An essential element complementing the live-bait presentation is chumming. In a nutshell, this operation puts feeding stimulants in the water to crank up the bite and to lead feeding fish to your baits. "Ultimately, gaffing comes down to common sense and discipline. Stay cool, wait for the shot and you'll make your point." Most common is a frozen chum block, made of fish oils and ground fish parts, hung over the side of the boat in a mesh bag. The block melts in the waves, releasing a scent trail, seasoned with edible chum bits. Anglers often augment chum blocks with straight menhaden oil dispensed from a hospital-style IV dripper bag, hung from the opposite side of the boat. An adjustable valve keeps the flow at about a drop every 5-10 seconds. Other options: Grind fresh baitfish and drop wads of the mash into the current or chop fresh baits at boatside and disburse a few chunks at a time. Whatever your method, chum in moderation. If you fill up the fish, they won't bite a hooked bait. Gaffing Kings Enticing a big king into striking and then working the fish to the boat takes considerable effort. So don't blow the whole deal by losing the fish at the gaff. Rule No. 1 is: Gaff behind the fishing line, so if the fish makes a sudden dash before you strike, it won't run the line across the shaft. Also, gaffing a king above its lateral line minimizes bleeding - an important factor in tournaments where fractions of ounces often separate winners from runner-ups. Some anglers advise gaffing the fish in the head for a quick kill. Others say go for the tail to get the fish's motor out of the water. A good compromise is probably the back region, around the primary dorsal.Just avoid reaching under the surface to gaff a fish. Water distortion will make you look pretty silly. Furthermore, control the adrenalin and eliminate wild stabs. Measure your gaff shot, calmly lay the meat hook across the surfacing fish and smoothly pull it home.It's a good idea to have at least two gaff sizes, like a 12-foot and a 6-foot. Some anglers carry an intermediate length, 8 or 10 feet, for those in-between shots. In most cases, utilizing the longest gaff is best to snare the fish as quickly as possible. The longer the fish is in the water, the more time it has to escape or fall prey to barracudas or sharks. However, if the fish darts back and forth under the boat, a shorter gaff makes the tight shots more manageable. Ultimately, gaffing comes down to common sense and discipline. Stay cool, wait for the shot and you'll make your point. Our lure selection comes mostly from Moldcraft soft heads, Zookers, Tournament Tackle's soft lures, Outriders or Ugly Bugs. Colors are usually in the dark range -- red/black, black/purple, black/green, blue/white and chartreuse/green. The mono should be no less than 130-pound test, and we like to use a small-diameter leader such as Momoi. Our tail wire is No. 9, 10 or 12 in a coffee color. We like a 7691 S style hook in 8/0 size. This is a stainless hook that needs very little sharpening and won't rust on your baits. A non-stainless hook in the same category would be a 7692 in 9/10 or a 7690 in 8/0. If you prefer an Eagle Claw model, we highly recommend the 9011 in an 8/0 or 9/0. We prefer the "tuna bend" style hook because we seem to lose fewer of the fish we hook up with this kind of hook. If you want the real truth, it's easier for all offshore fish to feed deep than on the surface. Tuna like to feed deep more than on the surface, but you won't catch them as well because the planer scares them off. It doesn't seem to scare off the wahoo. It may have to do with the fact that the wahoo don't like to be near the surface, and if you think about it, king mackerel would rather feed deep than on the surface, too. Our surface rigs are the same as the deep rigs in color and leader size, but the leader is only 12 to 18 feet long. The major difference is the way we secure our hooks to the monofilament leader. We put a crimping sleeve on the leader and thread it through the hook. We then run a piece of No. 12 wire through the crimp, the hook and back through the crimp. After compressing the crimp, bend one wire up for the nose pin and break off the other piece. Do not cut the second piece; cutting a piece of excess wire from a rig leaves a sharp point. If you break it off, you leave a smooth edge that will not cut. If you like to use a sinker, run the wire through the sinker and bend it up for the nose pin. Usually, we try to leave one to 1-1/2 inches between the hook and crimp so the hooks swings freely in the ballyhoo. By placing the single piece of wire on your rig, I think you'll find you get more fish in the boat and lose less rigs and lures. After compressing the crimp, bend one wire up for the nose pin and break off the other piece. Do not cut the second piece; cutting a piece of excess wire from a rig leaves a sharp point. If you break it off, you leave a smooth edge that will not cut. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Millis ini terselengara berkat dukungan PT. KreatifNet - The WebDesign Company http://www.kreatif.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website mancing-l at http://www.MancingL.com --> Fishing information, online chat, forum discusion, clasifiedads, etc MancingL Archive at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ** Save Bandwidth... potong berita yang tidak perlu **
