Big Baits part 7

We seemed to lose so many fish when we fished the big baits back under the kelp canopies, especially the less skilled fishermen on my charters. No matter what I did or said, most of my customers just were not skilled enough to get the really big fish out of their kelp forest homes.

One day as I was looking in my shark box for a large hook, I noticed some single strand wire shark leader in 25 lb test. You know how in cartoons, the little light goes on in someones head?
Well that's just what happened to me, I picked up the wire, cut a piece about 18 inches long and tied it to the end of my line. Then I put a 6/0 hook on the end, attached a "frog", and cast it towards the edge of the kelp.

The mackerel ran back under the kelp to get away from the boat, where he had spent a few scary hours in my bait tank. He had gone only about 30 ft. when I felt the telltale, THUMP, of a large fish. I let the fish pull about 20 ft. of line off my reel to give it time to get the big bait turned and swallowed, before I set the hook. I clamped down on the spool with my thumb, the rod started to bend, I put the reel in gear and set the hook with one smooth motion.

The fish ran for the nearest kelp stringer and was soon tightly wedged in a vee. Now to try out my idea, the fish was firmly stuck in the kelp, so I dropped the rod tip slowly and the fish helped to pull it down, then I raised the tip smartly and again let the fish pull the tip down, suddenly the fish came free, the thin light wire had sawed the kelp in two and the fish came forward about 12 or 15 feet, then, hung again. But repeating the prior maneuver got the same result, kelp sawed off, fish in boat. YEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAA!!!

This should work anywhere you have big fish and weeds together.

Next up, big baits for California Halibut.