Sport Fishing April 2015

Before you go fishing this weekend, don’t forget to stop at the tackle shop to pick up some half-ounce lead-heads, a couple of top water lures, and a tub of Gulp! tails. Oh yeah, and a couple of drones. Apparently, some legislators in states such as Oregon, Illinois and North Carolina fear that scenario, since they’re promoting or considering legislation that would make it illegal to use a drone in any way for hunting and fishing. Granted, for most anglers, such laws would hardly matter. Few of us have drones, aka unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and few of us are likely to get them. But has such a thing crossed my mind? You bet. When I’m sitting in a broad expanse of Southern marsh unable to see beyond the spartina…

When it comes to water movement, fish want to conserve energy. WHILE CROSSING of a pre-fish to-do list chock-full of packing, rigging and loading, too many anglers are laissez faire about checking the tides. That’s a big blunder: Don’t expect positive results at your favorite flat during the wrong tidal stage. Exploiting local tides and currents is essential to strategize the day’s fishing, which could be a key dif erence between catching or going for a boat ride. It takes little time to check tide tables online or on a phone app. The gravitational pull of the moon and sun drives tides, forcing water up or down over a period of the time. Low tides reveal structure such as jetty rocks, sea grass, pilings and oyster beds; high tides flood…

Power versus speed — it’s the main factor conceded when fishing high-speed reels. An angler loses the extra cranking power of lower-gear reels, but gains the ability to keep up with fast-moving fish that cause slack in line, species like bonefish, redfish, kingfish and blackfin tuna. “Fighting heavy fish, such as big tuna and grouper, is easier at lower speeds,” says Brandon Cotton, Okuma’s marketing manager. “With big fish, it takes more effort to turn that handle on a higher-speed reel. Think of pedaling a 10-speed bike; lower gears are much easier to pedal than higher gears.” High-speed reels excel in many on-the-water scenarios. “Plenty of artificial lures work best only when retrieved at very high speeds,” points out Steve Carson, director of Penn Fishing University. “Wahoo and jacks, in…

High-speed reels don’t produce much heat, but they do impart massive amounts of strain on the main drive and pinion gears. A harder material produces a longer-lasting gear, but that harder metal affects the smoothness of a reel. Brass is the most common gear material in baitcasting reels, though aluminum and stainless are also used. Zinc is the most common in spinning reels, again with aluminum and stainless as options. Stainless steel is most common in conventional reels. Each metal has a disadvantage. Aluminum gears are super light, though they don’t take abuse well. Brass is stronger, but it’s not as strong as stainless steel. Stainless is the strongest, but it does lack smoothness. Still, all these different gears can work well, contingent on the species targeted. “I would hesitate…

1. PROPERLY PROTECTED Shimano placed heavy emphasis on corrosion resistance with these newly designed Torium star-drag reels, using an in-house treatment process and adding durability with nonflexing aluminum side plates and a cold-forged aluminum spool. The Torium A reels also feature High Efficiency Gearing and a 6.2-to-1 gear ratio capable of retrieving 46 inches of line per crank. Cross Carbon drag washers and antirust bearings add smoothness. Offered currently in three sizes — for 50- to 80-pound braid or 15- to 40-pound mono — Torium A’s cost $229.99 to $249.99. 2. TIMES TWO Berkley’s Gulp! and Gulp! Alive! Doubletails draw on the proven designs of the company’s swimming mullet and minnow grub. Doubletails’ twin appendages move erratically when the bait is retrieved at any speed. Available in 3- and 4-inch…

A rigorous 40-minute battle was required to defeat a GT of frightening proportions. Manfred Schmidt caught the 156½-pound giant trevally [A] while trolling bait off Watamu, Kenya, this past November. If approved, it will defeat a 124-pound, 12-ounce GT caught off Tanzania in 2011, and become the new 50-pound men’s record. A 28-pound, 13-ounce tautog [B], if approved, will replace the 25-pounder (Ocean City, New Jersey) that’s been the all-tackle record since 1998. Angler Kenneth Westerfield of College Point, New York, caught the monsta tog this past January off Ocean City, Maryland, fishing a crab. Samson fish are in the same group of jacks as yellowtails and amberjack, and of course are powerful, stubborn fighters. Surprisingly, angler Nicholas Lorenz of Daglish, Australia, bested a 65-pound, 7-ounce samson fish [C] in…