Guess this is as good a place to put this

[bowtech]

www.fishscam.com/

since the salt water fish scare is on this seemed like the place to post this link

[ScottC]

Good link. Too bad the loons don't like to read facts. It interferes with what they "know" is right.

[bowtech]

;D

That reminds me of a saying and how you can tell the difference between a liberal and a conservative.

A conservative will believe it when he sees it.

A liberal will see it when he believes it

[ScottC]

Ok, let's not get me started...






...or I'll get on my

[bassrod2 - TJ]

BARRACUDA

FISHING Salt Water

BARRACUDA : Sphyraenidae (order Perciformes)


The barracuda is any of about 20 species of predatory fishes of the family Sphyraenidae (order Perciformes). Barracudas are usually found in warm, tropical regions; some also in more temperate areas. Nocturnal creatures, they are swift and powerful, small scaled, slender in form, with two well-separated dorsal fins, a jutting lower jaw, and a large mouth with many sharp large teeth. Size varies from rather small to as large as 4-6 feet (1.2-1.8 meters) in the great barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) of the Atlantic, Caribbean, and the Pacific.

Barracudas are primarily fish eaters of smaller fishes, such as mullets, anchovies, and grunts. They are good, fighting sporting fishes, and the smaller ones make good eating. In certain seas, however, lately increasingly they may become impregnated with a toxic substance that produces a form of poisoning known as ciguatera.

Barracudas are bold and inquisitive, and fearsome fishes, that may be dangerous to humans. The great barracuda is known to have been involved in attacks on swimmers. In Hawai'i, they have been known to inhabit open waters and bay areas in the shadows, under floating objects. To avoid them, don't wear shiny objects. They are attracted to shiny, reflective things that look like dinner. They cause harm with their sharp jagged teeth and strong tearing jaws; slashing and creating jagged tears in your skin.

Should you or another be hurt by one - get medical treatment. Stop any bleeding with pressure and, if necessary, treat for shock by keeping yourself or the victim calm and warm.




HERE ARE SOME
BASIC OCEAN SAFETY TIPS:
Swim in
Lifeguarded
Areas
Never Swim Alone
Don't Dive Into Unknown Water or Into Shallow Breaking Waves
Ask a Lifeguard
About Beach and Surf Conditions Before Swimming
If You Are Unable to Swim Out of a Strong Current, Signal for Help
Rely on Your Swimming Ability Rather Than a Flotation Device
Look For, Read and Obey All Beach Safety Signs and Symbols
If in Doubt, Just Stay Out!




ENJOY THE OUTDOORS,

TJ

[bassrod2 - TJ]

shore and reef fishing

O.K., I love most types of fishing! Shore and reef fishing doesn't cost much money, you don't need a reservation, and you can spend an hour or a day doing it. You can get up before the family, walk down to the beach in front of the hotel/condo, whip or dunk for an hour and be back in time for breakfast or the day's other activities. Then, in the late afternoon or after dinner, you can go again for an hour or so. It sure beats laying around the pool drinking $5 beers!!! Significant others don't seem to mind the short breaks either.

To me, shore and reef fishing are almost a Zen thing. Time to meditate, think, relax and just enjoy the truly magnificent views. Catching fish is just the bonus.



Shore and reef fishing in Hawaii is mostly done the following two ways:

*Whip, Whipping: casting and retrieving artificial lures/spoons/natural baits with ultra light to medium spinning gear. Sometimes referred to as "popping" by bass fishermen. Types of fish vary from the highly aggressive trevally, papio in Hawaiian, to types of snapper and goat fish. Yes, most of what you catch is very good eating. Basic rule of thumb is that if it's silver or red, it's good to eat. However, I do ask that you release all fish that you do not plan to eat or use for bait!



*Dunk, Dunking: still fishing with bait, using either lead weights or bobbers. Gear can run from light to heavy, and can be either spinning or open face reels. Similar to fishing striped bass from the shore/beach. A very specialized Hawaiian form of dunking is called 'slide bait'. Slide bait is used to catch Giant Trevally, called Ulua in Hawaiian. Ulua can weigh nearly 200 lbs., but an average is more like 20-40 lbs. It should be noted that a local 'slide bait' fisherman caught a giant sea bass, weighing more than 560lbs, from a beach on Maui!!!

