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!

[Clampy]

Nice work.
If you get mangroves to bite with 80 and 100 lb leader. They hungry.
I've had them shy away from 40

And to drop to 20 to get them to eat.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Ratdog]

Nice. I have cought larger cats on cat strips from smaller cats.
Big fish eat jus about anything fresh.
Next try a bimmany twist to leader .i posted on a knot thread two videos I found.
Or swivel it but bimmany and leader knot work better threw guides.

The whole thing makes me hungry ...... Chinies five sauce and whole fish.

Dang man.
Will post link.

[Ratdog]

General Discussion (Everything Else): New Knots Suck - SaltyCajun.com

General Discussion (Everything Else): New Knots Suck - SaltyCajun.com

Post 19 and 20

[Top Dawg]

Most times you're lucky to get away with 30# flouro depending on water clarity. Usually have to drop down to 20#. If u can get away with 65 then that's a blessing. One thing about mangrove fishing you're going to lose lots of tackle. That's just the mangrove game. Sure is fun though.