RussH
06-16-2010, 10:54 PM
So I said a couple weeks ago I was going to write a tips guide for people who were interested in how to get started buck tailing or at least catching more fluke using more… modern methods. When I was a kid we used a plain 5/0 English hook connected to the same pole we used all year round and tied a surgeons loop “somewhere” for the sinker. That was it, and we caught, and went home with plenty of fish.
Rules have changed, and the size limits have increased to the point where it seems to be necessary to use fancier methods to catch the more elusive and bigger fish. Now, I by no means am a sharpie. Nor am I an expert. In fact, none of what I am about to show did I invent. It was all shown to me by, and fished better by more experienced fishermen over the past few years.
However, unlike some people who seem to run amuck in this world, one thing I pride myself on is my ability to listen, and more importantly learn. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to show the three rigs I use most commonly. I took the time to draw them on paper and scan them in.
I will also describe the situation where I feel it is appropriate to use each rig. And I will attempt to describe the pieces that are optional and changeable. Hopefully others will share their methods and we can all learn together.
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I’m going to call this first rig, “Monger Style”. It was shown to me by Captain Wayne of the fish monger, acting as mate, a couple seasons ago on one of their Bring Your Own Bucktail trips to the sticky stuff. It seems to work very well in rocky terrain where not a lot of mud gets kicked up. Captain George of the Angler told me that this rig is completely wrong for the Bay’s that are fished earlier in the season and I learned that personally the hard way.
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/5315/themonger.th.jpg (http://img580.imageshack.us/i/themonger.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
So what I do is using my smaller fluke rod, attach my 20# Hi-Vis yellow power pro to a 4’ piece of Flouro somewhere in the 25+ pound range. I personally like the Albright knot, but since the line diameters are so close you can probably use a Uni-Uni knot instead and have it work just fine.
About halfway down tie in a dropper loop. This loop takes practice and there are some other ways to do it, but I spent the time learning this knot so it’s what I use. The dropper should be around 6” long. I like to just slip on a 3/0 or 4/0 bare hook and tip it with a piece of gulp. At the very end of the flouro I tie in a double surgeons loop. With this loop you can quickly change your spro lure as conditions change. Start the day off at 1.5z and end at 6z without ever retying anything. Just keep slipping it on and off.
It’s optional but when I get to bigger bucktail sizes I add a stinger hook and start using bigger baits.
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This next rig, I’m going to name after Captain George. I’ve used similar, but not with the 3-way swivel. He taught me this a couple weeks ago and it worked very well. It seems like it’s meant for the bays. With this rig you fish it more like you would with what I’m going to call the KISS later on. Basically just keep bouncing your spro as if it was a weight. If you feel a little tug, the fish is probably (I’d say 90% of the time) on your teaser. Take a couple seconds, a deep breath, and lift firmly to set your hook. Fish on, start reeling. If it’s a hammering bite, hook in sharp and hang on because you probably have a fatty on your spro.
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/2576/thecptngeorge.th.jpg (http://img191.imageshack.us/i/thecptngeorge.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
So this is actually pretty simple. You tie your power pro to a 3-way. If you are on a busy party boat I’d recommend first attaching a LONG piece of flouro to the power pro so if you get tangled you are tangling flouro and not power pro. That’s just a courtesy to the mates.
So line to the top of the 3-way. Now, you want to take a piece of flouro. Put both ends through an eye of the 3-way and tie a double clinch knot. It’s tied the same way as a regular clinch knot but with two lines instead of one. Took me a minute to figure it out, but in practice you could probably tie any knot doubled and be good to go.
To the final eye you are going to use another piece of flouro about 18-24” long. Attach that using any knot you are comfortable with. I like a uni knot in most cases. At the end of this line, snell a plain octopus or baitholder hook in the 3/0 range. Tip with gulp or boat bait, or chicken, or whatever the heck is working that day. (okay not chicken)
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This final rig I’m going to call the KISS. (Keep it simple stupid) This is the rig you tie for your friends who don’t fish much. Or for when conditions are rough and you just want to make switching sinkers and retying easy.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9744/kissrig.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/i/kissrig.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
Again, if you are on a crowded party boat, use a top shot of Flouro or even mono as a courtesy to the mates. Then, slide on a sinker slide. I love the slides. I think a static sinker on these kind of rigs cuts down the action of your bait. If you want to you can use a 3-way and put on a swivel, but that’s just your basic B&T Rig at that point. From there I tie on a 2-way and attach my line. The 2-way stops the swivel from sliding all the way down and eliminates line twist.
At the end of your 24-36” piece of Flouro attach a 3/0 or 4/0 octo or baitholder hook. I like Octopus from Gamikatsu, but they are expensive and prone to breaking if they catch onto the bottom. Still they cut hard and fast. You can add a teaser if you want to so I drew one in. I personally usually don’t. If you want to add some flash or maybe a feather you can also. But this rig is pure simplicity. Tie it quickly and go about your day. It’s probably the easiest thing to teach to new fishermen besides having them buy 3 dollar a pop pre-tied rigs. (which I still do buy the way, I especially love the ones with green squids and silver flash).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
So, I hope this now, 1200 word article was helpful to some people, and please feel free to add your own input. I’ve seen a LOT of oddball stuff out there, these are just the 3 I use most.
