Gather round gang its Q & A TIME

[gottaflylee]

certainly not too wear out my welcome, however if i keep getting short strikes and im assuming its a wahoo. what the hell do we do, normally we just say hey what the ----. but i'd like to start reacting instead, so what do i do , cmon tell me, tell me. please

Snakeeyes, more than likely its Kings...at least here it is. Here Whoos hit with a lot of speed from the back of the bait comming forward = bite off. Kings hit from the side or below comming up...hence the short strike. you can add a stinger hook...trebble or go to a double hook rig...but I think thats how we get hooks in us. I don't use them.

[OffTheHookB&T]

Shark Fishing--- How do you change tactics when targeting threshers?? Bait, rigs, etc??

[jawz12]

A couple different things I will do if I'm marking the fish deep. As soon as I mark any fish deep I will slow down & turn hard on them to let the inside rigger baits sink down on them. First off I like a matching spread of med hoos behind blue/crystal witches on 80lb floro. If I continue marking the fish but can't get them to come up I will pull baits in as tight as I can to the boat making the combo of the boat/prop wash and baits appear as a one large bait ball or school from below to get their attention thus the reason for the matching spread. I will then start a figure 8 or clover leaf pattern knocking it in neutral for about 10 to 15 sec. right as I pass over them letting the baits do a sink & swim. This will trigger an instinct bite a lot of the time. I mostly troll but I would love to hear from some of the experienced chunkers on this.

last summer i ran into an interesting situation...a big break in the temp,in the area of the baltimore canyon-lots of bait but no fish??? trolled away from the break,kept seeing bait on the surface-no takers??? marked fish deep...took a "hail mary" shot...threw a jig in the water-counted 20 threw it in park took a few cranks,big jig action...BAM!!!!! fish on !!! did the same thing 7 more times...you guessed it...7 fish !!!! all nice yellowfins.....

[mikelpl]

Top Shot Connection to Leader Connection? Do you guys use snap swivels for yellowfin or that a total taboo? How long of a leader?

[biebs]

Billfish on the short rigger slashing away but the release clip has not tripped.

What do you do? pop it out of the clip and drop back, or pop it and tease the
fish by reeling the bait away?

Do not pop that bait out of the clip. No reason. Point your rod to the clip, thumb the spool, clicker off. Watch the bait and be ready to drop back on the bite. Once you feel him on the drop back (give it a good count.....it takes getting use to) and your sure he's there, ease the drag and come tight. No jerk, just steady crank. When he comes tight he will pop the bait out of the clip. Quickly real all the slack from the rigger and to the fish. You should have your rigger clips set so that this is automatic every time. Have your man next to ready with the pitch bait and now's the time everyone should be maning a rod looking for multiples. Game on.

K

[Deep C]

We seem to have a problem with the hookin' up part
Sometimes nothing goes wrong, sometimes everything goes wrong other times.
This applies to Marlin mainly
Marlin flies into the spread takes the bait. We grab the rod let him run and little then a few tugs and it's "fish on". Last year it seemed as though we lost alot of hookups?
Not waiting long enough when he first takes the bait????
How long do you guys let him go before your set the hook. I guess now though it will be different with the circle hook restriction, I guess now you just start crankin'?
Thanks for doing this!
Should I mention we are new to the offshore thing, couple years on our own boat. Been on plenty of charters. I guess we never paid enough attention

Missing billfish is nothing new. The biggest thing that will help is seeing the fish way early... Don't watch just the bait look behind, down along side... Be ready to drop the splot second he touches. Thats the biggest key.
J hook, point the rod at the fish, drop 3-5 hard seconds... None of this123 quick crap... Count it out smooth. Throw the lever up and start winding. When you come tight short strokes, lots of them. not over the head espn saturday morning bass crap. steady short repeated strokes.
Circle bite. Same thing goes. See the fish BEFORE he gets there and be ready. This time the tip is down near the surface of the water. This drop is longer full five to even ten seconds of no pressure drop. even lose that clicker which can telegraph that chatter back to the fish. Tip down still. Put in gear and just reel. Do not strike. Just reel and reel smooth.

[Glenn W]

Dang, I just got home and this is good stuff guys.
Thanks Paul, Lee, Darren, ---

[Capt. Jon Tennant]

Lee- what do you find is the most productive/closet spot in the stream to find YFT out of wrightsville in the spring? are there wahoos there this time of year (should I rig with wire)?

The same ol hole as well as the steeples are couple hot spots. As far as the wire, when looking for tunas in april/may I will start in 200'+ with the floro. If I fish anywhere up on the break it will almost all be wire as thats where we get most of our wahoo bites at. Thru out the summer its almost all wire as well.

[snakeeyes]

Shark Fishing--- How do you change tactics when targeting threshers?? Bait, rigs, etc??

chuck easy, go flounder fishing in the old grounds , make long drifts, with 2 shark rods and a few chum bags, its bound to happen, we had 3 last year just flounder fishing...

[gottaflylee]

Is it better to start out with all the same color witches @ first,or vary it a little bit to find out what color they want and then switch it over to the hot color?

I think you can't go worng with blue and white. Marty won't change a spread much. I like to put a mix (if I'm not getting bit) out there. There again it depends on the day...coludy or over cast, darker colors...dirty water, brite color...clear days, lite colors