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I went to fish lake again over the weekend and had mixed results. I believe I've caught my first lake trout. It came up from 90+ feet to hit my lure at about 80. (Not sure if it's a lake trout - I've been under the impression they have a deeper V in the tail, if someone could confirm from the picture, that'd be much appreciated).
On the plus side I must be doing something right, because I'm getting lots of hits. Unfortunately I'm having a terrible time actually getting fish to the boat. I missed probably 30 hits - some were bad hook sets, some I pulled up a ways before losing them.
The first time I was up there I was fishing with 6lb mono. I have rigid, sensitive poles so it works OK down to about 40'. Below that I missed quite a few, and it felt like it was just too stretchy to get a good hook set.
The last time I setup with superline + 10' fluoro leader. I started the day dropping down a 3.5" tube. The lure stopped, I noticed immediately, set the hook, and pulled up a nice rainbow. I thought my new setup was perfect, and thought it was going to be an awesome day - and then proceeded to fail to bring in fish on 90% of hits from there.
I do tend to be hyper-aggressive setting the hook (fast and hard the instant I feel a change). I like it that way because I basically never deep hook anything. But now I'm worried with superline it may be too much. But I think it might also just have been one of those days plagued with small fish.
So a few questions:
1. What do you guys like for deep jigging: superline or heavier mono/fluoro?
2. Do you go with big lures for lake trout (biggest I used was 3.5" tube) to keep the smaller fish off?
3. With superline, do I need lighter/slower-action pole to keep from losing fish (I've been using medium to medium heavy, fast to ex-fast)?
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I always us the super line when fishing deep, Mono has to much stretch at those depth and you will rarely get a good hook set below 40 feet.
The 3" tubes are perfect for splake and occasional Laker.
So what you have changed to should work great. Be a little less aggressive on the hook set because you now have no stretch and probably ripping the hook right out of the fishes mouth, a nice smooth lift will hook the fish then keep tension on them all the way up.
That looks like a laker to me. The dark green color gives it away.
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I fish a medium to med./heavy rod with fast action. I use 30lb superline (equivalent to about 8lb mono). I use a 15lb flourocarbon leader that is about 4-5' long, no snap/swivel, just tie directly to the flouro. You don't need a huge hookset with superline. I nice snap of the wrist. Have you tried running a #4 or #6 treble hook as a stinger? I personally love the stinger hook and catch about 1/2 of my fish on it. Rarely do I hook a fish deeply with the stinger (one of the biggest criticisms of using one). I use about a 4" piece of downrigger cable to attach the stinger to the eye of the jig and then to the treble. I use the little "crush" sleeves on the cable to secure it. I then slip my tube bait right over the jig head/cable line and let the stinger protrude from the rear end of the set up. Works great.
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I'll ease up on the hook set and see what happens. I was using sharp Gamakatsu hooks, so it probably shouldn't take much. Part of the reason for the aggressive set is more an attempt at speed rather than getting good hook penetration.
It seems like I've had lots of fish hit, spit the lure, and swim off quickly. I tried shad yum and and a couple flavors of smelly jelly in an attempt to get fish to commit and hold on longer.
Have you had the same issue? Would a bit of perch meat perhaps give me more time to set the hook and/or get repeat strikes if I miss?
Thanks for the ID on the lake trout, I can cross that one off my list. Now hopefully I can pick up a bigger one some day.
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I've been using the uni knot (double uni?) to join the braid and mono. I've broken knots at the hook, but never broken at the mono/braid area.
I'll try the stinger hook. I think I can try various methods of single/treble setups until I'm satisfied I'm catching more, but not hooking them deeply.
I really like single hook tubes because most of the time I can get them out quickly without ever pulling the fish out of the water. But missing most of the hits is kind of a bummer.
One fish hit and went straight to the bottom, ripping out 30' of line. I started reeling once it calmed down, and shortly after the hook pulled. If I had a stinger I might have caught something really nice, and I wouldn't mind having to spend an extra minute carefully removing another hook.
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Try chub or sucker meat instead of perch. Also watch your tube jig for teeth marks in the plastic around the head of the jig.
When a jig falls it will go head first and when the fish come up to grab it they will get the head in their mouth and hold onto it so that when you set the hook it just pulls free without the hook ever being inside their mouth.
This may explain some of the misses that you are getting.
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I always tip the jig, Perch is what I use most but I have had success with chub and redsided shiner, the meat really makes them commit after they get a taste, after a swing and a miss always just put the bait back down, most of the time they grab it again on the fall. so fishing near the bottom you will know if it should be on the bottom or a fish grabbed it, but it sounds like you may be doing this already.
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A lot of times fish will hit the jig to stun it then swim back around to eat it. Happens a lot with streamers with a fly rod. That could also be something to think about. Lake fish have plenty of time to decide to eat or not. At 90 ft it is hard to tell what the fish are doing though. A stinger hook as mentioned by BLFG is a good one since that one is doing the hooking when the fish is stunning it's prey instead of eating the whole thing.
Just my .02
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6 pound test at 90' will have a ton of stretch. I 2nd what everyone else has said. Super braid with a 10 pound plus flouro leader. Sounds to me like you are trying to "horse" the fish in. Just relax. Make sure the hook is stuck well into the fish, and play the fish, not retrieve the fish.
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