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