any tips ? to stop small fish taking lure .

[F1F3R]

i recently got a Pm asking this question,

to be honest , i dont know the answer, and i will be fishing the area sometime soon also,
so it would be interesting too know a solution before i go.

while a guy was spinning lures , pollack fishing he was plagued with either small coalfish or small pollack, instantly taking the lures. ( im presuming small as in approx 1lb in size )

Question:
how do i stop the small fish from taking the lure , there are/or hopefully will be bigger fish in this area , but the small fish seem too take lure first ,
what if anything will prevent the smaller fish taking the lure ?

is it a case off dramatically increasing the size off hook ? or is there other tips that i dont know about that will help.?

cheers for any info.
Andy.

[Ajohn]

Some have got round the unhooking the small fish problem by using short shank ordinary hooks. Much easier than trying to get a gob full of treble out and it still catches fish. Pass on discouraging them - huge lure and hook that they just can't get in their mouth maybe but that might catch no fish at all.

John

[F1F3R]

Some have got round the unhooking the small fish problem by using short shank ordinary hooks. Much easier than trying to get a gob full of treble out and it still catches fish. Pass on discouraging them - huge lure and hook that they just can't get in their mouth maybe but that might catch no fish at all.

John

cheers John,

its not the unhooking them , its too hopefully preventing them taking it in the first place, hook size sounds like the only answer, but as you say it might catch nowt,

possibly worth a try tho.

Andy.

[dabcatcher]

use a bigger lure

[TomBettle]

Dabcatcher's answer is pretty much the real answer, however also bare in mind that fish often hang around in a school of very similar size classes and if you catch one of a 1lb you are likely to catch 100 of 1lb.

Whilst this may be dissapointing, it doesn't mean that the big fish aren't there, but you may have to vary your technicque. Imagine they may be hanging around deep under the small fish. To get to them you'll need to sink your lure and then bring it in whilst keeping it deep... right through the kelp.

Alternatively and so often happens on the boat, as the tide changes from slack, to mid tide, to full run, to backing off you will find different size classes and even different species come on and off the feed. This may well happen at your local shore venue too.

Tom

[F1F3R]

Dabcatcher's answer is pretty much the real answer, however also bare in mind that fish often hang around in a school of very similar size classes and if you catch one of a 1lb you are likely to catch 100 of 1lb.

Whilst this may be dissapointing, it doesn't mean that the big fish aren't there, but you may have to vary your technicque. Imagine they may be hanging around deep under the small fish. To get to them you'll need to sink your lure and then bring it in whilst keeping it deep... right through the kelp.

Alternatively and so often happens on the boat, as the tide changes from slack, to mid tide, to full run, to backing off you will find different size classes and even different species come on and off the feed. This may well happen at your local shore venue too.

Tom

cheers for info, much appreciated.

use a bigger lure

thanx i will give it a go, easy now i know.

[moonshiners]

Theory being the bigger the lure, the less likely a "small" fish will try and eat it, by inceasing the hook size, you'l probably prevent them hooking themselves, but still trying to and more likely foul hooking.

IMHO - I'd say if it's a real problem actually use a bigger lure which will put off the smaller fish from even trying to have a go, but leave the hook the standard size as not to decrease your catch rate of the size you want.

[skipperboy]

I think andy meant my PM. I can tell you that they pollack where taking lures as big as them selves. the only thing they did not hook themselfs on was a big storm shad. probably because the hook comes out of the top instead of the back. you could see the small fish chasing it but could not get a hold of it. probably because it was too big. they were even jumping out of the water after it when I took it out. almost had one jumping on the dry... but yes, a shad was the only thing that did not catch small fish, but no big ones either...

jan

ps; when R you giving it a try andy? always in favor of a session

[lobbit]

the smaller fish might be at a different depth if you constantly hitting small fish try more or less lead to find bigger fish or increase /decrease retrieval rate
ive cast out and felt my lead hitting macks on the way to the bottom sometimes picking on up on the way grr , or had knocks from undersized fish ripping bait to bits ,big fish and smaller fish natuarally seperate its finding out were
tbh its one of those things i think

[rockhopper1]

Press down the barbs on treble no problem unhooking then .Getting through the small stuff to find bigger fish joys of fishing .schoolie bass will stay in pods move around till you find the more solitary fish