Off The Bite

[Fishplay]

Well the trip to Hali Heaven was quite disapointing; for myself and crew. The fishing was extremely tuff In otherwise perfect conditions. The drift was minimal, the weather was impeccable, and the company beyond enjoyable. BottomFeeder was just uncooperative.
Two bites without hook-ups, two hook-ups with fish big enough to break commercial made rigs, and one Yelloweye for five hours of fishing.
At 1:00pm, discusted at the site of a 12lb fish floating dead on the surface, we reeled in fired up the kicker and recoverd the floater then headed in.
The Yelloweye restriction SUCKS!!
No one should be allowed to release a fish you know is going to parrish. The angler that catches the fish should simply be required to tag it and quit fishing. The regs should be: (1) Legal size Halibut or Yelloweye per angler. First of either caught must be retained.
OK enough ranting....But I think the management of this species is flawed and could be better thought out. [img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img]

EATS: It was nice to meet you and fish with a fellow Ifisher. I hope your feeling better. Your a real trooper and welcome on my boat anytime.

Lessons Learned:
(1)No matter how much advance preparation is made anything can happen.
(2)Be very careful with your fuel supply and carry twice as much reserve as you think you need.
(3)Do not trust commercial tackel.
(4)Keep an eye out for sale prices on fresh halibut.

[ 05-19-2002, 10:03 PM: Message edited by: Fishplay ]

[Mark Mc]

Hey Fishplay, bummer about the store-bought leaders failing on ya. I've been less than pleased with them too, even ones touted by the store at South Beach as "being the best." So I started making my own, and they have passed the test. I use the 80 lb wire that takes a #4 sleeve. At the hook end I use two sleeves. At the other end I use one #4 and one #5, and make a loop and double it back. So the wire goes through the #4 sleeve twice, and through the #5 sleeve three times. No way that loop is going to slip. Good luck next time....Mark Mc

[wak'm&stak'm]

I cant stand equipment failure.....I tie them up on 200 lbs mono....I will break snaps, I can straighten hooks.....but by God the line is not failing.
My second bait up the line system worked again. We caught 5 and 4 were on the top bait....I still think I catch 75% on my fish on that hook.

As for Yellow eye regs...they suck as does most of ODFW's logic. I wouldnt give a second thought about one fish. If you want to scream check out the commercial grounf fish regs......if you have 10K of this then you can have 5K of that, blah blah blah...Oh so you you got 15K in your cod end...start shoveling over the side.

I can make 15 trips to the pile and bring back a yelloweye and a canary, and all is fine......BUT...on halibut days ....we leave dead fish out there, they are going to be caught, and they are going to die, so why not just let people keep them...big deal.

[Fishplay]

Mark Mc
I should have known better. I saw a lot of posts about peolple making there own spreaders. Next time I'll pay closer attention and do just that. I have fished the same gear before however without incident. These must have been very nice fish!
Wak em
I'm glad to hear of your good fortune. At least somebody caught fish. We actually saw quite a few caught on pukers. They were small enough fish to be netted but heck thats better than skunk. We met four or five boats headed back on our way out so the early bite must have been better.

[HawgJaw]

Hey Wak'm, I'm interested in your second hook that is 2' up. Is that 2' above your lead? If so, does that mean it is tied to your main line? What kind of a bait do you use and how do you avoid it getting tangled on the way down?

[eats]

Fishplay-

Thats mighty nice of ya to say...wish i coulda quit chummin at least long enough to run that kicker for ya for while! Got home and my roomate looks at me and says "looks like you had a rough day". Thanks again.

eats

[wak'm&stak'm]

What I do is run the speader and dropper like usual to my spreader I tie 120 to 200 pound mono, I go up that line far enough that the spreader hook can't reach it. Here I tie a loop nut. I am not sure it has a name , but you make a loop and twist your main lines together and then reach thru the center of the twist and pull your loop thru. What it does is makes a loop like commercial leaders have that shrimp flies tie on.

I make the loop stick out about 8 inches, and there loop it thru the eye of a heavy snap swizel.
Then I use a crow bar hook ( its a hook about 9/0. that is 7 to 8 inches long with a hole drilled in the top) commercial guys use these hooks. Any way I thread them thru a herring and snap them to the snap.

The loop is strong enough to prevent they from eaching the main line and it just sticks out like a herring jig hook.

We catch a lot of doubles, but it really pays if one hook gets cleaned out. If you do this, you are really allowed one hook on your spreader, which can be done, or just well...ignore it.

I real swear that it out fishes the bottom hook. When RJ and i were out the pile last year, we caught 5 or six that day and only a couple on the bottom hook, and the 101 pounder was on the top one.

I wonder about running 2 up a main line and no spreader?????? less snags????

[ 05-20-2002, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: wak'm&stak'm ]

[Pilar]

Hey Wak, you're a genius. Can you draw me a picture? I do pictures. Where do I get the drilled hook?

[wak'm&stak'm]

I have been called lots of things , but that is the first time genius has been used.

Harrys, and Englund both carry crowbars. Since I have never been able to post a picture....maybe I can just email you a pic instead....I will try that later.

I think the halibut were on the move....2 were caught half way to the surface....but on the top hook :smile:

[bait boy]

Do the hooks look like this?

[ 05-21-2002, 08:28 AM: Message edited by: bait boy ]

[Captn]

Pilar, I was looking for the knots described on the web, it seem like I was just looking at them the other day, but I can't find them now. If I understand the above described method, it is just a big version of the herring jig knot, with a much larger hook. I like the idea, because it is less tackle and it sounds simple. Any reference to the knots we are looking for would be very nice. Thanks in advance

[ 05-21-2002, 11:49 AM: Message edited by: captn ]

[Captn]

topic covered on your e-mail. And thanks again John.

[Deepslayer]

The knot being described sounds like a dropper loop. One good place I have found to learn about different knots is http://www.marinews.com/. The descriptions are the clearest I have ever seen and they even have an illustration of the knot you want being tied.
Tying knots on the main line like that sounds interesting. There's nothing wrong with increasing you range of depths.
,Ed

[Captn]

Thanks Ed, good page. I put it in my favorites. Those are for the most part easy knots, but since I dont tie them much is great to get a quick review.

[Pilar]

Capt'n, I know the knot and would be happy to show it to you. I do not know what it is called.

When do we start on the boat repairs? I am free this weekend and have no plans. Did you get the part?