Live lining bunker question

[togzilla]

Question: For live lining bunker when on a boat with other fisherman do you prefer braid tied to your three way swivel or use braid and then a top shot of mono and if so how long a top shot?

[Brewlugger]

If you are on a crowded party boat I would run about 50 to 100 ft Topshot. If you are on a private or headboat with less people I would tie direct to the swivel. It depends on how much weight you are using and if your bait is swimming all over the place. If you are freelining definitely use a topshot. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Do what makes sense to you for the conditions.

[hookset]

Are you snag and dropping or hooking line bunker over good readings? Top shot is always recommend regardless of what you are doing. Snag and drop requires less leader and if hooking lives I would say 25 to 50 foot is plenty for top shot. What kind of boat?how many ppl?

[SaltLife1980]

Fish mono!! :eek::D

[Billfish715]

Question: For live lining bunker when on a boat with other fisherman do you prefer braid tied to your three way swivel or use braid and then a top shot of mono and if so how long a top shot?

Why would you use braid unless you already have it on your reel and don't want to change it out? There is nothing.......absolutely nothing.......wrong with using mono. You can always tie on a heavier leader without using a swivel with a simple mono-to-mono uniknot. Egg sinkers or fish finder rigs can always be easily attached if necessary.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Fish mono!! :eek::D

Yes... If you are new to live lining I would recommend using mono not braid as well... The line stretching qualities actually help you in this situation...If you are using braid and you get excited on the hook set you can easily pull it the hook unless your drag is set just right.

[tombanjo]

If on a party boat, get a rental rod, attach the bunker to a tailed 47, send it out a bit and lock the reel. It might be my frustrated imagination but they seem to have the highest success rate.

[togzilla]

I should have disclosed that I already have braid on my reels. Going on a charter from this site and we will have 14 people. I'm going to go with a 75ft topshot

[SaltLife1980]

I should have disclosed that I already have braid on my reels. Going on a charter from this site and we will have 14 people. I'm going to go with a 75ft topshot

IMO 25 feet is enough. Hardly ever put more then that on

[Gerry Zagorski]

One other thing to consider is the placement of the sinker, if you plan to use one. When we're live lining we like to mix it up. Some guys will fish with weight and others won't so were fishing some up top and others deeper.

What we typically do is tie a barrel swivel in around 3 or 4 feet up from the hook leader. Above the other side of the barrel we thread on a sinker slide with a clip... We use the slider/sinker clip so we can attach a weight if we'd like or fish without one.. If you use an egg sinker this is not an option since you can't remove the weight unless you re tie... You can however use a 3 way with a sinker clip instead of the slide.

The reason that we tie the barrel in at around 3 to 4 feet is because anything more then that, it makes it really hard to cast since you can't reel the barrel and sinker slide through your pole tip and anything longer then 3 to 4 feet between your pole tip and your bunker makes it difficult to cast...

An added benefit of this set up is we can also use it to chunk and no need to re tie.... If you get into a hot bite on livies and you look into the live well and all you have is some dead floaters, throw a dead one on with weight and fish it until you can get more live ones..

[rumster]

No need for anything more than 10 feet of top shot unless your fishing on a crowded party boat, which can be a nightmare with bunker swimming in different directions.... In my opinion you want the bunker to swim as natural as possible and I have never used a weight unless it is a weighted snag hook. If you use a fish finder at some point you will be unable to real past the barrel swivel, which is used as the stop. Personally that is pointless because if you are using a 10 to 25 foot of top shot as suggested you are unable to real in that slack due to the barrel swivel.
Again if your using a weighted treble just snag and let it swim. If you are transferring the bunker to another setup use a 7/0 to 8/0 hook for live bait with a short shank and either hook it directly in back of the dorsal fin or in the nose. Good Luck!

[Capt Sal]

No need for anything more than 10 feet of top shot unless your fishing on a crowded party boat, which can be a nightmare with bunker swimming in different directions.... In my opinion you want the bunker to swim as natural as possible and I have never used a weight unless it is a weighted snag hook. If you use a fish finder at some point you will be unable to real past the barrel swivel, which is used as the stop. Personally that is pointless because if you are using a 10 to 25 foot of top shot as suggested you are unable to real in that slack due to the barrel swivel.
Again if your using a weighted treble just snag and let it swim. If you are transferring the bunker to another setup use a 7/0 to 8/0 hook for live bait with a short shank and either hook it directly in back of the dorsal fin or in the nose. Good Luck!

