Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

Started beating the water to death again in my usual haunts and after about two hours of zipola, I was starting to think there are no fish in these waters when it happened. 10lber slurped up my Punker after the fourth try at it. Well this woke me right up and I started paying attention again. Next fish came about 10 feet from the boat. 5lber detroyed by Punker. Next fish (12 lber)hit the bait so hard, it came clear out of the water with the Punker in it's mouth. Great couple of hours of fishing. Stuck 5 Stripers. 2 were about 5 lbs. But three were over 10 and one being about 15lbs. Also missed one in the 10 lb to 15lb range. All returned to the water unharmed.

Please return the fish. There are enough meat fisherman out there, raping the waters with live bluegills and such. If you have to, keep a couple of 18 inchers once in awhile but throw the larger fish back so they can spawn and we can continue to have great trips like this one in the future.

All on Punkers. My punker was thrashed. I will need to replace the hooks... again. Good problem to have

Incidentally Patrick , the Power Pro was awesome. Indestructable and works real well with instant hook sets. I am sold. All my heavy sticks will be spooled with the 65lb test. Thank you.

Cboat,

Glad too see you had a great day, been up to Berryessa for the last 3 day, did well. Starting Tuesday, I'll be chas'in them and will give reports.

This cold stap is starting to move them in and shallow.

Rich

T,
Had a great day today (Sunday) east with the white rattling lunker punker. Lost 5 fish over 10#'s due to too tight drag with the powerpro so did not take my own advice. Remove those middle hooks on the punker. What a moonrise!

P......You can never have the drag to tight when the 30+ start biting and never remove the middle hook the big girls can eat an entire punker including the middle hook and I promise it takes the strength of all 9 hook points to hold them......Been out of comission to busy fishing for greenies but thats all about to change tomorrow......

ppickerell wrote:T,
Had a great day today (Sunday) east with the white rattling lunker punker. Lost 5 fish over 10#'s due to too tight drag with the powerpro so did not take my own advice. Remove those middle hooks on the punker. What a moonrise!

I don't know where you got that idea from ,but I would NOT recommend doing that.

Plus 1>2>and 3

Hit it again this morning. Great morning. My old haunts only produced one fish so I kept drifting down the bank with two plunkers plunking away.

Then Kabam x 3! Then thunk x 1! Then Kaboosh x 4 or 5 times! Broke one off and came back to the spot and there was my punker floating in the same area. Phew! $30.00 back in the boat but I felt worse for the fish with a punker stuck to the side of it's face! Patrick, my power pro broke!

Nice fish in the 8 to 10 lb range. It all ended at low tide around 10:30AM. But then we started throwing rattle traps and tried some water that I have never seen anyone fish and Kabam, Thunk, Bam, Kaboom!

Probably landed about 15 or so and many missed fish. Great day and a lot of fun and we found some new really good producing areas. Very satisfying. I will not whine about the decline of stripers anymore. 50 times.

Cboat

Learn how to tie a San Diego Jam Knot and you won't break off at the Knot Use your search engine, it will show you how to tie it.

Rich

65# power pro should not break! If your using 50# that is the issue, but if your are using 65#, you have other possible issues. Either way check your line guides, especially the back 2 or three. Take a q-tip and wipe it around in the inside surface. If you pull thread you have a bad line guide. You can subject the levelwind on your reel to the same test.
I suspect your using 50# or you have a lG or LW problem?

Dan

It broke about 1 foot from the lure as I was struggling to get the hooks out of a striper. The fish took the plunker down with it, but later it floated to the surface. Next time, I have a larger fish next to the boat, I will life him in the boat then struggle to get the hooks out.

It may have been a fluke. But it spooked me a bit. I will check the line guides and the tip.

Thanks for the advice and it was 65# Power pro. What do you think about going to 80#? I have high capacity spools.

Cboat,

Being it broke about a foot from the lure or fish. It sounds to me the fish may have been wrapped in the line. The striper do that. The back dorsal fin on them are shape and can cut the line. You may have just gotten lucky on this one. It happens to the best of us so don't loose any sleep over it.

I'd still do what Dan suggested and learn also the SDJKnot.

Good Luck
Rich

Just found out I can head out early Thursday morningon the Delta. Any areas I should go to. I haven't been out in a couple weeks. PM me if you would please.
Thanks
Curtis

The gill plates and also cut the line.