A novice question that may get overlooked sometime

[BTH284]

Thanks guys, this is the type of info I am looking for. I have been fishing offhsore for many years but not consistently. I am revisiting the basics in hoping to fill in the gaps that I overlooked for a long time.

[Sea Draggin]

I don't take it to this extreme, but some of the big tourney guys actually use a magnifying glass to sharpen their hooks. Apparently you get a whole different persepective.

only .02

[Captain Fred Archer]

Good thread here. Too many people talk the talk but don't walk the walk when it comes to using sharp hooks and a pile of fish get missed because of that. I am a complete fanatic about sharp hooks.

Hook Rule Number One on my boat is that unsharpened hooks are absolutely not allowed aboard. All sharpening is done either at the work bench up at the house or by me and the boys when we're at the dock. That's the best way that I know of for never putting anything but a deadly sharp hook out.

I do not fish double hooks ever, for anything. I have seen "One hook for the fish and one hook for the fisherman" too many times and never want to see it again, plus they snag and mutilate too many marlin for my taste, so no doubles on my boat, thank you.

If I am using Mustad 7731's, which I am getting away from because there is now an alternative made by a company that does not sell longliners, there's a shot of how I used to sharpen them. Just in case you didn't know, Mustad is not only the biggest longline hook seller in the world, they are the biggest longline supplier, period, including the fifty and hundred mile reels with automatic baiters and fish removers that can lay a longline at ten knots. No way am I going to support that company by buying their hooks! You do what you like, but that's where I stand.

The first picture below is how I used to sharpen and stiffen the 7731's. I reduced the barb and sharpened the lower knife and filed another, very sharp one on the top of the hook. They had to be almost as sharp as the arrow heads that I used to sharpen back in my archery deer hunting days and we warn people not to mess around with them on the boat because they are flat-out dangerous! I finished them with a "chisel point". This was primarily for marlin, sharks, wahoos and dolphins.

I have always used conical points and circle hooks on tuna lures because of their soft mouths. The thresher lures and all of my others now use either the new Hays conical hooks or circle hooks. Yeah, yeah, I know, "Circle hooks in lures? Crazy Fred!" Same thing people said fifteen years ago when I started using circles in bait. You watch, they'll be standard in lures in a few years.)

The second shot is a Moldcraft Wide Range with the stiffened "Scorpion" hook pulled into the head. I am from the school that believes that gamefish target the eye of lures and baits trolled at regular-to-fast speeds of 6-12 knots; not the actual eye itself, but they use it as a reference point to bite behind and get at the gills and heart areas, which kills and doesn't cripple a bait that another competitor might take from the crippler. I believe that high speed fish do go for the tail and so I run a stiffened tail gunner on those lures.

Next is one of our SuperBar chasebait switch rigs with a circle hook. Myself and several other charter captain buddies use nothing but circles in the bars that we fish and have for well over ten years. We have to catch fish for people who spend a lot of money to fish with us and believe me, we wouldn't fish the circles if they weren't simply the best hooks for the job. It is important to remove the barbs. This makes removing the hook way easier.

And finally, here's a look at one of those hooks that has let me say goodbye to the longliner's best friend, Mustad. It is a GREAT hook and is the only true big game hook that I do not sharpen.

The last shot is of the available sizes of the Hays Hooks. Great stuff!

Well, there you go as far as one man's preferences as far as hook sharpening is concerned. Hope it helps or at least is of interest.

[AhiSlayer]

Aloha

How you sharpen a hook depends on the hook. Small bluefish type hooks get a stone job. Beej Mustad stainless hooks get a file. I sharpen the mustad stainless on the back and correct and irregularities on da cutting edge

If ya run a hook way back in da skirt wit a light drag ya get more mouth hook ups with the hook bend actually going around a bone. I don't smash da barb. Da barb works fine fo' my style but not fo others that get more bottom of the bill hook ups. for thoz the best is a smashed barb cuz the bill is so hard

Wahoo lures don't matter if she's sharp if ya gotta beeg enough Mustad. What matters is where ya place the hook in the skirts. Going slow8/12 knots ya wanna keep the hook close to the head if the lure skirt is 9 inches or less,,,longer skirts ya can drop it to the middle if the strands are slim and dont stick on the point. A very sharp point will stich on the strands at higher tolling speeds so I don't sharpin them. I have allso notice that with the big gear I use, most every single hook up shows the Mustad in the center of the wahoo mouth on the bottom jaw with the bend going around the bottom jaw. I love it. A strong tow position that lets me horse um in and no blood ta get sharks zomming around.

When we troll wahoo faster we drop the hook back or run two hooks. I only run two hooks if the lure is a large marlin size lure or grander size lure that has enough room for two hooks to act indepentanly. In that I mean I don't want both hooks in the fishes mouth, I just want one. There's maybe three inces of cable running back to the next hook. I lost a couple of beeg wahoo to sharks because of weird hookup with tandem rigs that had both hooks in the mouth/gills giving weird tow angles and lots of blood in the water. Now they are spaced out in the skirt or one hookers.

So, there ya go yet another way ta look at things. What works for you may be totally different.
aloha

[WAHOONBOX]

ROCK ON FRANKY!!! ARK ...CILLI...AHI AND SUCH!!! IT'S HARD TO TEACH A MAN HOW TO SHARPEN A HOOK IN WRITING.....

CAPT FRED....I'M HAPPY TO SE A NEW MAN JOIN IN SO QUICKLY AND CONFIDENT...YOU ARE A WELCOME ADDITION TO DA BOARD!

