Why do you have to fish the port rod left handed?
obald
Hi John, what size hooks do PRIMETIME use?
cheers dustin
VMC's 13/0 is probably Mustad's 12/0. I referred to the 'cocked back' taping in my earlier post - it really does make sense. If I had Kerren's graphics wizadry I'd try and draw it on the screen - but I havn't so I won't.
obald
Ok in 54 days fishing on PRIMETIME I reckon we raised approximately 140 marlin to lures, got strikes from 125, hooked 94 (truly hooked probably nearer 80) and caught 57. Of the lost fish most were off very quickly or jumped off in the first 2 minutes. Only a few were lost near the boat after a protracted struggle due to pulled hooks, a few were wrapped and one got eaten by a great white shark. (We also got 6-7 big makos on lures.) I would say the majority of the caught marlin were hooked from the outside of the jaw, exactly what is supposed to happen. On occasion a smaller hook was used, Matt's " VMC snapper hook", went 7 out of 8 over 2 days, I seem to remember in one particular lure. I don't know how these figures compare to PRIMETIME overall numbers. When hooked in the outside of the jaw the leader quite often runs back through the marlins mouth which gives you great control when the fish is going away from you or when the hook is on the oppsite side of the mouth to the one facing the boat. The only thing is the hook can be difficult to remove and I remember there being quite a few crushed fingers and lots of swearing, but then they weren't my fingers. Ha, ha,
My own experiences when I finally got the chance to fish blue marlin on lures were quite the opposite from what I was expecting after reading all about these monstrous crash bites on lures from blues in Hawaii and Australia. These big fat Madeiran mamas can seem almost lazy at times and often the first shot is just a tap and the fish gets hooked on the second or third shot. The last fish I wired lightly pulled out the short rigger, switched over to the long rigger, knocked it down a couple of times before the skipper slowed the boat, I was preparing to put the lure in the rigger, saw the big dorsal waving about behind the lure, let the line go and must have dropped that super plunger down her throat. Sure, we do get the huge crash bites that can terrify you (well they certainly terrify me) with their sheer violence, and the unseen bites ("big hole bent pole"), but from what I've seen, you had better also know how to react to knock-downs and missed bites, and when Mrs Blue is pushing behind your lure with about three and a half feet of bill wagging over your lure and a mouth the size of a bucket open behind it, because those happen too.
I am perfectly willing to accept the patterns I'm fishing may not be perfect but I have had the fortune to compare notes with other boats and they too get their share of lazy bites. Some say it could be cooler water temperatures or the fish are stuffed with feed and lazy, or simply that smaller fish tend to strike in a faster more aggressive way than these big ones. I have heard similar from guys who have visited the Azores which is a similar sort of fishery.
When it comes to hook sizes, I've come to believe after missing many on 11/0 and 10/0s that for these big fish, 12/0 are probably the right size. Just look at the mouth of even a 600+ class blue, even a 12/0 hook looks small inside a maw like that. Again, I fully accept 11/0 and 10/0 and smaller hooks may be perfect for smaller fish and some smaller lures need to be rigged with smaller hooks, but for the area I fished (and if I ever have the good fortune to visit Western Australia or New Zealand, some things will surely be different), I now think 12/0 is the go. I have a suspicion a certain percentage of blues that come unstuck on that ballistic first run may be to do with too small hooks that haven't bitten well and maybe too heavy drags. Apart from my feeling that fish are more likely to get hooked solidly if they can turn and run before the drag is put up, I really believe all you're doing if you put a lot of drag on a blue marlin on his first screaming run is increase the risk of breaking line and/or pulling the hook. Is a big blue marlin honestly really going to slow down if you put 45 pounds of drag on him compared to 25 pounds, I really doubt it. The time to increase drag is after he's expended that massive burst of energy, not during it.
Well, after having nattered on, I guess I should say I'm certainly no Tiger Woods, so take all the above with a big pinch of salt. Have a nice day,
cheers - dustin
John, I like you consider myself no more than average, in fact, as far as converting strikes to hookups is concerned, at times I definitely feel below average. But one of the gentlemen who visits this site on a regular basis is one of the most successful lure fishermen for big marlin there has ever been, and I'm sure he's experienced the pulled hooks syndrome many times before, and if not figured it out, at least come to some conclusions how it happens and what are the main culprits.
The only other thing I think is worth considering, and believe me I consider it an awful lot whenever I'm going through a bad spell, is this: Even, or should I say especially, in places where blue marlin are truly abundant- Hawaii, Ghana, places like that, boats still go through runs of poor hookups on lures. They go through hot streaks, and they go through cold streaks. The problem one faces in an area like Madeira, and I guess New Zealand, where blues are simply thinner on the ground, is was that run of four missed fish simply bad luck or is it a symptom of something you are not doing quite right, and if so, what? The fact that you aren't getting 2 or 3 shots every day makes it difficult for you to change things. Also, if you're in a situation where you are raising something like one blue marlin per week (or God help you even longer between bites - yes I've been there), you are simply going to lose your sharpness and preparation. When the fishing is good and you are raising them consistently your game goes up, you get a handle on what the fish are doing and how to respond. If you can't remember the last time you got a blue marlin bite and suddenly THERE SHE IS, your chances of muffing the bite are a lot higher due to simple lack of preparedness, unless you are really very experienced, and I'm sure even the best fishermen would admit that not seeing a fish for several days tends to put a kink in their style. Human error is an awful way to lose a fish, but it happens.
cheers - dustin
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