Hi all,

Well with a Kayak, I can't make enough ground to make good use of a fish finder, nor do have one, so that's out. 

That's a good idea! Didn't think of that. I'll give it a go.

smudge wrote: remember that the longline uses circle hooks and it doesn't strike. Do the same

Years back I went out on a friends commercial cray boat to get some bins of Snapper for his daughters wedding. We were fishing out of Napier. We steamed out for several hours into the middle of nowhere and dropped a few lines. Then we drifted about with rods over the side getting no bites. My other mate from Auckland was basicly sleeping with a rod over his shoulder sitting on the gunnel after the big night we had prior and the 4am start. His rod suddenly goes off and up comes a 25lb Snap. Only bite we had. A bit later we started pulling the long lines and there were more 20lb+ Snapper than most people would see in several lifetimes, and so many 10lb+ fish that we thought we would run out of fish bins. Something like a 75% catch rate. It was just ridiculous. Quick call to the local fish receivers and that took care of the mass of fish that weren't needed for the wedding. 

Reel Deal wrote: I would be surprised if J hooks not circle like most long lines -.

smudge wrote: Only put the hook through the bait, don't strike the bites and you will get bugger all gut hooked fish.

I use those exclusively on my gurnard traces. I set my sinker just on the bottom and let it bounce with the swells. Leave the rod in the holder - don't touch it. Until you need to wind the fish in. Out-catches any other rods on the boat. They hook themselves and I think the bouncing bait and sinker attracts them.

All you did was demonstrate the difference between rec fishing and comm fishing. 

Totally concur with that. I did 18 mths deckhand commercial snapper fishing in my youth. Best set I experienced was 300 hooks set with 298 fish taken. About 70% were snapper between 10 and 25 pound and the rest trevally between 10-15lb. One kingfish of approx 80 lb!. It was Insane. All on 50 lb mono traces. Wont say where but it was right on Christmas of all times. Last day before Liegh fisheries closed for holidays.