For a complete list of great fishing knots check out www.animatedknots.com. I studied that website for probably an hour to figure out the damn dropper loop. That one was tough to learn and can still be a bitch on a windy wet day.
Good luck guys, and FISH ON!!!
Rules have changed, and the size limits have increased to the point where it seems to be necessary to use fancier methods to catch the more elusive and bigger fish. Now, I by no means am a sharpie. Nor am I an expert. In fact, none of what I am about to show did I invent. It was all shown to me by, and fished better by more experienced fishermen over the past few years.
However, unlike some people who seem to run amuck in this world, one thing I pride myself on is my ability to listen, and more importantly learn. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to show the three rigs I use most commonly. I took the time to draw them on paper and scan them in.
I will also describe the situation where I feel it is appropriate to use each rig. And I will attempt to describe the pieces that are optional and changeable. Hopefully others will share their methods and we can all learn together.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m going to call this first rig, “Monger Style”. It was shown to me by Captain Wayne of the fish monger, acting as mate, a couple seasons ago on one of their Bring Your Own Bucktail trips to the sticky stuff. It seems to work very well in rocky terrain where not a lot of mud gets kicked up. Captain George of the Angler told me that this rig is completely wrong for the Bay’s that are fished earlier in the season and I learned that personally the hard way.
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/5315/themonger.th.jpg (http://img580.imageshack.us/i/themonger.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
So what I do is using my smaller fluke rod, attach my 20# Hi-Vis yellow power pro to a 4’ piece of Flouro somewhere in the 25+ pound range. I personally like the Albright knot, but since the line diameters are so close you can probably use a Uni-Uni knot instead and have it work just fine.
About halfway down tie in a dropper loop. This loop takes practice and there are some other ways to do it, but I spent the time learning this knot so it’s what I use. The dropper should be around 6” long. I like to just slip on a 3/0 or 4/0 bare hook and tip it with a piece of gulp. At the very end of the flouro I tie in a double surgeons loop. With this loop you can quickly change your spro lure as conditions change. Start the day off at 1.5z and end at 6z without ever retying anything. Just keep slipping it on and off.
It’s optional but when I get to bigger bucktail sizes I add a stinger hook and start using bigger baits.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This next rig, I’m going to name after Captain George. I’ve used similar, but not with the 3-way swivel. He taught me this a couple weeks ago and it worked very well. It seems like it’s meant for the bays. With this rig you fish it more like you would with what I’m going to call the KISS later on. Basically just keep bouncing your spro as if it was a weight. If you feel a little tug, the fish is probably (I’d say 90% of the time) on your teaser. Take a couple seconds, a deep breath, and lift firmly to set your hook. Fish on, start reeling. If it’s a hammering bite, hook in sharp and hang on because you probably have a fatty on your spro.
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/2576/thecptngeorge.th.jpg (http://img191.imageshack.us/i/thecptngeorge.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
So this is actually pretty simple. You tie your power pro to a 3-way. If you are on a busy party boat I’d recommend first attaching a LONG piece of flouro to the power pro so if you get tangled you are tangling flouro and not power pro. That’s just a courtesy to the mates.
So line to the top of the 3-way. Now, you want to take a piece of flouro. Put both ends through an eye of the 3-way and tie a double clinch knot. It’s tied the same way as a regular clinch knot but with two lines instead of one. Took me a minute to figure it out, but in practice you could probably tie any knot doubled and be good to go.
To the final eye you are going to use another piece of flouro about 18-24” long. Attach that using any knot you are comfortable with. I like a uni knot in most cases. At the end of this line, snell a plain octopus or baitholder hook in the 3/0 range. Tip with gulp or boat bait, or chicken, or whatever the heck is working that day. (okay not chicken)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This final rig I’m going to call the KISS. (Keep it simple stupid) This is the rig you tie for your friends who don’t fish much. Or for when conditions are rough and you just want to make switching sinkers and retying easy.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9744/kissrig.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/i/kissrig.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
Again, if you are on a crowded party boat, use a top shot of Flouro or even mono as a courtesy to the mates. Then, slide on a sinker slide. I love the slides. I think a static sinker on these kind of rigs cuts down the action of your bait. If you want to you can use a 3-way and put on a swivel, but that’s just your basic B&T Rig at that point. From there I tie on a 2-way and attach my line. The 2-way stops the swivel from sliding all the way down and eliminates line twist.
At the end of your 24-36” piece of Flouro attach a 3/0 or 4/0 octo or baitholder hook. I like Octopus from Gamikatsu, but they are expensive and prone to breaking if they catch onto the bottom. Still they cut hard and fast. You can add a teaser if you want to so I drew one in. I personally usually don’t. If you want to add some flash or maybe a feather you can also. But this rig is pure simplicity. Tie it quickly and go about your day. It’s probably the easiest thing to teach to new fishermen besides having them buy 3 dollar a pop pre-tied rigs. (which I still do buy the way, I especially love the ones with green squids and silver flash).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
So, I hope this now, 1200 word article was helpful to some people, and please feel free to add your own input. I’ve seen a LOT of oddball stuff out there, these are just the 3 I use most.
For a complete list of great fishing knots check out www.animatedknots.com. I studied that website for probably an hour to figure out the damn dropper loop. That one was tough to learn and can still be a bitch on a windy wet day.
Good luck guys, and FISH ON!!!