Bucktailing Fluke

[Gerry Zagorski]

Until 10 years ago or so, most people who were Fluking were simply dragging bait. With the advent of gulp, bucktailing became more popular and today this is the preferred method for most sharpies targeting big Fluke…. In fact, this is how most Fluke tournaments are won these days…

The rig is a simple one… Take a 20 to 30 pound test mono leader, tie a loop on the bottom for your bucktail and 12 inches above the bottom loop tie in a dropper loop like you would for a high low rig and tie in another leader with a teaser hook…. Many who are not great at tying knots are using a 3 ways and rig looks like you see attached below, Illustration courtesy of NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife - Fluke Fishing

I usually thread a 6 inch gulp grub on the bucktail and use a 6 inch grub on the teaser as well and tip only the teaser with some sort of meat like squid, spearing, fluke ribbons, smelt or sand eels… There are some people who don’t tip since they feel it attracts the unwanted fish like Dogfish but I’ve found in a lot of instances, once the meat is gone so are the bites…

Some people are also using 2 bucktails, the one on the bottom is heavier and a half ounce or so for the teaser in place of the 5/0 hook..

First thing to remember is you always want to be in contact with the bottom so add heavier bucktails as needed…. Now let’s get to fishing….

Fishing is done while drifting and twitching/jigging your rod over areas with some structure and preferably in the same direction of tide or current. Fluke typically lay camouflaged on the bottom pointed into the current and ambush any baitfish that comes along…. If you’re not drifting the same way as the tide or current because of the direction the wind is pushing your boat, your bait is not going to be presented in the fashion they want to see it so you might as well be sitting at home on the couch. You either need to move to a different spot or, use the boat engines or a drift sock to overcome the wind and move more along with the current/tide…

Jigging is usually best when your line is straight up and down since the twitching action you impart to the bucktail with your rod tip works best with as little scope as possible and close to directly over the bucktail as possible… You can get away with some scope and fish at an angle rather than directly over the bucktail but it’s best to add a heavier bucktail to keep is as close as possible…

Let me see if I can describe the Jigging action for you…. What you’re doing is twitching your wrist to make your tip bounce and give movement to the bucktail. You twitch it 2 or 3 times a second and throw some pauses in there every once and a while… Once again, while your twitching you should occasionally feel the bottom, if you don't you need to go with a heavier bucktail…

As far as the preferred rod and reel, I prefer light weight spinning reels and lightweight poles with a fast action tip. If your rod has too slow a tip and is whippy up top it’s harder to jig and since you’re going to be jigging the rod and reel all day, you want it as light as possible so you don’t get fatigued.

Braided line is also a big help here since its smaller diameter has less resistance in the water and allowing you to fish with less weight and shorter scope.

There are lots of variations here and personal preferences… If you want to learn more techniques, opinions and variations on Bucktailing check out this detailed thread on the subject from our Fishing Tips Section https://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89028

To tip or not to tip…. To drag bait instead of bucktailing is all up for debate…. Each day is different as are the conditions.. If you want to catch fish IMO try it all, find out what’s working best, stick to that method that day but be prepared to change it up the following day or even the same day if the conditions change…

Best of luck to everyone and hope this helps put you on more and bigger Fluke this year…

[CadiShackFishing]

Good write-up Gerry. Another thing with braid is that it does not stretch which is very important. But always tie your bucktail on Fluorocarbon/Monofilament so if you do get stuck the line will break.With all the different color gulp you need to keep trying other colors as you never know what works best. And as always keep the bucktail bouncing. :)

[Irish Jigger]

Great post Gerry!! Never let the line slack at any time and never pump the fish wihile it's on its way up, that head shake will spit the bucktail out at any moment pressure is not applied. If it's a good fish make sure you call for a net on a private boat or party boat! When that fish hits the surface it will do everything in its power to spit the bucktail and your trophy fish just smiled and went back to the bottom. Live and learn from that lesson !!

[EddieG]

Nice post... I’m personally am 15 lb braid 15 lb tops 20 lb floro guy... I love the action of a 1 oz too 2oz tops bucktails with a teaser ... never caught more quality fish in my life using this set up with black hole ultra light rod and saltiest 3000... never needed more.. the lighter line lets you use the lighter bucktails which in turn has more action ...

[Gerry Zagorski]

Thanks for all the kind words and tips above guys. Now that some of basics are out of the way, let’s talk more details...

As Eddie G mentioned, floro leader is a good idea for 2 reasons. 1 it's more resistant to abrasion and this becomes important if you're fishing the sticky stuff and 2, since it's stiffer then mono, the teaser leader tends to stand off your main line better so it's less likely to twist back on to your main line..

