Bucktailing ??

[Detour66]

Not sure if this has been touched on yet so here it goes. Been mostly bucktailing for fluke with a high/low rig. A bucktail with a dropper loop about a foot above it with a 5/0 hook and a gulp. Seems like 95% of the fish hit the top hook with the gulp and with not many fish being caught on the bucktail. Are you seeing the same results? Am I doing something wrong in my setup? Or is the bucktail just a sinker with a hook that gets a fish now and then. Your thoughts appreciated. Thx in advance, Ken

[shrimpman steve]

You are doin it right!! Most fish hit the top hook.

[WhaleFart]

i tend to disagree with this... I use to use the high low set up but now I just use a buck tail or jig head with no top hook at all. What I noticed is that when you eliminate the top hook you get way better movement of the jig, also when the drift is fast you don't get as much line drag and can stay in the strike zone much better. I use ultra light set ups and try to never use a jig head or buck tail over 1.5oz even when the drift is ripping. I noticed that a lot of guys like using the 6" grubs, I find that you miss a lot of fish with short strikes. What has been a killer for me this year is a plain 1.5oz jig head, a 4" swimming mullet, and a 4" strip of belly. Give it a shot you'll be happy. The key is to keep bouncing that rod tip lightly and rapidly once you feel the weight drop down and lift the rod, I have a very high hook up ratio with this.

[Sharkyispy]

I also use a hi - lo set up, sometimes just a teaser with small gulp/ strip bait on the dropper loop. The hi hook, IMO, does seem to stimulate significant action and I do catch a great deal of fish on it. Have started toying with a reverse set up, using higher weight jig on the upper position and a lighter jig dragging on the bottom. Have had good action on both jigs set up this way.

[mopie 25]

I get good results when I jig the bottom bucktail from the bottom to up around a foot just keep moving the jig. I get equal amount of hits. [ remember the eyes are always looking up] Check out John skinner on youtube great vid

Detour66,

I think a lot depends also on where your fishing. If you have a lot of smaller fish in the area, the dropper loop will get hit more frequently. BT's on average get hit by bigger fish. Maybe smaller fish hit them as much but due to size you don't hook up as frequently but I think bigger fish in general will come on the bigger profile bucktail. Easy to run a test, one day jig with two poles. One with a bt and dropper with a 6 or 4 in. gulp and the other with just a bt (same size and color). Normally on the bt I use a strip bait. If I use gulp on the bt, I tend to use the grub as it sits better and leaves more hook gap than the 6 in. swimming minnow. Just my personal preference, a lot of people might disagree with that. See what happens. Gulp is a great bait so you will see a lot of fish on it but see which catches the bigger fish and how the bt only rig stacks up.

As a poster mentioned earlier, sometimes a bt and dropper with heavy current prevents the bt from working properly. Quite often I'll remove the dropper and just use the bt. If current is still too strong, I spend the day casting up current and working the bt back to the boat to work it properly and keep it in the zone. There are days when that technique makes all the difference in the world.

As with everything, when conditions change your presentation needs to change accordingly. Bt's are the real deal and I would say on average account for the majority of big fluke taken every year. Before they came into fad, big fluke were regularly caught on bait being dragged whether it was fluke belly (when it was more legal to use), strips, squid and spearing, killies, snappers, peanuts etc. so a number of fluke will no doubt still be taken on bait. But for fishing rough bottom, bt's are essential and working them properly equally if not more important.

Dakota

[GDubya07]

These are all good answers but it comes down to How you like to fish?

Do you like feeling the bottom all the time with the BT , Do you like to constantly jig and move the bucktail ? What kind of gear do you have 10lb, 15lb 20lb braid/Mono ? What weight of the bucktail ? Rod ? and Conditions , Conditions , Conditions.

Some days the Fishies want Da Meat Others are Bucktails and Gulp

You need to experiment and find out what works for you , I have caught fish both ways ( I prefer hi/lo with a dropper loop ) but do fish single BT when conditions are right with the right equipment . Everyone is different

Give it a shot and let us know how you make out

Good Luck Be Well and Fish On

GDubs-

[bunker dunker]

my take on it is that we all have are own way of bt'ing.one of the ways I have observed is what I call "shaking" the bt rig by just shaking the rod tip were the upper hook has much more movement than the bt itself and that is why most fish are caught on the upper hook.i myself am a bt slammer.i like lifting
and dropping the bt so it hits hard on the bottom creating lots of noise and commotion that brings and triggers strikes.by lifting the bt up 1 to 2 feet off the bottom its giving the fish a chance to eat it.i catch fish on both but if we take Saturdays trip as am example I had 4 keepers with 3 on the bt and 1 on the upper hook. i also feel that matching your bt to were you are fishing will help in catching the fish on the bt.

[Arbutis]

For what it's worth, I've learned a lot about this from watching some of John Skinner's videos and then making several of my own.

I agree with what someone else already stated - The eyes are always looking up! These fish have incredible eye sight and will track a bottom jigged bait for a LONG time before making a decision to eat or not. Insanely long. The exception is the ambush attack when they are buried in the sand or under other structure - then they just explode on whatever hits them or is in front of them.

It's my opinion that I also get 95%+ hits on the bait tied above the bucktail. The bucktail attracts them to something moving/different/interesting/edible? - and then when they see the trailer above they hit it because it is in the perfect strike position based on their anatomy. (A live killie sure is enticing also)

Underwater videos tell the story better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o9rZHHn32g

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Arbutis

For what it's worth, I've learned a lot about this from watching some of John Skinner's videos and then making several of my own.

I agree with what someone else already stated - The eyes are always looking up! These fish have incredible eye sight and will track a bottom jigged bait for a LONG time before making a decision to eat or not. Insanely long. The exception is the ambush attack when they are buried in the sand or under other structure - then they just explode on whatever hits them or is in front of them.

It's my opinion that I also get 95%+ hits on the bait tied above the bucktail. The bucktail attracts them to something moving/different/interesting/edible? - and then when they see the trailer above they hit it because it is in the perfect strike position based on their anatomy. (A live killie sure is enticing also)

Underwater videos tell the story better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o9rZHHn32g

Great video Doug and I too think the bucktail is more of an attractant then something they will hit with frequency. They come to check out the bucktail and typically go for the teaser.