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDIN'...I MEAN DA BOX......WALK THE DOCKS AND LOOK FOR THE WET SPOTS AT EVENINGS END....THE BOAT WHO LEAVES THE
LARGEST WET SPOT ON THE DOCK GENERALLY HAS HIS HOOKS IN ORDER

THE BEAST IS WITHOUT A DOUBT THE HEAT WHEN IT COMES TO SHARPENING HOOKS....HE MAY OR MAY NOT CHIME IN HERE AND I DO NOT FAULT HIM IF chooses not too.....BUT IF HE WOULD LET ME FILM HIM SHARPEN A HOOK THE www.extrememeasurescharters.com WAY.....YOUR BOXES WILL CERTAINLY GO FULL

[Captain Fred Archer]

BoxMan...

Thank you for the warm welcome. As far as "confidence" is concerned, those in the game know that taking people fishing for money and expecting them to spread good words about you and building that all-important client list and having them come back over and over again means one main thing - ya gotta catch fish for 'em. Oh, sure, being a nice guy is good and so is having a happy, friendly, talented crew, but the bottom line is that people don't charter boats to spend time with friendly crews - they charter boats to catch fish and some do so to learn from professionals - but mostly, they want to catch fish and you damned better do it!

So I guess big game fishing over three hundred days a year with that "gotta catch 'em up" gun pointed at your head does tend to create confidence in many of us who fish this way. I have always felt that the fish are the best teachers and so the more time that you can spend with them, the more you should learn. The only thing that stops that is getting stuck in a rut and doing the same stuff over and over again. Sure, it probably catches fish for you, but how do you know that there isn't a better way if you don't try everything that you hear, read about or think of yourself if it seems logical? The answer is, you don't and you stay in that rut. I have had the great good fortune of having a large number of some of the cream of both charter captains and drivers for hard core big game nuts from around the world as friends for many years now. Not a single one of those guys is stuck in any kind of a rut; they are all thinkers and experimenters who are constantly honing what they do and searching for better ways to fish.

Some of these guys are famous, but many are "just fishermen" with that lust for what WILL BE instead of just WHAT IS. They are constantly learning from the fish and many of the things that I have learned over the years I have learned from these men. The time that I have spent on the water has even allowed me to come up with a few tricks of my own. The fact that I have had to compete with a fleet of over two hundred charterboats, the vast majority of which run for far less money than I do has given me even more incentive to learn about and apply new angles, lures, etc.

The unpleasant fact is that, just as it is in many areas around the world, the fish stocks where I fish are being heavily affected by uncontrolled commercial fishing and there are fewer fish each year. That means that you either stay right on the edge of the best techniques - old and new - or your business is going to die right along with the fishery.

In areas where the gamefish populations have been greatly reduced and the bait populations that they used to control have exploded life has been made much easier for the remaining gamefish, but harder for those who fish for them. Such things as knowing how to turn non-feeding fish on between feeding periods have become more important than ever before and that sort of thing will become even more important as time goes on and the fish stocks get whittled down more. Others can do whatever they like, but I am going to continue to keep my eyes and ears tuned to new things that might help me catch more fish and if this inspires confidence, so be it.

The other thing that I will continue doing is trying to pass on the good things that I have learned and am learning to others thru my magazine articles, my books and the lures that I make. I am a charter captain first and part of the reason for that is the special joy that I get when the pattern explodes, the 'rigger releases start popping, reels turn into screaming banshees and the people who I have taken fishing that day start yelling and jumping around down in the 'pit, their excited yells competing with the screaming reels. Those like me understand just how good that feels. And after a while it becomes even more satisfying than pulling on fish yourself.

Well, I discovered a long time ago that it's almost exactly the same sort of feeling that you get when someone tries something that you have passed on to them and clobbers a bunch of fish or starts catching more than ever before. The only difference is that instead of hopping around the 'pit, hollering their heads off, they do it via a letter, e-mail or website post. When people share that sort of thing with me it is almost as good as standing up in the tower, watching them have the time of their lives. What a great feeling! (Hell, if those magazines ever found out what I would pay THEM to get to write articles that help people catch fish I'd really starve to death!)

I am a newbie here. I hope that everyone understands that when I find an exceptional place like this one - and this site truly is exceptional - I try my best to pass on everything that I can to those who come here; things that I get paid to put into books and magazines and that I use to keep people paying me to take them fishing. If it sounds like I am insisting that other fishermen do things my way, please know that that is not the case. All that I try to do is pass on things that I have learned that I think will help others. Many of those things have come about because of where and how often I have gotten to fish for many years now, plus I am the boss guy of the boats that I fish from, so I can and do try a lot of things that others might not have the time to or don't call the shots on on the boats that they fish.

Long ago a top charter captain named Otto Hass out of Atlantic Highlands New Jersey told me something that helped me keep my mind and eyes open to change. He said, "Son, always listen to the guys who fish for money, if they speak around you. And if what they say sounds logical, you try it, because it probably works. If it ain't logical, forget about it, it don't work."

Simple, good advice.

Say "Hello" to Al Brister, Dick Henry and Adrian Holler for me. Just don't believe any of that stuff they say about me...none of it is true!

Oh yes, Morehead City and Beaufort. My, my!

[JD5652]

Capt Archer-

Thank you so much for you contribution here on SFC. I'm a new comer to this game and try to pick up every little tid bit of information that I can and you've certainly given me a lot to absorb just in this short thread.

Looking forward to seeing more of your valuable tips here on SFC. Next time I'm in Cabo, I hope you have a charter day open.......

Happy Holidays!

[BTH284]

Thanks for everyone responding to this post. All of you have me thinking more and more each day about all the little things that go unoticed in the offshore world.

Cirlce hooks in lures huh?, I have a few rigged up on octopus skirts to use with squid strips or pork rind for gaffers. Got some strange looks from friends of mine that I fish with.

I know one thing, those Matzuo dink hooks are sharp as a razor. Stuck my fingers multiple times Xmas night rigging up.

Again, thanks for the tips.