Stingers on Paddle Tails

[Scrumptrelecent]

I keep seeing people post up about Blues biting their paddle tails in half. Has anyone rigged up a stinger hook that doesn't affect the swimming motion? I'm thinking I could rig up a wire leader through the lure but I'm afraid that it would gut hook any interested striper. Thoughts?

[Cowpokey]

I tried it last year, it fouled the tail more than it was worth. Make sure you rig the tail with the hook exposed and when fish big enough to get the whole thing in their mouth they will get hooked.

This is the best time of year to let the blues destroy all of those tails you can't bring yourself to fish any other time of year...or simply throw in the trash can.

If you want tails that are "bluefish resistant", get some Zman. I've had tails last over 50 blues on a single tail.

[fishinggod]

i second Cowpokey's response. Z-Man baits can lost a ton of bluefish attacks. its the only plastic I use now.

[Scrumptrelecent]

10-4, looks like I'll be making a run to BPS.


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[Yak Fish]

On most lures you could remove all the hooks except the ones on the front. The fish you're interested in gulp the whole fish head first. When the blues are in town I drop the soft plastics for the most part and use mostly hard baits. They catch a lot of blues if that's what you're really interested in doing. You probably could thread a line through and just let the hook hang out of the tail, but for the hassle, the risk of hurting fish and catching a bunch of 8" blues is probably not worth it.

[Scrumptrelecent]

On most lures you could remove all the hooks except the ones on the front. The fish you're interested in gulp the whole fish head first. When the blues are in town I drop the soft plastics for the most part and use mostly hard baits. They catch a lot of blues if that's what you're really interested in doing. You probably could thread a line through and just let the hook hang out of the tail, but for the hassle, the risk of hurting fish and catching a bunch of 8" blues is probably not worth it.

True about the hassle. I guess I didn't really consider that these were smaller blues. I'm still new to the area and haven't landed a blue yet. That being said, I'm not really interested in landing any 8 inchers.

[Yak Fish]

A "big one" north of the bridge is 15". There are lots in the 10-12" size, but there are so many smaller ones that school up like you wouldn't believe and just nip everything.

[Cowpokey]

This time last year and on to the middle of October last year I was catching quite a few 16-18" blues south of the Bay Bridge. Never did get a limit of them that size, most in one day was 8. I wasn't keeping any smaller than about 15"...although I was catching plenty of them in the 12-15" range too.

Hopefully the bigger blues will start showing up in higher numbers, I haven't seen any yet this season.

[fishinggod]

the biggest blue I have this year is 16 inches. caught down near point lookout

[whenican]

Off the PLO pier I have seen some bigger blues caught (20-24")since Mid-July, just not on my line.