Keeping Contact-
Every once in awhile, a neophyte fisherman asks a question that is usually shrugged off with a laugh. When I get a bite, what does it feel like? Myself included among other sportfishing instructors give the answer of "oh you will know when you get bit, just hold on!" How selfish and ignorant on our part.
The subtleties of proper bite detection are an underestimated source of hook-ups. How many times during a bluefin bite do you miss the fish when they do bite? You don't always get a solid thump and a solid hook set. How many times have I witnessed a dorado jumping behind the boat for up to a minute and all the while I am saying or yelling "someone has a dorado on", "someone has a dorado on", meanwhile no one, or I should say the one person, is not feeling this jumping, running fish. The best one I saw was while we were sitting on the north-west corner of the "13" and suddenly a striped marlin starts greyhounding literally 50 feet off of the port side of the boat. "Someone has a marlin on, someone has a marlin on" and still the person didn't know he was bit until that fish was up off the bow. Those examples are easy to use, but what is going on when it's not a blatant gold and silver twenty pound fish doing back flips 200 feet off the stern, how often do yellowfin or yellowtail eat a bait and then spit it out without the angler ever knowing? Pretty darn often, in my opinion. We have to remember that fish live in a 3 dimensional world, they approach food items from every direction and different speeds. The game fish won't always take a bait or lure while going the opposite direction away from you.
In the past few years and in talking with fellow saltwater anglers an interesting topic comes up and is usually agreed upon by the top tier of fishermen. Its the fact that they don't get any more bites than the next guy, but the reason they hook up more often is due to the fact that they know when they are getting bit, while most others out there don't realize that a fish has engulfed their offering and spit it out before they sensed something was going on. To justify my concerns, during a hot bite, I have placed passengers in the corner cast their bait out, hand the rod back to them, knowing that they are going to get a bite yet they didn't. How could this be I ask myself? I was confused, but this is just the most blatant of circumstances. Much more often I see fisherman standing at the rail, next to him is another passenger hooking fish while the former is not. Could be the reason are differing line or hook sizes, maybe, but a large instance is bite detection or lack of it.
What does "Contact" with your bait feel like, What is "Contact"?
When that sardine or anchovy hits the water it's going to start swimming. That swimming action, the beat of it's tail and undulation of it's body travels back up the line in vibrations. An example would be two cans attached with a string, you can talk in one can and then listen to what the person is saying in the other can. Important point, just like the cans on a string, if the string isn't taught you can't hear the speaker on the other end since there are no vibrations traveling along th string. Slack lines don't allow for information or vibrations to travel up the line, although these vibrations are different, you have to feel them instead of hear them. To be able to feel these actions of your bait you have to have a somewhat tight line to the rod tip. The rod tip acts somewhat like a Geiger counter, reading the tail beats of the bait and transferring that information to you. Of course you don't want to keep the line so tight as you are hindering the forward momentum of the sardine, but just enough to be able to feel it, or what we refer to as keeping in Contact with your bait. When you stop feeling that Contact, you start missing bites. The best anglers on the boat have the finest subtle touch of being able to feel the bait through the rod tip, watching their line where it enters the water and at the reel. If you can't feel Contact or if the bait has stopped running or pulling line off of your reel spool, put in the reel in gear, takes some winds on the handle until that line comes taught to your bait again. Many times you will find that bait has made a big loop and ran right back to the boat, gotten into a tangle or maybe even ripped off your hook.
Let me throw this out there another scenario for you. I can't begin to tell you how many times I get on the intercom and ask for everyone to wind up, the stop is over and we need to go find another biting school, then someone yells "Fresh one". It happens so often, I have had to sit down and think about this. What I have come to realize is that it's not a "Fresh one" at all, but a rather stale one that has been on the line for awhile(how long I don't know) and the angler started turning the handle, tightening their line and finally came into contact with the tuna or yellowtail swimming around with their bait in it's stomach. What will usually happen is someone is standing there without paying attention to his/her bait, allowing the drift of the boat to take like off the spool or if the boat is at anchor, the angler allowing the current to pull line off the spool. While drifting on a school, the school stays with the boat, or at least I hope they are staying with the boat, we can see this on the sonar. That tuna that just ate your bait doesn't necessarily have to go streaking off, it can come up eat the bait and continue swimming near the boat. If you are not in contact with your bait you won't know your bait has been consumed.
How do you know when you get bit
It's all about feeling the bite. Once that bait hits the water, while it's swimming around out there and until you reel it back in to the rod tip, you should expect to get a bite. Expect it. That way you are not surprised when it happens and you are ready to engage your reel. I don't like to see backlashes because a fish caught you by surprise by inhaling your bait and running off in the opposite direction, created a over-run in your spool and breaks you off, spectra and PE is especially unforgiving at this. Bites come in a variety of actions poignant, violent, some more often than not are subtle.
