doryman
2009-01-24 07:14:02
As I sit here getting ready to tie gear for our May start date in Oregon thought I would run this by some of you. I am considering tying up my gear shorter this year. In the past 9 years of running my own boat (been trolling 20) I have experimented with many different length spreads, depending on gear type, target species, time of year, etc. In the past I have always tied up my hotspots and large king spoons with leaders of 18-24+ feet from snubber to flasher. Running gear in my dory on the side doesn't provide a good "dead water" spot behind the boat to fight big fish. Many times a big king comes up on a long leader and it is way off to the side or pulling hard back and to the side out in the strong current. With a good head shake or poor hook up they can easily tear free with so much resistance pulling on them. After fiddling around pulling in and playing back out long leaders it isn't long till the mouth has a big hole worn in and goodbye king. I remembered back to a particular season when I was doing exceptionally well on kings while trolling my 9 foot coho leaders on small chrome dodgers and mini-hootchies. I really don't remember losing many at all that year, was catching 50+ many of the days. The shorter leader length allowed me to just stick the gaff in their head right at the corner of the boat as soon as the spread came up, no playing with them for minutes. I am afraid to tie up hotspots on these short of leaders though, not sure if they will work that way. Down here lots of us only use the #2 chrome dodgers for coho and the hotspots for kings on long leaders. I suppose you northern highliners probably have found a way to catch silvers on hotspots.
Years ago a highliner told me that spread TOTAL length whether it is a flasher or a spoon must be equal up and down the wire with the exception being the lead spoon at the ball. I have always fished this way. I usually never fish a longer hotspot spread and a shorter coho spread on the same wire. This causes problems when we are usually fishing on mixed stock and species in Oregon. I have a coho and king setup which are totally different, and if I mix them catch rate seems to go down. I swear sometimes I catch more kings when fishing only my "coho" short leader setup and my bite to actual landing rate is quite good. Yes, I am still using snubbers which may be a whole different issue, but I am leary to go away from them fishing a small boat in sometimes rough weather. One other thing on longer leaders. Working out of side gear trays these long leaders really really slow my gear running ability down. They are prone to tangling, blowing around in the wind, it is a real pain to haul and set the gear and think it may hurt my fishing some days during hot fishing. I would really like to shorten everything up, but have somehow convinced myself that my king catch rate will go down.
I was using Jinkai (Junkai) mono the last few years and have been very disappointed. Lots of break offs, stretched leaders, chafing. I guess I will go back to the Yama line I used for years unless someone has a better idea. (Local gear store quit carrying Yama)
Any thoughts from the experts? Am I overthinking this? Sorry for the long post but I have been running this through my head over and over, it is driving me nuts.
Thanks
Salty
2009-01-29 20:08:19
1. Send me a private message for a better alternative to mono.
2. Can you set up a separate box for your leaders to fall into instead of in the same box or bin as your flashers?
3. Have you tried a long gaff? I use a 22" gaff for silvers, chums, and small Chinook. I use a 42" gaff for large Chinook. It is amazing how far out I can reach and conk them with that longer gaff. It really makes a difference not having to wrestle them in that last two feet.
4. Every situation is different. I have fished with every leader exactly the same length and I have fished with 10 foot spoon leaders, 5 fathom flasher leaders, and 10 fathom plug leaders on the same line. Keeping in tune with what is happening instead of what you think should be happening or what happened 10 years ago is critical to moving to the highest levels of production. It constantly amazes me how stupid I can be sometimes. Fortunately I have accepted that situation and pay attention to what my partners, eyes, and ears tell me.
5. While it is good to have some gear pre tied it has been my experience that just a few hours into an opening I will have decided to change everything from leader length to tail leader length to the way I attach my hooks to my leaders thus making all my pre-tied gear obsolete.
6. So, I have gone to a system so I can quickly tie up the gear that I am going to use. I have hundreds of hooks pre tied on long tail leaders so I can easily just add the right hootchie and adjust the tail leader to the length that seems to be working.
yak2you2
2009-01-29 21:40:22
It does seem to very what the optimum spread length should be. Another thing that some folks seem to get intense over is the distance between spreads. I run fathom and half wire, I'll skip a stop or two sometimes king fishing, and sometimes not, depending on how many I think are around or what mood their in. I know guys who swear that if you run your gear any closer than 5 fathoms you won't catch a king. I've caught kings 9 feet apart from each other many times, so I don't buy into that one.
The golden rule; if it's working, leave it alone.