off I would class it as a pulled hook rather than having had a bad hook set. Having lost some fish in a similar way a few times I think a lot of these losses where a fish has taken a lot of line and the hook pulled way out there could well have been the result of too much drag at the hook. If you are down to half spool or less on a 130 which originally had 35 lb drag on a full spool that fish is going to be pulling much more drag when the line is low, as well as all the extra drag of the line in the water, plus a big lure that's being dragged in reverse. When lure fishing a certain number of fish will not be hooked as securely as you would like and the risk of pulling the hook increases with the amount of drag you have on him. Next time you hook one that dumps half a spool and is still burning line, try pulling the drag back to around 15 or 12 lbs or so and ease the pressure on that hook hold until you are able to get after him and start putting line back on the spool (which should be pronto) and maybe your encounter might have a happier ending. I intensely dislike having a fish pull off too much line and much prefer to get after him before he is too far away dragging a heap of line around. I can honestly say that identifying excessive drag as a potential issue has saved me a couple of fish that I'm sure would likely have been lost otherwise.
NB. on the one or two fish I have had on with spectra backing, the line drag effect seemed to be much less, probably because the spectra backing, being thinner, cut through the water much more easily than dacron.
Next time you hook one that dumps half a spool and is still burning line, try pulling the drag back to around 15 or 12 lbs or so and ease the pressure on that hook hold until you are able to get after him and start putting line back on the spool (which should be pronto) and maybe your encounter might have a happier ending.
I would have given a response if I felt real comfortable yet. I hope to get some more thougts.
We too had shots at Big Rock and failed. Double hooked rigs with tag lines. Got a great hook up on WM out of box. Then 0 for 3 on catches on BM. Got two hook-ups one minute drag pull and gone. Another looked like a good hook-up then fish did the windshield wiper and through the hook.
I have tried fishing half drag and full strike drag on the strike. Years ago the full strike drag with single hook rigs seemed to work well.
Yet just had a great hook-up on half drag double hook and catch. Same day had a half drag hook-up 2 minute fight and hook pulls.
your better than me but, i only fish single hook's. i like it simple. and i always get the rod before he does. sometimes they just get a bill wrap with the hook and i think guys think its hooked. ive only caught a few but since ive grabbed the rod i havent missed one. also i always try to take it away, not drop........kitty taught me that. she never wants to play unless im takin it away.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
Blue Marlin Questions?