I combined the two styles. I set up a larger spinner, 12-20lb. test, for dunking, but rather than just sit and wait for a bite (though that does have it's merits in Hawaii), I also brought along a light spinner, 6lb. test, and whip (fan cast) the area while I wait. This not only gives me something fun to do while I wait, it can also supply fresh bait for my dunking rig.

"Fishing Hawaii Style!"

Mr. Jim Rizzuto wrote 3 books on "Fishing Hawaii Style" (Vol. 1-3) they are 'holy books' of Hawaiian fishing.


Jim covers everything from A-Z: Rods, reels, line, hooks, weights, lures, bait, what to wear, where to fish, what to look for, types of fish and different rigging for them, even how to clean them! They're well written (they outta be, he's a teacher at a private academy), well illustrated and downright fun. Not only is "Fishing Hawaii Style" an absolute necessity for anyone hoping to shore fish here in Hawaii, I believe you will find some tips/tricks that you can apply to your fishing style back home as well.

If you're planning to fish Hawaii, GET ONE OR ALL 3 OF THESE BOOKS!!!, read it on the plane over. If you can't find one in your local bookstore, ORDER ONE from my friend Captain Mike!!!!!!



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So there you have it. Shore and reef fishing are alive and well in Hawaii. If you plan to visit the islands and want to relax with a little private rod 'n reel action, grab yourself a chair and fish all day and ENJOY

Aloha,

ENJOY THE OUTDOORS,

TJ

[admin]

Thanks for the info bass. Look forward to reading more of your experiences and tips.

[bassrod2 - TJ]

Here's another one Mike

The Lost Art of Angling
High above everyone else on board his rough-and-ready charter boat Miss Jeanne 7, Capt. John Whitmer saw the blue marlin coming from deep beneath the bait long before I did from my perch at the top of the ladder. ''There he is, TJ!'' came the call from the tower.

I scampered down, and before I could even look toward the bait, the cry ''Gumdrop him!'' came thundering from aloft. The mouth of the marlin yawned behind the bait with the bill jutting out over the Spanish mackerel. I yanked the line from the outrigger clip seconds before the fish touched the bait.

I spun toward the angler. Having been alerted by the cries from the tower and my precipitous descent, he was standing by the rod. ''Let him have it, Charley. Nice and free,'' I said.

Leaving the big curved-butt rod and Fin-Nor reel in the covering-board rod holder, Charles McCarthy pushed the drag lever into free-spool, removing the slight tension that had kept the line between the rod tip and the outrigger from spooling off under the pressure of the wind. His fingers caressed the spool ever so slightly. Not enough to alarm the fish that was crushing the bait between its bony jaws, but just enough to control any inkling of a disastrous backlash. After approximately 10 seconds, he smoothly pushed the drag lever to strike and wound quickly. When the rod bent and line began to pay out against the drag, we were hooked up solid.

From Baits to Lures
We were an experienced crew in those days before artificial trolling lures migrated from Hawaii to Florida and then on to the Bahamas. We used arcane jargon with specific meanings that enabled captain, mate and angler to function smoothly as a team, and to hook a large percentage of the billfish that rose to the dead baits we trolled.

As lures evolved and became available to anyone with a few dollars or a credit card, things did change: Relatively new and inexperienced anglers and crews won tournament after tournament. Nowadays, I often hear older captains, mates and anglers complaining that younger anglers and crew have lost the skills needed before lures came on the scene.

It soon became obvious that trolling lures at faster speeds than we could troll natural bait was a more productive technique. Anglers did not need to take the time to learn the intricacies of dropping back when trolling lures, and many crews knew only how to set lures and couldn't tell a swimming mackerel from a spinning mullet. Yet they often outfished the much more experienced teams in weeklong tournaments, especially if the fishing was slow and the marlin few and far between.

There are still certain scenarios, however, where natural bait outproduces lures, especially when the fishing is excellent. It is much easier to get multiple hookups with natural bait, dead or alive, than with lures.

