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Soft plastics hurting fish. Help!


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Hi guys, I need some help.

The last few times I've been out have been soft plastic sessions along North Haven, outer harbour.

Im breaking my drought and managing to entice a few ST's which I am stoked about, however, every one basically dies in the process.

They are swallowing the hooks, and are suffering serious damage in Gill areas. They come to the surface already bleeding heavily, and most hook themselves on the drop, so I don't think it is an issue of striking too hard, and it's not a handling issue.

I'm using 2"/2.5" curl tails and flick baits with jig heads of 1/12 or 1/16.

Am I doing something wrong here? Im normally C&R, and it's making me not want to go out again if I'm just killing undersize fish.

Any tips or advice would be great. Thanks guys!

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The answer is some fish will die if they are under sized and being thrown back or for those who play the game of catch and release only which has never made any sense why people need to do that.

Some lures are expensive and digging them out wouldn't do much in keeping the fish alive same with baited hooks or break offs with hooks stuck in the mouth now the fish can no longer feed.

So what's new or different..nothing much this has been going on like this in my 50 years fishing

 

 

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2 hours ago, Sykes said:

Hi guys, I need some help.

The last few times I've been out have been soft plastic sessions along North Haven, outer harbour.

Im breaking my drought and managing to entice a few ST's which I am stoked about, however, every one basically dies in the process.

They are swallowing the hooks, and are suffering serious damage in Gill areas. They come to the surface already bleeding heavily, and most hook themselves on the drop, so I don't think it is an issue of striking too hard, and it's not a handling issue.

I'm using 2"/2.5" curl tails and flick baits with jig heads of 1/12 or 1/16.

Am I doing something wrong here? Im normally C&R, and it's making me not want to go out again if I'm just killing undersize fish.

Any tips or advice would be great. Thanks guys!

If anything, sink the lure on a semi slack line rather than an overly slack line. It sounds like they are using the excess slack to choke the lure. 

 

It can be somewhat unavoidable at times, if you're chasing the trouties, maybe it is worth changing to a shorter jig head or wider gape hook also. If it really bothers you, maybe just fish tighter to the rocks. 

 

It's tricky and can be hard to get around at times, but if it seems to be an unusual trend, the above may make a difference. 

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Hi guys, I need some help.
The last few times I've been out have been soft plastic sessions along North Haven, outer harbour.
Im breaking my drought and managing to entice a few ST's which I am stoked about, however, every one basically dies in the process.
They are swallowing the hooks, and are suffering serious damage in Gill areas. They come to the surface already bleeding heavily, and most hook themselves on the drop, so I don't think it is an issue of striking too hard, and it's not a handling issue.
I'm using 2"/2.5" curl tails and flick baits with jig heads of 1/12 or 1/16.
Am I doing something wrong here? Im normally C&R, and it's making me not want to go out again if I'm just killing undersize fish.
Any tips or advice would be great. Thanks guys!
Hey mate.
Try using some TT Snakelock weedless jigheads size 1/12 and size 4 hooks.
These should work well with your plastic grubs and stuff.
For some reason weedless hooks rarely get swallowed like standard jigheads.
Every salmon caught lately has been in the lips as well as bream.

Sent from my SM-J120ZN using Tapatalk

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29 minutes ago, Softy said:

I've hit the Port a couple of times in the last 2 weeks and small ST's schools are everywhere and hitting the plastics hard... I've only had one i needed to operate on to get my plastic back tho. Maybe you are just been unlucky.

Yeah, I'm thinking that's it. Never happened before and even ones with the hook in the lip are bleeding heavy so unsure if they are dislodging the hook mid fight. Thanks for the advice guys, definitely going to give it a go! 

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I fish the same lures and same areas a bit and havent had the problem so as mentioned you might just be unlucky, the bigger the school the more competition so the little fish are probably really competing for food and are more aggressive than usual. Perhaps try a plastic thats bigger or has  a thicker body, like the squidgy prawn imitation, or a longer flick bait.

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