Soft or hard lures!

SteveGB · July 06, 2009, 16:46:15 CET

Yep fishfinder even me think its game over, really wish its not but after yesterday, trolling all day with out even one strike using the same spread I used 2 weeks ago when i caught a few i think that we can say bye to Alungi!

But I will consider changing all my lures to soft lures next season and see how it goes, as i believe that when Alungi are up to feed, surface lures, as opposed to other lures which are deep diving with weights (which might go only a few meters deeper with such high trolling speed) there isnt much of a difference!

Thanks

DJS · July 06, 2009, 18:23:45 CET

Last Thursday, we tried a new 10" soft silicone fish-shaped lure bought from the UK(you know the type with a single hook coming through near the dorsal fin). The blue /green colour looked unusual but worth in try given the sea conditions. After half an hour nothing seemed interested in the lure, so Mario retrieved it only to find that the tail (where there was no hook) had been bitten clean off. We'll try this type of lure again only this time affix another hook onto its tail.

Gazzetta · July 06, 2009, 20:47:58 CET

Got same thing last year and the only conclusion was that the treble hiting the lure caused these "" Bites ""

Chris

skip · July 06, 2009, 21:31:45 CET

Bloody ell Dave, no tail on a 10 inch lure!!! Shit! I ordered a 10 inch Pakula Destroyer by mistake but didn't deploy that coz I thought it was too big.

Had the sea been calmer I would have tried chumming and jigging a bit over a ridge.

But I think we need to change tactics in malta, do more like the Italians do and chum and area and then chunk it.

Would have been quite funny to have all 17 boat converge on an area run one big circle kicking up a wash and chumming in the middle and then having all of us chunk and chum in the area with a few boats trolling over the top!!!

As The Gaffer said, fuel is too expensive to be doing this kind of R&D!!!

When I came back to port I was like, hmmm prefer the jigging thing at the moment :p

Moonwalker · July 06, 2009, 22:16:13 CET

Are poppers any good for alunghi?

skip · July 06, 2009, 22:26:52 CET

If you spot them surfacing, yes but don't think it would raise them

Moonwalker · July 06, 2009, 22:39:09 CET

Ok thanks m8. Tried one for about an hour but with no results.

venere · June 28, 2010, 06:30:02 CET

Steve, just check your drag settings cause you might have the drag set soft tension, if you have a strike and your drag is set to soft tension it'll be easy for the fish to split back the lure before it hook up from treble hook.
If your lure have bites on it, so you are doing nothing wrong except to check the drag setting which is a crucial thing in trolling. Steve work on drag and you be happy.

farfettcassar · June 27, 2011, 21:26:15 CET

Hi all
The middle treble hook on all rapalas and yozuri or hard bait fish make the scar mark on both sides of the fish no matter what speed you are going as for changing the treble hooks to a different size on hard bait lures is not very recommendable because it will change the way the fish swims and that is important for every type of fish you fish for,what l have found from my experience is that if l buy four of the same identical lure same colour and everything, one of them is a champ and the other three nothing what l am trying to say is that one swims differently than the others and you get more catches from this one lure, even if you fish with 4 identical lures that one gets all the bites this has happened to me many times ,l have one great lure catching lots of fish and in the end l lose it to a fish so l buy another two and l don't get a single bite on neither of them ,it's crazy but true l couldn't believe it at first but after it happened to me on many rapalas and yozuri lures then l had to believe ,it is happening to me now last year l caught 3 alungi in the competition on the same Yozuri lure this year on the same one l caught 4 and another 5 on different lures and if you see it it has a 2 to 3 mm deep scares because of the middle hook scratching it and a lot of teeth marks all over ?

Thanks Joe (Farfett)

ganni · June 27, 2011, 21:39:00 CET

thats very true, some lues perform way better than others of the same model and colour

Kenken · June 27, 2011, 23:40:23 CET

Hi guys, how exactly can one check that his drag settings are correct?

farfettcassar · June 27, 2011, 23:53:32 CET

Well that is a hard one just pull the line up from the reel and it must not be hard to pull but it must not be easy either ?
l hope you under stood?

Thanks Joe.

Kenken · June 27, 2011, 23:58:13 CET

Yes yes that's what I usually do, read something somewhere mentioning 1/3 of line strength or something like that. That's the part I couldn't understand

chrifene · June 28, 2011, 08:10:44 CET

It is always suggested that you set your drag around 1/3 of the line break strength of the main line or of your leader (in case you are using one i.e. no leader - set 1/3 of main line, with leader - set 1/3 of leader). You can either do it manually or by using a scale like the one shown here: http://fishingnoob.com/126/how-to-set-the-drag-on-a-spinning-reel/

shanook · June 28, 2011, 08:29:38 CET

@kenken do u have star or level drags........
This is what I do. Lets say the line is 60lbs then 1/3 of it is 20lbs
so ur strike drag is 9kg (sorry to switch to kg u will see why later).
Fill bottles of water 1ltr is 1kg (reason for above) and so u can have 4 bottles of water in a bucket. thats 8kilos (safety margin for knots and make of line).
attach your line to the bucket and lift, if u can lift it and it starts to slip down a bit then u are set, thats ur full strike, with a lever drag its better as then u can move the lever drag back a bit and ur trolling tension will be set at approx 4kilos. then when u catch the fish u put it on full strike and give two sharp pulls to set the hook (u never know whats on the other end. if its an alunga u dont need the tow jerks if its a swordfish then u need them badely) and u will have a 8kg drag.
With star drag I would try to do the same thing at home but u feel the tension by pulling on the line and u have an approx estimation of the 4 kg drag and the 8 kg drag u cannot set the drags on both as the star is either tightened or loosened there is no set setting.
I hope I have made myself clear if not when we have an outing which is way due we have not met for ages u can bring ur things and we can discuss.