Disappointing fluking 7/4

[njfisherman1975]

All great advice...what works one day might not work the next. Sometimes u gotta think outside the box and peek around those that are catching and copy what they're doing.

[SaltLife1980]

Match the hatch! Fish 5in to 6in gulps. And fish as light as you can. Might have to start out heavy then work your way down or vise versa. Remember to try every color till you find what works. Then another good thing is to change your gulp every drift or every other drift. Put them back in the juice and get out a fresh set. The juice washes off after a whle IMO.

[bulletbob]

I find it funny that guys are saying use smaller, more natural prexsentation, etc.. I was out a few weeks back on a PACKED AH party boat.. I was very lucky to get one keeper.. Guys alongside me were KILLING the fluke, we are talking keeper after keeper, all day long.. these guys had each caught like 20 keepers each.. They were using titanic 8-10 oz pink jig heads with 6 inch pink shine Gulp globbed with bait... another guy was doing very well using 2- 4 ounce heads about 4 inches apart with Gulp and bait.. These guys were using massive, ugly alien looking rigs unlike anything a fluke has ever seen in its environment.. Guys using bait [killies, spearing] or smaller bucktails caught less than 10% what the guys were catching that had MASSIVE rigs.. Never even saw jig heads that size until that day... I see guys report here they limit out on their own boat with 1 or 2 oz Spros with squid.. maybe its a party boat thing, and when the fluke see 50 rigs coming at them they go for the biggest and weirdest, but boy were my eyes opened.. I will never venture aboard a fluke party boat with 3 oz jigs or less again.. It wasn't a bottom contact thing.. For a while we had no drift, and still the guys using giant pink 8 to 10 oz or huge shiny chrome jigs with pink shine Gulp made most of us look like fools... bob

[Duffman]

All good advice


If your fishing on your own, you can't take a look at what the guy next to you is hooking up on.....YOU are the guy. Like others said, match the hatch.

Fish been puking up 2" nuts all over. I went the stubborn route and tried everything last weekend until I got close to what they wanted.

Don't hesitate to try everything ya got drift to to drift.

Bullet,

Maybe it was a new body of fish which came in on the June full moon from the east which were gorging themselves on whole squid a few weeks earlier. 8- 10 oz pink jigs might match the hatch. There was a reason they wanted that the day you went, might be completely different the next day. As many have said, what works one day for whatever reason may not work the next for a completely different set of reasons.

[Duffman]

What I had that finally worked.....couple of peanuts flies my buddy tied....

[makosnax]

It's true that big fish hit big baits, but it's also true that ALL fish hit small baits. I use a medium light spinning set up with 10# braid and almost never fish larger than 2ounces. Some days it's just a matter of color

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by dakota560

Bullet,

Maybe it was a new body of fish which came in on the June full moon from the east which were gorging themselves on whole squid a few weeks earlier. 8- 10 oz pink jigs might match the hatch. There was a reason they wanted that the day you went, might be completely different the next day. As many have said, what works one day for whatever reason may not work the next for a completely different set of reasons.

Good theory, and a valid one.. The boat only had spearing for bait, so the regulars brought their own squid, or belly strips, and it seems that was the profile the fluke wanted. .. HUGE lures. and the more and longer bait globbed on the better.. If I had known, I would have grabbed a box of squid. My 2.5 oz Spro simply could not compete that day. I guess I can't complain.. Although a lot of guys killed the fluke, a bunch caught all shorts. At least I was able to bring home one keeper and a Bluefish... bob