LEARN TO POPPING- Light Tackle Popping

Poppers are a fun way of catching both bass and bluefish. Everyone likes to see a fish come to the top and smash a surface popper to oblivion. It’s heart stopping and it gets your adrenaline pumping.

When most people fish poppers for stripers, they fish them too fast. Having the lure moving slowly and popping will result in a lot more hits than racing it across the top of the water. The faster you move the plug the more bluefish you will attract and the few stripers you will catch.

Some poppers are built to sink, some are built to float and still others will even swim on the surface when reeled in very slowly between pops and splashes. Using or choosing the right one for certain conditions plays a big role in just how many fish you will catch.

Poppers that sink are normally heavier than others of the same type, and thus cast a lot farther than ones of similar size and shape. I like these for beach fishing where distance is sometimes very important. On beaches where there are outer bars, rock piles or rips, it’s often necessary to be able to make a very long cast to reach where the fish are.

Sinking poppers normally requires a rod that is a bit stiffer and longer to get it up on the surface and keep it there so it works properly.

Floating poppers are good in a variety of situations and conditions. In areas where there are lots of rocks and little water depth, such as at the bottom have tide. Floating poppers will come over them and through them better with much less chance of hanging up.

When the wind is calm or there is just a slight ripple on the water surface, floating poppers can bring some explosive strikes. Fish these conditions early in the morning before the sun comes up or late in the evening as it goes down. Being able to keep the lure on the surface and in front of the fish’s face helps immensely when trying to lure him to the surface.

With technology being what it is today, poppers now come with rattles built-in to add sound besides the pops, splashes and gurgles. There are numerous times that rattles can and will make all the difference in the world.

When tying on a popper use a good quality snap swivel like a Duo-Lok, which allows the lure to move as it was designed to do. Attaching a split ring to the front eye will also help in making it work better.

Loop knots are also good to use when fishing poppers. Fly fishermen use loop knots all the time. They are easy to tie and have very good holding strength on almost any mono leader when tied properly. A good knot book will illustrate how to tie one properly. It’s’not at all hard to do.

When fishing for bluefish, remove all the trebles and use one single Siwash Salmon hook on the tail end. Since most blues will attack from the rear first, the big salmon hook usually gets them. It’s a lot easier to deal with a blue with one hook than it is with two or three sets of trebles. It’s also a lot less painful; having been stuck a few times myself. When you take off thousands of fish in the coarse of a season you raise the odds tremendously of getting stuck sooner or later. I also crush the barbs so if you do get stuck it comes out easier than it went in.

If you learn to play and fight the fish properly, you won’t loose any more fish than ones with barbs won’t. In fact, you wind up hooking more since it penetrates much more easily in a boney jaw. Just make sure you keep your hook razor sharp.

For stripers, I’ll put a single salmon hook in the front in place of the treble. Most bass will take the plug headfirst so you need a sharp hook up front. You can dress the tail hook with feathers, bucktail or whatever you like for stripers, but I leave the hook bare most times for bluefish. If you do dress the tail hook for blues, use something synthetic like Ultra hair. It will last longer and be sure to dress it sparsely.

Knot Tying Instructions for Super Braid Fishing Line

Spectra Fishing Line Facts

Spectra fibre woven into superbraid is the ultimate fishing line for both kite fishing and deepwater jigging for hapuku, bluenose and bass. Many people ask how strong are nylon fishing lines compared to spectra? Incredibly spectra is only around one third the diameter of nylon for the same breaking strain, an important fact to consider when selecting fishing line for deepwater fishing or kite angling.

For example, a kitefisher using a pocket sled or flexiwing fishing kite rig can get three times as much spectra line on their fishing reel and fish three times as far offshore.

When using spectra lines kite fishers using dropper rigs will reduce the work the kite has to do to tow the rig out and keep the line clear of the water by two thirds. This is because the superbraid has only one third of the windage and weight of conventional monofilament or dacron fishing lines. Light wind performance is greatly enhanced.

Spectra braid is also kinder to fishing reels as it only has a stretch factor of around 1% while nylon can have a stretch factor of up to 30% (even dacron fishing line has a 10% stretch factor). Spectra is often called no stretch fishing line, superline, super braid fishing line or spiderwire to reflect it’s small fishing line diameter to strength ratio and low stretch.

When using more conventional fishing methods, such as deepwater fishing from boats for bass, hapuka and bluenose or other deepwater species. Unlike nylon fishing lines, bites can easily be felt even at great depths because of the incredibly low stretch of spectra and its ability to transfer every detail of the bite instantly to the angler.

It also works the other way round, those jigging in very deep water can easily impart real action to the jig or lure even at depths down to 200 metres and beyond. Obviously when the angler strikes, the strike is instantly and positively transmitted to the point of the hook ensuring maximum penetration and fewer missed strikes.

Probably the biggest benefit to deepwater rod and reel fishers is the spectra physics that come into play. Because it is so thin for it’s breaking strain you will only need a third of the amount of lead weight to hold the bottom in deep water or strong currents compared to those who use nylon fishing lines.

Catch and release

Although most anglers keep their catch for consumption, catch and release fishing is increasingly practiced, especially by fly anglers. The general principle is that releasing fish allows them to survive, thus avoiding unintended depletion of the population. For species such as marlin and muskellunge but, also, among few bass anglers, there is a cultural taboo against killing fish for food. In many parts of the world, size limits apply to certain species, meaning fish below a certain size must, by law, be released. It is generally believed that larger fish have a greater breeding potential. Some fisheries have a slot limit that allows the taking of smaller and larger fish, but requiring that intermediate sized fish be released. It is generally accepted that this management approach will help the fishery create a number of large, trophy-sized fish. In smaller fisheries that are heavily fished, catch and release is the only way to ensure that catchable fish will be available from year to year.

Removing the hook from a Bonito
The practice of catch and release is criticised by some who consider it unethical to inflict pain upon a fish for purposes of sport. Some of those who object to releasing fish do not object to killing fish for food. Adherents of catch and release dispute this charge, pointing out that fish commonly feed on hard and spiky prey items, and as such can be expected to have tough mouths, and also that some fish will re-take a lure they have just been hooked on, a behaviour that is unlikely if hooking were painful. Opponents of catch and release fishing would find it preferable to ban or to severely restrict angling. On the other hand, proponents state that catch-and-release is necessary for many fisheries to remain sustainable, is a practice that that generally has high survival rates, and consider the banning of angling as not reasonable or necessary.[2]
In some jurisdictions, in the Canadian province of Manitoba, for example, catch and release is mandatory for some species such as brook trout. Many of the jurisdictions which mandate the live release of sport fish also require the use of artificial lures and barbless hooks to minimise the chance of injury to fish. Mandatory catch and release also exists in the Republic of Ireland where it was introduced as a conservation measure to prevent the decline of Atlantic salmon stocks on some rivers.[3] In Switzerland, catch and release fishing is considered inhumane and was banned in September 2008.[4]
Barbless hooks, which can be created from a standard hook by removing the barb with pliers or can be bought, are sometimes resisted by anglers because they believe that increased escapement results. Barbless hooks reduce handling time, thereby increasing survival. Concentrating on keeping the line taut while fighting fish, using recurved point or "triple grip" style hooks on lures, and equipping lures that do not have them with split rings can significantly reduce escapement.