As Irish Jigger said, pumping your rod is the biggest no-no of all and probably responsible for the most lost fish and more importantly, most large fish. The reason for this is often times the larger fish will hit the bucktail and any slack in the line or a drop of the tip allows the Fluke to use the weight of the loose or falling bucktail as leverage and spit it. Keep your pole tip high with a constant bend in it and NO PUMPING!! I can't tell you how many times we've netted a decent fish and as soon it's on the deck and there's some slack in the line the Fluke spits the bucktail hook. You've been warned so don't let his happen to you :mad:

As CadiShack suggested, color does matter. Not so sure it does on the bucktail but it certainly does on the gulp. When you first start fishing and you have a few guys on board it's a good idea to fish a variety of colors and see what's working best that day.

While when to set the hook is up for debate, how to set the hook is not... You want to set it with authority. For this reason, when you're jigging the bucktail you should not be doing that with a high tip because if your tip is high already, you have no where to go when it comes time to give that fish the steel... Fish with your pole parallel with the water and when a fish hits, whip your pole tip high and swiftly and keep it there. Dare I say again, DO NOT LOWER YOUR POLE TIP!! You've been warned twice now, don't make me warn you again :mad::mad:

If you feel a hit and set the hook unsuccessfully, don't immediately reel it up to check your bait, leave it down there since these fish will often times come back... If you've seen the Skinner videos these fish will often times follow your bait for long time. In fact, when the waters is clear, I've seen them follow it all the way to the top while reeling it back in..

Short strikes are often an issue when using long 6 inch grubs... The fish will hit the end of the tail and not get to the hook... If you start getting a lot of short strikes try a few things..... Cut and inch of so off the head of the grub so the hook sits closer to the tail, use longer and bigger teaser hooks and some even use stinger hooks.. My buddy Jim the River Rat who taught me how to bucktail was a big believer in stinger hooks, especially on the bucktail. He also had a pretty ingenious way of making them... He'd buy hooks with an eye just large enough to fit over the barb of the main hook, dip the eye of the hook in Plasti Dip https://www.amazon.com/Plasti-Dip-Performix-12219-Clear/dp/B00I9SK8WK
and thread the barb of the main hook through the plasti dip hook eye... The plasti dip helped keep the stinger hook in place and from falling off the barb of the main hook...

You've all seen reports here where a captain will say "we had to wait out the tide". What they're saying is fishing is tough when there is no tide movement so it only stands to reason, you want to avoid fishing slack tides... You'll also hear them say "we had wind against and the fishing was slow". What this means is although they had tidal movement, the wind was coming from the opposite direction and the wind was strong enough to push the boat opposite of the tide. You want to avoid these conditions too.. If you take one thing from this article this is the most important point . All the tips above don't matter if you don't get bites and conditions trump everything.... If you're new to this, do yourself a favor and take the time to understand wind and tide by reading this https://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22662. Or, you can just jump on with any one of our sponsors, I can assure you, they figured this out a long time ago..

Feel free to pile on here... It's great to hear others opinions and I'm always up for learning more!!

[bassnbucks]

Always enjoy reading your tutorials before each season Jerry. When fishing in the sticky stuff you get hung up a lot.When your buddy gets hung up do you go back up the drift to get it out or do you let him donate his jig/gulp combo ?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Thanks bass bucks, it all depends who’s snagged...If Joe is we stop if others, not so much... All kidding aside, with the price of a typical set up @ $6 (4 for bucktail and 2 for gulp) we stop. Trick here is circle back and try and pull it by running past it and pulling from the opposite direction...Works almost every time and important to keep slack in your line until you’re past the snag and try and pop it out.

Let me say this is not practical on a party boat or a large charter so you’re on your own here.. Pay attention and rather then fish on the bottom at all times, reel up crank or 2 so your fishing just off the bottom... These fish will come up and hit it even a few feet off the bottom...

[Walleyed]

Always enjoy reading your tutorials before each season Jerry. When fishing in the sticky stuff you get hung up a lot.When your buddy gets hung up do you go back up the drift to get it out or do you let him donate his jig/gulp combo ?

Your buddy always donates, but make sure you back down to get yours. :D

[Capt. Debbie]

Another really easy to understand "how to" that many avoid due to perceived complexity.

Nice job Gerry!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Thanks Frank... Learned everything I know from Joey ;)

Not that there's any sibling rivalry, but guess who chose the spot and was running the boat when he dropped his jig down to his personal best @ 13 pounds??

Funny thing was as soon as we stopped he got rocked with a big time bite that came undone... After giving the drift just a few minutes we circled back to the scene of the crime and this time the hook stuck...