Radiater

We must be living right, or not catching the monsters you guys do. oke

reelthrill

I have fished king tournaments for 25 years and almost exclusively use 7 strand 60# leader material in our area.We will jump up to 90 during early morning hours or if it is very cloudy and the water clarity is not that good. On the Atlantic coast you have to fish with much lighter wire or you will almost never get a strike. I have seen Clayton Kirby, (Team Fountain), fish with 18lb. leader material in the Jacksonvilleking tournament.The key here is to use lighter line and put almost zero pressure on the fish. We have almost never lost a fish with 60lb. leader material in our area but wedo retie and/or switch out leaders oftenwhen fishing a tournament. Again, lighter pressure will definitely prevent a lot of leader breaks.

bamasam

Scott do you use the same rig when you are using skirts or just for live bait?

brnbser

I haven't used a skirt in about a yr and a half but normally keep a few in the box to change things up if for some reason we just can't buy a bite

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Capt. Scott Brown

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SET 4 Life

Allot of truly great information on this string. Like Scott mentioned, we have caught many kings, from smokers to snakes; that come up with a rare few having the lead hook in their mouth. They tend to strike baits from the center back and with ribbonfish, they always have a string of hooks on their side. This causes most Kingfish anglers to use a lighter drag because the hooks pull much easier than they would if hooked in the mouth. In fact, an experience angler maintaining a constant amount of pull on the rod can many times you can feel them pull.



Whether using a heavier drag setting or light, a jerky(anxious) pull on the rod is the prime thing that causes people to lose their fish. Letting the fish run with a light drag tires them to where you could have that steady pull up on the rod and reel the line back on the reel always paying particular attention to keeping the line tight on the way down. Many times you only get 1 or 2 winds of the reel handle. This is the reason for the higher speed reels, to get back as much line as possible on every crank of the handle.



The danger of letting a fish run (smokers) is the angle between the fish and the rod, tailwhip; the more they run the closer the line is to their bodies. With kings, most anglers attempt to keep the line profile down as much as possible and use as little as 20lb test which causes many "Tailwhips" or cutting of the line by the Kings very fast and hard tail. Like Scott said, advancements in fishing have been key, Flourocarbon is a wonderful thing! You can use up to a 40 or 50 lb Flourocarbon line without fear of the fish really getting "leader shy" as the saying goes. Key here is to pick-up the other lines quickly and chase that fish down and get as close to over the top without running them over(been there to). They really the like props as they approach the boat!!!



This post brings up a good point with seven strand. It has a higher signature in the water, but is reusable and doesn't kink as easily. Do you have to use a 90# cable to get the job done, ah; maybe not. Is it necessarily a bad thing, evidently it's not a show stopper as the people on this string that are using it have done incredibly well....kudus to you by the way...something to look at, it certainly doesn't kink easily. I would tend to think that a 50 or 60 lb cable would do the job with little worry of kinking the wire and while reducing the visibility. Kinking of the wire is the single reason to maintain a steady amount of pressure on the fish. Would I go to a 90# wire to do a test, probably not; your using a 20 - 30 lb line and even a king won't cut through a 50 or 60 seven strand cable as easily due to the flex in the cable. Either way slack is a bad thing. Slack the line for a moment and the single strand will loop itself in a heartbeat due to the amount of pressure being place on it, especially with larger fish. Slack on seven strand would provide more cable for the fish to chomp on with their perly whites which isn't a good thing.



As for the rigs, they are time tested and most, if not all; king anglers swear by them. Even with these rigs, you will sometimes get a bite and they won't hook up. This is the reason for the close proximity of the stingers. Either way, there is an fix, just freespool the line and that fish will most times come back and slam that bait again. I would say this is good maybe 60-70% of the time.



Sorry for the long read, hope it helps! Tight lines!

legalhookin

when i fish the pier all i fished with is 20# mono. but from the pier you dont usually use a stinger because you fish it different from a boat you put baits out and wait with rods in rodholders either trolling or sitting still. on the pier the rod is in you hands at all times and anything you catch on the pier isn't going to be a catch and release deal because you will be galfing it to bring it up. on the pier you use your single hook rig and hook it in the nose with your bail open and line being held with your finger. when the fish eats your bait let him swim freely with it by letting the line go. give about 5 seconds and then close the bail and wind up to the fish and set the hook only after the line comes solidly tight. the purpose all this is to put a very solid and strong hook set in the fish and not hook it in side or in a corner of the mouth. The mackrel slash and usually dont fully engulf you bait and will not fully swallow your bait on the first second or two and if you dont freespool you will just pull back a hook(also known a choking a fish in pier rat terminology) if you do this all correctly you will gut hook the fish or atleast hook it in the rearward roof of the mouth which is very firm and will also hold very well especially when you got to hold it under control for someone to galf it on the pier.

all the great info with stingers and stuff greatly increase the hook ups on unmanned rods and is the only way to troll. You can also release largefish from a boat and not gut hooking is oviously alot more humane. also you have to be descreate with your tackle on the pier alot of competition so if you use a stinger, your bait will have antlers coming out of its back and all the others wont and since your bait is just sitting there it doesn't look real natural.( come with the nose trouble hook from under the chin and out the forhead/nose and dont use anything bigger than #4 unless your thowing large hardtails or bluefish)

I know its long winded, hope this all helps

GONU

This is it remember to set the hook!

bama-peach

If i were you.. i would definately go lighter.. i have a 706 spooled up with 17 lb suffix.. i use it mainly for slinging cigs off the pier.. but if i wanna throw a hardtail i use a 302 loaded with 20 lb suffix..

light line = farther casts... less wind resistance... and less water drag while fighting the fish...

i'm fairley new to pier fishing... but thats just my .02

fishingwanz

Stingers on the pier are a little bit tough to deal with, in that you are always casting. I still think you can down size to 20 or 25 lb test, you should have at least a 200 yard capacity. I do think that on the pier you can have a little looser drag to begin with because you will be doing the over under dance with everyone out there,

As for fishing on a boat,I did like the idea of the stinger in the nose, If themain hookis a trebel, I dont know whyI have not tried it yet, but I can see how it would change the action on a live bait from being hooked in the nose. We put the hooks all over for other types of presentations for different types of fishing, sometimes you just dont see the obvious.