A short shank hook for what reason?A large gap long shank hook works better.12-0 is not to big and it should be a circle hook.If you want a j hook use a Big River 12-0.You can buy them at Atlantic Bait ad Tackle on Rt. 36.Once you have landed and retained your limit it must be all circle hooks.Mono is all you need and it is forgiving.50lb. floro leader.If you want to sink the live bunker use a three way swivel with a bank sinker 2' loop to the wieght 4' floro carbon leader to the 12-0 circle.Circle hooks will allow you to release large cows unharmed as they will be hooked in the corner of the mouth. Ulta lite rods are not the way to go because by the time you land the striper it will be exhausted.It all works but be ethical.

[SaltLife1980]

No need for anything more than 10 feet of top shot unless your fishing on a crowded party boat, which can be a nightmare with bunker swimming in different directions.... In my opinion you want the bunker to swim as natural as possible and I have never used a weight unless it is a weighted snag hook. If you use a fish finder at some point you will be unable to real past the barrel swivel, which is used as the stop. Personally that is pointless because if you are using a 10 to 25 foot of top shot as suggested you are unable to real in that slack due to the barrel swivel.
Again if your using a weighted treble just snag and let it swim. If you are transferring the bunker to another setup use a 7/0 to 8/0 hook for live bait with a short shank and either hook it directly in back of the dorsal fin or in the nose. Good Luck!

The 25 feet of top shot should be attached with a knot like a uni to uni or albright etc. so that way you can reel it all in before you get to your swivel that goes to ur hook/rig. That length i like to keep around 2 to 3 feet for my rigs. Sometimes with weight, sometimes no weight.

[Billfish715]

We try to keep one "dead stick" in a holder with a fish finder and sinker heavy enough to keep the "livey" or bunker head down and close to the boat while the rest of us liveline bunkers on top. On the dead stick, we leave the clicker on and the drag set light enough to maintain control while it's in the holder. You can also use a "baitrunner reel" in the same way if you are inclined to spinning tackle.

AS for "spinning" be careful with weighted dead baits since they have a propensity for spinning in the current or with the drift.

As for the swivel on a rig like that, the swivel stops at the fishfinder so don't keep it so far up the leader that it keeps you from reeling the fish in closer once it's near the boat.

We remove all sinkers and do not use deadsticks if spiny dogfish seem to dominate the bite.

[rumster]

The 25 feet of top shot should be attached with a knot like a uni to uni or albright etc. so that way you can reel it all in before you get to your swivel that goes to ur hook/rig. That length i like to keep around 2 to 3 feet for my rigs. Sometimes with weight, sometimes no weight.

What you did not catch was the fish finder.... If you use a fish finder the swivel will not slide through.

[rumster]

A short shank hook for what reason?A large gap long shank hook works better.12-0 is not to big and it should be a circle hook.If you want a j hook use a Big River 12-0.You can buy them at Atlantic Bait ad Tackle on Rt. 36.Once you have landed and retained your limit it must be all circle hooks.Mono is all you need and it is forgiving.50lb. floro leader.If you want to sink the live bunker use a three way swivel with a bank sinker 2' loop to the wieght 4' floro carbon leader to the 12-0 circle.Circle hooks will allow you to release large cows unharmed as they will be hooked in the corner of the mouth. Ulta lite rods are not the way to go because by the time you land the striper it will be exhausted.It all works but be ethical.

The reason I like the short shank is the longer shank beats up on the bait along with it being one more reason for not getting a solid hook set due to the hook turning. I agree that there is not an issue w the gap size, up to 12/0 is fine. And yes circles should be used as you mentioned, but then it is a different hook set.

[Capt Sal]

The reason I like the short shank is the longer shank beats up on the bait along with it being one more reason for not getting a solid hook set due to the hook turning. I agree that there is not an issue w the gap size, up to 12/0 is fine. And yes circles should be used as you mentioned, but then it is a different hook set.

Just start reeling when you you get the bite.When i chartered i had to restrict my guys from setting the hook with a big 12-0 circle.When you learn how to use circle hooks for live lining they are deadly.

[rumster]

Just start reeling when you you get the bite.When i chartered i had to restrict my guys from setting the hook with a big 12-0 circle.When you learn how to use circle hooks for live lining they are deadly.

Agreed Capt....

[SaltLife1980]

What you did not catch was the fish finder.... If you use a fish finder the swivel will not slide through.

If you tie your top shot to ur main line using a knot the slider weight will slide right up to ur swivel at the end of ur top shot. Then to ur rig/hook. Thats why i was saying if you keep ur rig around 2 to 3 feet u can reel it right up and be able to get the fish without having 20 feet of line in the water to pull in by hand.