Another use for hard-heads

[ThaiTonic]

Picked up a few 9-11 lb mangrove snappers yesterday by chumming with pogies (fresh caught and frozen) and using pogie for bait. Ran out of pogies sooner than we should have.

Had a couple hard-head catfish (fins snipped off) chilling in a bucket as a Cobia snack. Decided to give them a shot.

Chummed with the last few pogies in the box while using cut up hard-heads as bait on the hook. Mangroves tore them up and they stayed on the hook a lot longer due to the tough skin.

Never thought of using hard-heads before yesterday's trip to the Vermilion Blocks out of FWC. Will definitely try to bring more of them on future trips.

Will have to beef up some of our tackle. Using Spectra 85 lb braid and 60 lb Fluorocarbon leader on stout 65-100 lb jigging rods and Penn 750ssm reels with drag locked down. Uni-to-uni knot with 6 to 8 ft of fluoro leader. Snell 5-6 ought wide gap circle hooks and no weight (will sometimes crimp on 1/8 ounce split shot to help get the bait down in a fast current).

Still lost some fish to the rig beast. Hook up, run to the back of the boat while trying to drag the mangrove out of the legs. Then loosen the drag some to fight them into a landing net. This method manages to work for us, but we still lose some who can snap the 60 lb leader. Will step up the leader to 80 maybe 100 lb unless they avoid the heavier line.

We're catching em and bringing them home for the filet knife autopsy; just always manage to lose a few.

Just wanted to pass on the hard-head lesson I received yesterday. Seemed to work pretty good and never thought mangrove snapper would try to kill it like they did.

Tight lines!