Jewel Runaway Bay Jamaica 2017

[MuskieBait]

(10-29-2017 06:28 PM)wknd outdoorsman Wrote:  As for the statement :
People are often insistent on fishing lures in saltwater for predators. Yeah, that's fun...but people miss out so much action if they would simply suck it up and use some bait.

I agree that live bait/ or bait in general would increase odds of catching. But to say“simply suck it up and use some bait” is a little presumptuous. The way I see it, people fish for different reasons, some for number of fish, some for size, some for different or particular species, and for some it is the thrill of the chase. For some, like myself, the goal changes with each trip. With that being said I do acknowledge that I did miss out on more action in exchange to accomplish my goal of seeing aggressive strikes and follows in the crystal clear waters. I was also trying to get them on video but I failed miserably on that front, lol!

It's not a presumptuous statement. If the locals offer you advice, take it. Your experiences fishing locally is so limited that anything that up your odds should be seriously considered. After all, the goal is to catch fish, and film the strikes, right? Unless you like to wash lures with saltwater. I don't want to sound arrogant...but with limited experience, doing it "my way" and ignoring local advice is presumptuous in it own light.

Fish strikes equally hard on live bait, if not even harder compared to lures. To think that only lures can generate aggressive strikes is presumptuous because a struggling bait can elicit an even greater response more often than not. Fish are not hitting your plastics and metals for a reason. They are shy about something in the presentation. Perhaps the lures don't track well at the high speed that was needed to induce a strike, or the fish are simply too pressured to make that mistake again. Toss in a live shrimp and you'll see a completely different response.

I'm not trying to be arrogant...but I didn't get to 768 species of fish from around the world just doing it "my way". There has been a lot I've learned from locals. For example, if you go to Hawaii and fish your way, you will catch very little. The gin clear water and often pressured locations dictate that you need at least 6-8 feet of 8lb or lighter fluorocarbon leader from your sliding sinker to the hook...even though you're fishing over a coral reef and the possibility of a cut line is real. But if you don't go light and stealth, you won't get bites. So what's the point of doing it "my way" if you can't get bites in the first place? You can't lose fish without first getting them to bite and getting them hooked.

For other reef fish, we need to use size #26 to #20 hook, as light as 2lb fluoro and with small pieces of bread to get the best results...from Butterflyfish to even big Sea Chubs and Parrotfishes (these we went to #8 octopus hook with 10lb fluoro...got bit but still got cut off by the reefs). Their eyesight is just that much better, and they are mostly vegetarian. But a big parrotfish can out pull any jacks pound for pound. And to see a Parrotfish come up to the surface, circle your bait, slurp it up then immediate dives for cover is as aggressive as it gets.

I was in Cambodia last November trying to catch a Striped Snakehead. I was trying to do it "my way" by fishing a little plastic frog sight fishing to a Striped Snakehead. It completely ignored my presentation how ever good the plastic frog looked. My tour driver, remembering that I had caught a couple of little live frogs an hour ago, said "put the live frog on, guaranteed bites". I put a live frog on the hook, hooked by the rear end...and on the first cast to the Striped Snakehead, it darted out from under the lily pad and completely engulfed the frog. Locals know what they are talking about. They have so much more experience than you and I.

So to doing it "my way" is missing out a lot of other opportunities that is just as fun...and often times even more productive.

if you hire a guide and decide to do it "my way"...you will quickly become the least favourite clients

BTW...just to be clear...follows are not aggressive. There are no aggressive follow. An aggressive mood would most certainly result in a bite. A follow only indicates an interest or a curiosity. But not getting strikes means the fish are either neutral or cautious. Fish follow lures or look at them more often than you think. If you are fishing in deep water where you can't see the fish behaviour, and you are not getting bites, it doesn't necessarily mean they are not looking at your lure. If you can't see them follow and don't get bites, you would most certainly say that the fish are not aggressive that day...if not even in a negative mood. Gin clear water and shallow situation offers us much more observations...but we should over interpret when for what it is.

I was just in Mexico and one day I was throwing a lure to a school of Green Jack that were feed on bait on the surface. I kept chucking a little spoon into the middle of the action and didn't get any bites. On one retrieve, I saw a couple of them follow my spoon toward the boat. Were they aggressive? No. They ones that were busting on the bait and ignoring my spoon are aggressive. The ones that followed are merely curious. If they are truly aggressive, they would most certainly hit it...because that school of Green Jack were busting bait for a solid 2 hours while we fish next to them...and they ignored everything that we cast their way. They were selective and were aggressive only toward whatever they were busting.

Also a bit more of advice...to do well, you need to know what you can expect to catch...and how to catch them. If you know there are barracuda, or you are targeting barracuda, fishing a lure without a wire is just kinda silly. They will cut through mono no problem...and can even cut through 30lb stainless steel wire if you happen to hook into a bigger model. As for the Houndfish, I've fished for them many times. Sure, they will follow lures all the time. But they rarely strike a lure. With plastic or wooden lures, their toothy and bony mouths simply sildes off the lure during the hookset and deflect the hooks away so a good hookset is rare (just like fishing for Longnose Gar in Ontario with lures). But...if you freeline a chunk of squid of shrimp into the current, you'll see them smell the bait and immediately dart over to get it. You may even see a few of them compete for it. The Houndfish may carry that bait in its mouth for a while as it swims away. Set the hook now and you'll surely miss it. You have to open the bail, give it time to work the bait back into its mouth, before you set the hook. Even then, with their bony mouths, a 100% hook up ratio is rare.