New Hooks Worked

[JKTrevecca]

The fishing was slow on Saturday but I did land the only fish that struck. I bought an assortment of 4/0, 5/0, and 6/0 circle hooks, oct/circle hooks, and some 3/0 Eagle Claw L-042's. All of these are much bigger than the 2/0 BPS octopus hooks I had been using. I also upgraded to 50 pound mono with 40 pound leaders. I had been using 20 pound mono and leaders.

When this fish struck, it was nice to have the confident the line wouldn't break. And the L042 I had tied on was perfect. Great strong hook right in the jaw of the fish.

I think the stripers are moving down-stream already. The striper and hybrid club had their tournament on Saturday and nobody I talked to was catching much up-stream of Rome. One other boat that I talked to landed a 15 pounder. I lucked into this 20 pounder. I'd be curious to know what it took to win the tournament Saturday.

[tkwalker]

Originally Posted by JKTrevecca

The fishing was slow on Saturday but I did land the only fish that struck. I bought an assortment of 4/0, 5/0, and 6/0 circle hooks, oct/circle hooks, and some 3/0 Eagle Claw L-042's. All of these are much bigger than the 2/0 BPS octopus hooks I had been using. I also upgraded to 50 pound mono with 40 pound leaders. I had been using 20 pound mono and leaders.

When this fish struck, it was nice to have the confident the line wouldn't break. And the L042 I had tied on was perfect. Great strong hook right in the jaw of the fish.

I think the stripers are moving down-stream already. The striper and hybrid club had their tournament on Saturday and nobody I talked to was catching much up-stream of Rome. One other boat that I talked to landed a 15 pounder. I lucked into this 20 pounder. I'd be curious to know what it took to win the tournament Saturday.

JK, nice fish... <'TK><

[Adrian]

JK are you saying they were catching between Rome and 231 Bridge?
I can tell you where they Ain't That's between 231 & 109. They were on Friday before the Tournament on Saturday. We caught a couple of 20lbers, but Saturday it was a Ghost Town!!!

[JKTrevecca]

Originally Posted by Adrian

JK are you saying they were catching between Rome and 231 Bridge?
I can tell you where they Ain't That's between 231 & 109. They were on Friday before the Tournament on Saturday. We caught a couple of 20lbers, but Saturday it was a Ghost Town!!!

I'm not sure where they are catching but I can say that the bite was essentially non-existant above Rome up to the Dam. Agelessone has been wearing em out downstream of Rom but it's been a couple weeks since I've heard his success stories so I'm not sure where they are right now.

There was zero current from about 5am - 9:30AM and it was DEAD out there. They started 2 generators about 9:30 and there were slight signs of life but mainly just nervous bait. I know that there were a bunch of Gar upstream. Several guys were spending a lot of time there. I had one slight pull down that peeled the skin off of my gizzard shad. Later, I saw the gar surfacing and figure that is what my pull down was.

[FloatNFish]

Nice fish Jason! Glad you got a good one to stick!

[agelesssone]

42 lbs 5 oz won the PPHSC tournament Saturday.

[tkwalker]

Originally Posted by agelesssone

42 lbs 5 oz won the PPHSC tournament Saturday.

Merv, that fish would have gone close to 50 pounds in the Spring when she was full of roe, a rogue for sure. Just 23.1 pounds short of the state record of 65.6 pounds ...

Old linesides goes through a false spawn in the fall (I have mentioned before) When they venture up stream .... <'TK><

[Reel Tune]

Very good fish, and glad the new hooks were a success. Hopefully your future trips will result in the same.

[Lepomis]

I switched to circle hooks when I got halfway serious about catching catfish last year. At first I got Gamakatsu 2/0 and they were too small; the fish apparently sucked the shrimp down deep quickly and I didn't get the hooks back until I cleaned the fish. I then went to 4/0 and 5/0 and started hooking them in the corner of the mouth. The hook set (if you want to call it that) has a lot to do with circle hook success. Fight the impulse to set the hook in the traditional fashion, and just reel up the slack and give the fish a tug - that's all you need to hook them.

[A Hawk]

Why is such a heavy line required? Can you not ease up on drag, and play them on the 20 effectively? I am just asking as I am new to learning about striper fishing.

[StriperFan]

Originally Posted by A Hawk

Why is such a heavy line required? Can you not ease up on drag, and play them on the 20 effectively? I am just asking as I am new to learning about striper fishing.

A couple of reasons, especially when fishing OH or one of the trophy fisheries. One, the chance of a huge 50# plus fish is possible. The river environment is ripe with snags, which they like to hang out near/in, and will be the first place they want to go. Second, the idea is to fight the fish to the boat as quick as possible to release as quick as possible. Stripers chance of survival goes down quite a bit if fought to the point of exhaustion. The hotter the weather the worse it is. Has to do with lactic acid build up. I witnessed another fisherman on here have a big fish break off 65# braid because he was set to zero drag, but if he wasn't he would have lost the fish to a log jam anyway. Might have even been 80# braid.

[A Hawk]

Wow interesting, thanks for the explanation. I've experienced similar to that fishing for snook off of docks. They go straight for the pilings.

[JKTrevecca]

I upgraded my line strength because I had been losing/breaking off some fish up there with 20 pound line and drag set to where it would let the fish pull line, but not effortlessly. I just got sick and tired of spending an entire day fishing, and landing 1 fish to every 6 that pulled drag. Most were lost due to hooks not being large enough but some were broken off. I'm sure the striper run straight for structure and it doesn't take near as much abrasion to break off 20 pound line compared to 50.

I've only fished with the 50 pound line once now and I do have some concern with the larger line restricting the bait more and/or being visible to the striper. But.... If I can catch hybrids on an umbrella rig that is extremely hardware heavy with coat hanger size wires and a mess of lead on it, I'm not so sure the line diameter will prevent a strike. Who knows...?

[agelesssone]

Originally Posted by tkwalker

Merv, that fish would have gone close to 50 pounds in the Spring when she was full of roe, a rogue for sure. Just 23.1 pounds short of the state record of 65.6 pounds ...

Old linesides goes through a false spawn in the fall (I have mentioned before) When they venture up stream .... <'TK><

Some clarification is in order here.

A two fish TOTAL weight of 42 lbs 5 oz won the tournament.

I don't know what won the big fish of the tournament.

[tkwalker]

[QUOTE=JKTrevecca;67128]I upgraded my line strength because I had been losing/breaking off some fish up there with 20 pound line and drag set to where it would let the fish pull line, but not effortlessly. I just got sick and tired of spending an entire day fishing, and landing 1 fish to every 6 that pulled drag. Most were lost due to hooks not being large enough but some were broken off. I'm sure the striper run straight for structure and it doesn't take near as much abrasion to break off 20 pound line compared to 50.

I've only fished with the 50 pound line once now and I do have some concern with the larger line restricting the bait more and/or being visible to the striper. But.... If I can catch hybrids on an umbrella rig that is extremely hardware heavy with coat hanger size wires and a mess of lead on it, I'm not so sure the line diameter will prevent a strike. Who knows...?[/QUOTE]

JK, Read all my posts again ... You worry to much .. This isn't fly fishing . <'TK><