Standard bite- For the most part it comes in the form of a thump, the small tail beats of the bait stop, you feel a heavier thump and then a steady pull of line off your spool. A good idea at this point is to put your reel into gear, if its a gamester, the line will continue to peel off your spool against the drag.
Subtle bite- Bluefin are notorious, strange biters. There are so many times that the tuna just kill the bait or they seem to chew on it, but if you swing or put your reel in gear the fish lets go. You have to let them eat the bait, its sort of like a thump, tap, tap, thump, tap, then the line takes off in consistent stream. Once this steady pull of line is under way is the time to set the hook or put your reel in gear, depending on what style of hook you are using.
A kill, then pick up- Again, more than any other tuna, bluefin sometimes will kill a bait then come back to it or another fish right behind the one that killed the bait then eats the fresh dead. Possibly the first fish found something wrong with the bait and spit it out only to have another more aggressive or less sensitive fish eat the spit bait. If your bait is suddenly dropped, leave it alone for a short time before winding it in. Sometimes there will be another fish or the same one(I don't know) will pick it back up.
Big bait, small fish bite- If you are fishing big baits for small fish, you do have to let the fish run with it, turn the bait and get the hook into it's mouth. When the smaller yellowfin and bluefin show off of San Diego in August and September, they will sometimes have issues getting sardines down their gullet. This also happens while fishing large baits(two pound scad) for yellowtail or salami mackerel, skip jack for bigger tuna down south. How long do you let the fish take the bait(so to speak), as a general rule, five to ten seconds. This is general, everyday is different and goes with how aggressive the mood is of the game fish, sometimes you will find the small fish are so aggressive that you don't have to wait at all, you can set the hook as soon as you feel the initial bite.
Hammer bite- Cast the bait out, put the reel in gear and swing! I wish it were this easy. More than likely, you still have to get the bite, feel the bite and then put the reel into gear. During a hammer type bite you will connect with many more fish if you don't swing and let that fish set the hook itself. If you swing on a fish going the other way there is more of a chance of that hook swing free and never connect with the corner of the mouth. Many times I will hear people exclaim "oh wow, he really hammered my bait" when actually all that was happening was that the fish was swimming away from the boat at a right angle..
How do you know when you are going to get bit-
Have you ever been standing there soaking a bait, have an angler walk up right next to you, cast his/her bait out, let it run and then tell you "my bait is going to get bit", before it happens? You ask yourself, how did he do that? How did he predict that he was going to get a bite? The said angler knows how to read his sardines' action's and can tell when the bait gets "nervous". Many times sardines will see or feel the approach of a larger fish, at these times the sardine starts to act differently, usually by swimming harder. Most of us will agree that the sardine is being chased. Sometimes, during the soak a bait will all of a sudden wake up and start acting erratically. Pay close attention at these times, the baits are doing this for a reason and more than likely it's because they are about to be swallowed by a larger game fish.
Another time I know I am going to get a bite is when the fish are biting! When everyone has a fish on the end of his line, there is a very good chance that you will get a bite.
An important point here, you will get more bites closer to the boat than further away from the boat. Most bites, overall, come with-in the first 100 feet of your soak. I am talking about sport boats which will create a psuedo-mini-biosphere. So remember this- Same as driving down the street in your town. As you approach a street intersection, you have more chances of hitting a pedestrian in a cross walk than you do in the middle of the block. There are more fish near the boat than further away from the boat. Ever notice the guy that is hooked up most often isn't standing in the middle of the stern soaking a bait a half mile back? He is the guy changing his baits and keeping them "in the zone".
One last thing-
If the bait you have selected isn't up to par, if that sardine is not pulling line off your reel, get a new bait. Your line should either be coming off your reel or you should be reeling in your bait or empty hook, one or the other, no arguments here, this is the way it is. Passengers that stand there with a slack line hanging from the rod tip will occasionally catch fish, which is really just a testament to how productive the waters are that we fish, but it's the guys that work at it changing their baits, are the ones catching the majority of the fish.
Tips for better contact-
- -Hook your sardine in the belly or behind the head, it makes it much easier to feel the bait swimming away.
- -If only small bait is available a small split shot or sliding sinker will help keeping your line tight.
- -Nose and shoulder hooked baits will get bit while being retrieved. Be ready.
- -Spectra or PE line with a short top-shot is much more sensitive with it's lack of stretch.
- -As soon as the bait slows down, back pedal on your spool. Not after the bait has stopped.
- -Hold your rod at slight angle to your line. Its hard to feel slight bites with the rod pointed directly at the fish.
- -The more bites you get or fish you catch the more or better you are at it and your confidence comes into play and goes way up.
- -Bottom line is that you have to keep in contact with your bait or lure, whether mental, feel or sight.
