Fluoro-Carbon Leaders Work

When fishing artificials, try using fluoro-carbon leader material. It is almost invisible underwater. It will reduce the chance that the fish will see something that does not look natural and this is most important when fishing in very clear water.

Hooking Crawdads.

When hooking your live crawdad, hook him through the tough horn up by his head. This allows the bait to live longer and the bass won't get belly hooked. The bass eats the crawdad tail first.

Good Advise for fishing Dirty Water?

When fishing in dirty water, (brown-tide or wind churned) fresh dead or live bait will produce better than artificials. In these conditions the fish will feed by smell rather than by sight. Natural bait produces the scent to attract the fish. If you insist on using artificials, then add a scent to them. Bunker oil is a good one to try. Chumming also will bring the fish to your offering. Anchor and chum with bunker or clam. Use fresh bait on the hook. You can catch any kind of fish that swims using this technique.

Brining your bait

Whole clams threaded on a hook will catch striped bass. Many tackle shops sell shucked whole skimmer clams for bait. The problem is however, when clams are frozen and then thawed, they become soft and are easily torn off the hook. I like to thaw the clams a day before fishing and mix them with a good helping of Kosher salt. The salt will toughen the tissue considerably making it very difficult for the fish to steal your bait. The salt does not seem to reduce the attractiveness of this bait. Any leftover salted clams can be refrozen and thawed again without seriously hurting the quality. I always have a couple of boxes of Kosher salt handy for this purpose or just for making up a brine solution for rinsing fillets. Some bait and tackle shops do carry salted shucked skimmer clams

Atlantic Halibut

Science Name: Hippoglossus hippoglossus
Other Names: flattie, common halibut, chicken halibut, giant halibut, right-eyed flounder
Ideal Temp: 40 to 50
World Record: 355 lbs. 6 ounces, Norway
Environment: offshore
Techniques: deep-jigging, trolling, downriggers
Range: Atlantic Ocean

How to store live eels

Find a five gallon plastic bucket with a locking top. Drill 7/16 holes approximately every two inches in the walls, top and bottom. Place about 3 inches of golf ball size stones in the bucket for ballast. The eels really like to wiggle in between the rocks. Tie a line to the handle and suspend the bucket from a dock or your boat. Keep it down near the bottom where the water is cool. Don't worry about feeding them. Lots of little tasty creatures will drift in through the holes and provide them with snacks. I have kept eels this way for up to two months.

Biological reference points

Fishing mortality rates that may provide acceptable protection against growth overfishing and/or recruitment overfishing for a particular stock. They are usually calculated from equilibrium yield-per-recruit curves, spawning stock biomass-per-recruit curves and stock recruitment data. Examples are F0.1, Fmax and Fmed.

Halibut Tid-Bits

Remember how last winters halibut bite took all by surprise? I sure hope it repeats itself. Here is a couple of fishing tips that might help you to catch more and bigger flatties. This applies to when you are fishing from a boat.

1. Use as light of a running line as you can for the depth of the water or the application. For instance it takes heavier line to drag across the bottom in the wind or current because the bump and drag of the heavier sinker takes a toll on the knots. If the wind is really howling sometimes you need 6 ounce sinkers to keep the bait on the bottom. But if you anchor you can use 2 ounce sinkers in the same location, so the use of light lines can be utilized, if you want to do that. Heavier sinkers bouncing across the bottom is a popular approach used by most sportboat skippers and it is highly effective. The technique is called "Bounce- Balling". I prefer to anchor and drag my bait back, inching it along at a snails pace. I use tournament #12 pound running line tied to a three way swivel.

2. From the other two parts of the swivel a sinker line and a dropper hook are tied. The important thing about this rig is that you make each of the lines that hold the sinker and the hook the same length.(don¹t ask me why) I like to make them about 24 in long. The line test of hook leader then can be adjusted to the conditions which is usually dependant on the bottom depth. In waters to 15 feet I like to use 8-10 pound test leaders. Many times I have used 4 pound test line off the swivel but the water is that shallow depth just behind the breaker line or up to a rock jetty. Remember also, that the longer the leader the less likely it will break. This set-up is the one that the hot anglers have used in Santa Monica Bay for years.

3. Hook size is extremely important, especially when the hook is dropped off on this kind of rig. Basically the hook should fit the bait. If the hook is too big it invariably turns around and sticks back into the bait burying the point so it can¹t penetrate your halibuts¹ mouth. You have to adjust the size so that the very, very little hook bend can be seen coming out of the bait.

4. Last, use chrome torpedo sinkers. They are expensive but I¹m convinced they make a difference.

Biological reference points

Fishing mortality rates that may provide acceptable protection against growth overfishing and/or recruitment overfishing for a particular stock. They are usually calculated from equilibrium yield-per-recruit curves, spawning stock biomass-per-recruit curves and stock recruitment data. Examples are F0.1, Fmax and Fmed.

Alligator Gar

Science Name: Lepisosteus spatula
Other Names: gar, garfish, garpike, gater gar
World Record: 279 lbs. Rio Grande River
Environment: river, lake
Techniques: med to heavy action rod and reels, bow fishing
Range: Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina

Keeping your catch fresh

During the hot summer weather it is very important to keep your catch on ice. They will spoil in the heat and could actually get you sick if the heat damage is severe. The quality of the meat will diminish rapidly upon heating. I fill empty soda bottles with water and freeze them. They are reusable and this saves on the cost of ice. It is also very convenient. When filling them, squeeze out an ounce or two of the water to allow for expansion and cap them tightly. You can put a bunch in your cooler and add them to the container in which you keep your catch. I put two or three into the fish-box on my boat. I stopper the drain, and a couple of gallons of sea-water. The water will stay cold for several hours. Fish kept this way will be in excellent condition.