Big Boy Trip!

I guess it's time to unveil a little secret or two.................

When I mentioned 20 pound mono I was not referring to the over the shelf shit at WalMart.

I always haul ten or fifteen conventional rod and reel setups for two basic trolling scenarios, inshore and offshore, with four spinning setups just in case I find an active bait ball to pitch spoons into.

My inshore trolling gear is light with 20 pound test and offshore gear medium with 40 pound test. For inshore action I use the smallest level wind reels like the Shimano Corsairs and load them up with 20 pound moss green P-Line CXXG co-polymer line. This line has super knot strength and almost no stretch. I've never had a knot break at the lure and the instant a fish takes the trolled lure it's hooked solid. I deliberately drag and bounce my lures over rocks and this line never gets roughed up. As I said above, every time I reel in, I run my fingers down the last six feet to the knot at the lure. If I feel any roughness I cut off six feet and retie the lure. The moss green is invisible in our mostly murky inshore waters. I never use any type of terminal tackle as that junk always interferes with the designed action of the lure. I buy the 3000 yard spools and strip and replace the stuff on every reel at least twice a year.

I spend hours testing my deep diving lures to determine how they run at different speeds and how they track, left or right. I usually pull three at a time while inshore with the outside rigs running with seventy five feet out and the center transom rig short at about fifty feet. I try to run as fast as the lures will stay submerged in order to foil the Trigger Fish and smaller Cabrillas. The smaller Groupers can bolt off the bottom and swallow a lure with incredible speed often time swallowing a small Cabrilla already hooked with the lure in it's mouth.

On Sunday afternoon we were at JJ's Cantina eating delicious fish tacos and slurping down TKS and vodka a los rockas when we spotted a solitary Vaquita Porpoise no more than seventy five feet out in three feet of water slowly working west with two Brown Pelicans following him. Not ONE drunk at JJ's spotted it, although a group of six kids on kayaks tried in vain to keep up with him.

Tight lines and BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODY decks!

JJ
 
I have never had an answer to the question of drag on the reel. I use 28 lb drag Spheros reels and 90 lb braid with 130 lb 30 ft long mono on a 50 to 80 lb poll.

It seems to me that a low drag rating would lead to spooling do to lack of control. I also use smaller setups inshore for the smaller stuff. 15 to 30 lb pole 30 lb braid 40 lb mono and another lighter rig

Comments on drag relations to setup
 
It ain't "caught" till it's on the deck!

I had a several hundred pound Black Marlin pull me and my beach launched sixteen foot skiff around for almost five hours once. I never gained an inch on the fish and it was pulling me out to sea so I cut the 150 lb. line.

Eastern Pacific Ocean, Fort Kobbe Panama 1984.

No drag: the line will spool until it's all out and snaps off at the reel. Too much drag: the line will snap off between the lure and the reel. Correct drag: somewhere in between no and too much.

JJ
 
Scotfish
Will you be fishing on a friend's boat or a charter and launching from Cholla or Penasco? I have caught a lot of grouper and whites around March 1st. It is a good time to fish, both with jigs and live bait. You should have no problem landing white or black seabass on spinning gear with 80lb braid, but grouper over 30lbs are another story. I usually use a 150lb mono topshot as my light setup. It is a trade off, because the whites are often "line shy". I have lost countless grouper using 100lb topshot or straight braid. The top shot is needed for abrasion resistance. Good luck, maybe we'll see you out there.

Shawno
Hey Shawno I am two weeks out until my rocky point trip now I know the grouper holds pretty close to the bottom but what about the white seabass are they as deep ? If I could I would really like to catch at least one of them! Do you tip your jigs with bait and will they hit whole dead baits like macks or squids
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
I've caught plenty of white seabass on just squid. Depends on how deep your fishing and where. Only problem is the gold spots will glom it the second it hits the bottom. We've even used big strips of Humboldt squid that we've caught when they're around. The whites love it!
 

Shawno

Guest
Hey Shawno I am two weeks out until my rocky point trip now I know the grouper holds pretty close to the bottom but what about the white seabass are they as deep ? If I could I would really like to catch at least one of them! Do you tip your jigs with bait and will they hit whole dead baits like macks or squids
I don't recommend squid. It works, but small fish will rob you. Try to catch live mackerel with sabiki rigs. We found macs last weekend at 10 miles out. If you don't have live macs, live baracuda or whole dead sardines are good too. I usually spend at least an hour searching for good bait.

I make bottom rigs with the 3-way swivel about 3' from the sinker. Whites are usually suspended a few feet above the bottom. I would use 100lb fluoro for the hook leader, but that will be too light for a big grouper.

Tipping jigs with a piece of squid works great. All of the whites we've caught since Thanksgiving have been on live bait. They haven't been interested in jigs yet.
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
I don't recommend squid. It works, but small fish will rob you. Try to catch live mackerel with sabiki rigs. We found macs last weekend at 10 miles out. If you don't have live macs, live baracuda or whole dead sardines are good too. I usually spend at least an hour searching for good bait.

I make bottom rigs with the 3-way swivel about 3' from the sinker. Whites are usually suspended a few feet above the bottom. I would use 100lb fluoro for the hook leader, but that will be too light for a big grouper.

Tipping jigs with a piece of squid works great. All of the whites we've caught since Thanksgiving have been on live bait. They haven't been interested in jigs yet.
Shawn well knows my old favorite adage -- "We gonna make bait or are we gonna go fish?" Hahahaha! Like Shawn, I'd always spend time trying to get a bunch of good macks in the livewell (or fresh dead sardines in a bucket with ice). I'd always have a couple of boxes of California candy squid as a back up plan because some days, we'd spend too much time dicking around trying to find the bait. It's great when you can get right on the bait and have three guys going with sabikis while one unhooks and fills the tank. All the big fish love the live mackerel, even fresh cut dead usually works.

Have a great trip and good luck!!
 
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