Dead bait comes to the fore when voracious billfish come up in coveys or pods and are eager to feed. These are generally the smaller species, including Atlantic and Pacific sailfish, white marlin and striped marlin, although blues can and do show up in packs on occasion. One day in the Cape Verde Islands we caught only seven blue marlin out of somewhere between 35 and 50 bites  we lost count with multiples of two, three and four blues attacking in packs! I came to this dance unprepared and had only a handful of dead baits, so I was pulling lures. (We didn't need to stop and catch the live bonitos that were readily available to get a bite, although, in retrospect, we might have caught more fish from fewer strikes if we had.) With a single angler on board, we stayed confused and excited and had an abysmal hookup percentage on our lures  which I had just rerigged with an experimental hook-set that obviously failed miserably.

Practice, Practice, Practice
The lucky anglers who get to fish the hottest of the international hot spots quickly acquire both the drop-back skills they need and a feel for how much drag a given line class can stand. Practice does indeed make perfect, and the more practice the better. Similarly, captains and mates with experience in such locations become almost unbeatable when the fishing is red-hot, and some boats become consistent tournament winners.

But no matter how they are biting in your area, the need to acquire drop-back skills has enjoyed a revival because of the growing popularity of the bait-and-switch.With this technique you troll hookless teasers (the bait) and present armed natural bait (the switch) when a fish is raised to the teasers. It is an exciting style of fishing that rewards skilled anglers and crew.

The technique becomes especially valuable when trying to set world records, since several rods and reels with varying line classes can be standing by to make the switch. You decide which bait to pitch, depending on the size of fish coming after the teaser.

But the bait-and-switch isn't something you get good at right away. When trolling a plain ''flat line'' or switching a billfish off a teaser, the angler doesn't have the cushion offered by the belly of line being released from an outrigger pin. Every mistake can be a costly one.

''Get ready!'' is a standard instruction I give when teaching new anglers how to hook a fish on a flat line. ''Get ready!'' means to initiate a specific sequence of actions.

On light tackle that's easily lifted and handled, the rod and reel should be held with the rod tip at a 90-degree angle to the line. (Presuming the bait is being trolled or if using the bait-and-switch, it has already been let out to its desired position.) The angler should hold the rod either vertically or horizontally and perpendicular to the side of the hull. Up or out depends on the captain's preference for a swimming or skipping bait and the position of the fish relative to the bait. (If the fish is still chasing the teaser, the rod should be horizontal and held out toward the teaser.)

The reel must be placed in complete free-spool with the right hand cradling the reel and the right thumb pressing firmly on the spool so no line is allowed to slip from the reel, and the bait, live or dead, continues to be trolled. If the rod is held so the butt lies along the right forearm, you can easily hold tackle up to the 50-pound class with one hand.

When the fish strikes, the thumb should be lifted from the spool and the rod tip should be vigorously dropped to point straight toward the bait. ''Throw the tip of the rod at him,'' I tell my anglers. The desired effect is to create instant slack line to allow the fish to take the bait into its mouth, and to help the angler begin to release line from the reel without a sudden jerk against the spool that might cause a backlash (see ''I'm Spinning'' on page 43).

Top anglers will watch the trolled bait like a hawk and will actually begin the drop-back when they see the fish trying to eat the bait, but slightly before the savage tug can be felt. This technique, which Whitmer calls ''feeding it to them like a gumdrop,'' takes practice but results in a much smoother drop-back with a higher percentage of hookups. Until recently, many considered it a major mistake to drop back a bait before the fish actually eats or hits the lure (see ''The Longest Drop-back'' on page 44).

In a well-executed free-spool, the line will actually fall to the water from the tip of the rod and place no pressure on the bait. If too much thumb pressure is applied, the line will appear to pay out freely but will come off the rod tip at an angle.

To help my anglers see this difference, I have them watch the line between the rod tip and the water as they deliberately let out a bait with a slight amount of thumb pressure on the spool. ''Now take your thumb off completely and see the difference,'' I tell them.

With practice, my anglers soon learn to let the line fall with just enough pressure to control the spool and keep it from backlashing. This also lets the angler feel with his thumb when a billfish has picked up the bait. Doing this under the excitement of a real strike is something else, but, again, practice makes perfect.

