BigBendFishing.Net

STMU wrote: ↑May 19th, 2021, 1:42 pm

PhishingNole wrote: ↑May 19th, 2021, 10:57 am Specifically, what depth range do they prefer and what is the preferred bait to use? I caught this one on a popping cork and vudu shrimp, was that a fluke or will it work consistently? I ask because popping rigs are easier for kids. If I'm targeting Macks I usually go deeper, but that is because I don't want to mess with trout. However, I caught them pretty far inshore and around bars sometimes when fishing for reds...so they can be scattered. But again...if I'm targeting them I go deeper. Popping cork isn't my go too, but hey...if it worked.

Should I plan to chum? Depends on how you want to fish. I often drift and/or troll around which doesn't work with chum. But I've also anchored in productive areas and chummed and done well. Don't usually chum as it's expensive if you do it a lot. I used to live in south Fl where I could make my own chum with Bonita and that was deadly for macks, but up here that's a bit more work than I want to put in for macks.

Should I plan on using a different leader? The one I caught tore up my 15lb fleuro pretty bad. Did I get lucky that he didn't break it off? Yeah, you got lucky. I use 40lb fluoro. It will fray after a couple of hook-ups on the last few inches, so I tie a really long leader and just retie the terminal lure. Sometimes you can catch half a dozen before a retie if you're lucky, but usually it's every couple. I still lose a few on occasion, but's it not common. Wire IMO is not productive. I don't care how thin it is, my hook-ups are never great for Spanish. Connecting it is also a challenge and I don't like using swivals. I've tried pre-rigging lures at home with 2 inches of wire and tying that to my leader, but that took a lot of work and I don't think it helped me.