Heavy Drop
With heavy 80- or 130-pound-class gear, it's best to leave the rod and reel in the rod holder until the fish is actually hooked. Then as quickly as possible, remove the rod and reel from the holder and take it to the chair. (The IGFA rules state that the angler should '' ... strike and hook the fish with the rod in hand.'' But countless approved world records have initially come tight in the rod holder  both when the angler was manipulating the reel and when no one was even near the rod.)

When using heavy tackle, the ''Get ready!'' signal means to place the fingers of the left hand on the spool of line and use the right hand to place the reel's drag into free-spool. Continue to troll by holding the spool tightly with the left hand until you release your grip to initiate the drop-back  and then only caress the spool ever so lightly to control backlash.

With the rod in a fixed rod holder it is impossible to drop the rod tip to help absorb some of the energy of a ''crash strike.'' This makes it even more important than with light tackle to watch the bait while in a ''get ready'' position, to anticipate the bite and release the line a fraction of a second before the heavy tug occurs.

In most situations, it is considered a major mistake to drop a bait to a fish that is not actively trying to eat it. Even the best-rigged baits look less than ideal lying dead in the water, and, as artificial lures show time and again, it is the action of a trolled bait that draws a strike. It's a great idea, however, to use the ''gumdrop'' technique and release the line a split second before the fish actually grabs hold of the bait.

When using an outrigger, downrigger, kite or helium balloon with a release clip, it is easier to drop back without backlashing since a small amount of slack line is automatically created when the strike occurs. To ''gumdrop'' a fish from an outrigger clip, you must yank the line free just as the fish comes up to eat.

Even if you do everything right, sometimes you'll miss the strike and fail to hook up. In most cases, even if a fish has been hooked enough to pull out strike drag or even full drag, it will once again chase the original bait if it's quickly reeled toward the boat. Billfish commonly get stuck with their natural prey's spiny dorsal fins or have small baitfish wriggle free from their grasp. They instinctively resume the chase for a tasty morsel that has escaped even if their mouth was pricked by a bony spine or a hook.

When the fish chases after the bait a second, third or even fourth time, the angler proceeds as though he is trying to hook him from a trolled flat line. Often the fish will quit chasing the original bait and attack another offering in the spread. A top crew will continue to replace baits until the fish has been well hooked or gives up.

In any case, the greater an angler's skills, the more pleasure each fish can bring and the more fish will be caught. The classic win/win situation.

[michihunter]

You truly are a Master aren't you TJ!! I can't wait to get some lessons from someone so versatile in the sport!! Great story and lesson my friend!!

[bassrod2 - TJ]

michihunter said:

You truly are a Master aren't you TJ!! I can't wait to get some lessons from someone so versatile in the sport!! Great story and lesson my friend!!

Been fishing for years for all kinds of fish all kinds of water, I keep learning and keep showing everyone what I've learned.
TJ

[michihunter]

Well I'm in line for some of that knowledge TJ. Already learned oodles just from your posts!!

[bassrod2 - TJ]

michihunter said:

Well I'm in line for some of that knowledge TJ. Already learned oodles just from your posts!!

LOL the brain is full and I'm happy to share what I know. Been thinking of getting back onto the BASS circuit next year.

TJ

[admin]

michihunter said:

Well I'm in line for some of that knowledge TJ. Already learned oodles just from your posts!!

I'm right behind ya Ted. ;D

[bassrod2 - TJ]

Some of my website members just came back from Kona, Hawaii they went fishing with a Charter Boat Captain friend of mine, looks like they had a GREAT fishing trip.

Barb Schutzenhofer from Cornell, MI and Carol Kreitner from Bellevill IL. They wanted to try a morning 1/2 day charter, because we left at 5:30 AM, these 2 Ahi, 148 lb. & 150 lb. and this 107 lb. Marlin were in the boat by 7:45 AM!

TJ,
Thanks for setting us up with Captain Jeff Rogers, we had a super fun time fishing in Kona, Now I know why you like fishing in Hawaii. Thanks again, Barb.

See this is why I enjoy fishing to make others HAPPY