Crow Horse

Barbless for me and the bass. I feel that I'm injuring the bass enough already and the barb could very well make the injury even worse. Sometimes going barbless doesn't matter and I don't drop any fish. Other times I'm not as successful. So be it.

I got out on the water today under less than optimal conditions. It was brutally hot & humid, the water temp ranged from 76°-81° and the water clarity was very murky due to recent heavy thunderstorms. Tossing a WP75 with #1 VMC inline hooks with crushed barbs, I was quite disappointed in the hook up ratio. They were less than enthusiastic in their strikes and the several I actually hook into were dropped shortly after the hookset. I then used a WP110 with VMC trebles and had pretty much the same results although I was able to land 2 fish. I'm thinking that I need to use larger hooks and will do so when I receive them. One thing to note and it does support my belief that large hook sizes are warranted is the that the conversion charts I've found seem to indicate smaller hook sizes than another method of determining the inline hook size. The other method was to measure the width of the treble that you want to replace and match it with an inline hook. For instance, the WP110 comes with #2 trebles and the inline hook size would be a 4/0 using the above method. The charts indicate a 2/0. More testing and experimenting is needed.

Apparently swapping out trebles has gained favor with the striped bass crowd. I have not seen any thin gauge variants as of now.

I replaced the split rings with Owner Hyperwire #4 (50#) split rings as precautionary. I haven't had any problems with the original split rings, but why take chances? Mustad also has a line of inline hooks that could be considered. One should keep in mind that sizing varies between manufacturers. There are several charts for the conversion online and they should be considered as suggestions, or a basis to make any adjustments, either up or down in sizing.

I'll post my results. Hook removal should be greatly improved and that includes freeing them up from my net. It's rather amazing how tangled up in a net a plug with trebles can get in a split second or two. I also crush the barbs and I'm willing to accept the penalty of more dropped fish. My feeling is that it's easier on the fish and being that I'll be releasing them anyway, they were very thoughtful in sparing me the task of unhooking them.

Has anyone tried this combo out and if so, what was your experience? I've started swapping out the trebles with VMC 7237 hooks in several sizes. I'm looking forward to trying them out. I'm hoping to minimize injury to hooked fish. It'll probably require some adjustments but I'm pretty excited about the possibilities.

If the bass on some level are learning, why are they not learning to avoid other lures? What makes the WP unique to the bass learning?

The question that begs to be asked is "why does it produce so well and then subsequently success trails off?" Does it only produce under a narrow set of conditions? We can't be suggesting that the bass are actually "learning", or are we? Next time out I'll be tossing them again. The weather looks to be a possible factor because thunderstorms will be sporadic.

Unlikely.....

Sharp hooks are critical when trying to penetrate cartilage or other bony parts. New hooks aren't sharp enough for my liking and I'll sharpen every one using a turret style sharpener. About 5 years ago I started photographing hook points under an industrial microscope. Here's just one example of a few new hooks .

Like the title says, the last time out on the water I used a Whopper Plopper for the first time and I'm beyond impressed! First off, let me paint a back drop. Background info - We're fishing from kayaks on a small 12 acre pond. Admittedly, I'm really reluctant to change from a proven technique. I'll continue to use a technique solely based on my confidence in it to produce. Conversely, I resist changing techniques because of my lack of confidence in it. My fishing buddy Curtis does the opposite and constantly changes what he's using to adapt to changing conditions. Between the two of us, we generally do about the same with Curtis having a slight edge. This time out I decided that I was going to try topwater, something that I had little to no confidence in. I picked up 2 75 Whopper Ploppers, bluegill & perch. Holy crap! They far exceeded my expectations and I had one of the best days fishing that I can remember! Sometime in the morning I had drifted over to the side of the pond that Curtis was fishing and he reported that he had only 2 fish while I had 8 at that point. He went on to say that he had fished an area of the shoreline that almost always produces but he had no success. I went over and on my first cast hooked into a nice bass and followed up with 2 more strikes. For him, the rest of the day went very slow not catching anything. I lent him the Whopper Plopper that I wasn't using and almost immediately he landed a 4# bass. At the end of the day, I tallied 20+ fish. I honestly lost count. No dinks and had 2 4#ers. It was pretty amazing. Needless to say, my confidence in using them skyrocketed. I realize that this level of success can't be expected every time out but you can bet I'll be using it again.

I'm late to the party realizing this thread is a year old. I'm finishing up rigging my yak with 2 GoPro Hero 8's, one on the bow and one on the stern. The stern mount is a "boom" I fabbed from a monopod and augmented with Ram mounts. The bow camera is on a track and also uses Ram mount components. Both use separate external power (2 Nocqua 10ah batteries). Cabling and other components from 3 BR Power Sports. I don't use the internal batteries and have not experienced any overheating. I have a remote mounted on my yaks dash. I tried using voice commands, but having to yell the commands when it's windy wasn't cutting it. The GoPro remote works great, much better than 3rd party remotes. Editing the video files is done using Davinci Resolve 18 (free version). This version is a Hollywood level video editor and there is a steep learning curve. The cost to record quality videos is pretty substantial but it does provide you with the ability to record those magical moments that are priceless.

It's also known as a donkey rig.

One of my fishing buddies gave me a bag of floating worms and I gave them a try. For the past 1 1/2 years I've fished using a double zulu rig with great success. For giggles, the past 2 trips out, I used the floating worms on the double zulu. I was really impressed with the presentation. The sliding worm sank painfully slow while the trailer (with a heavier hook) sank a bit faster but both were tail up. I'm going to keep using this setup and tweak it as conditions change. I was curious if anyone else has gone down this road. I think it has great potential. Any thoughts about this?

X2 on all the above. Make sure your hooks are sharp. New doesn't = sharp. Develop a method of sharpening your hooks to your satisfaction and it will help with hook sets.

I'm using a 7' rod which works really well being in a 10' yak. I've noticed that when they slam my plastic my landing percentage goes up. When they are less than enthusiastic about striking my plastic, the dropped fish percentage goes up.

I always fish barbless (I crush the barbs flat) and was curious If anyone else is and what strategy they use when fighting a fish. Mine varies, depending on the size of the bass and nearby vegetation or structure. Some days I rarely drop a fish and other days I might drop 40% of the fish. Large fish I back off the drag when close to my yak. Generally I've noticed that when they change direction I'm most likely to lose fish. It goes without saying (but I'll say in anyway), I always keep a tight line. Any suggestions?

Upstate NY DEC officers I've found to be pretty friendly. I've only had a few interactions with them and only once did they wish to see my license. I was in the middle of a pond and he was on the bank, yelled out to me IDing himself and asked to see my license. I started to paddle in to show him and he said it wasn't necessary and just hold my license in the air. Another time I asked the officer if he wanted to see my license. He told me it wasn't necessary because he felt that if you've gone to great lengths to equip your yak with all the add ons like I have done that I wasn't going to skimp on a fishing license. That said, I keep several copies that are laminated on my person. One in my PFD, one in my wallet, and one in my truck. It cost pennies to do and makes life so much simpler.

A couple of suggestions based on my experience: Use a red light when you need illumination. Red light preserves night vision There's some research that indicates that mosquitos are actually attracted to the color red, so possibly a green light might be an advantage. I recommend using a Thermocell unit. It's extremely effective in keeping mosquitos away. The stern of my yak was covered with a carpet of mosquitos because of the white navigation light but I was basically unaffected by them. Hope this helps. From my remote UAS training, it takes about 30 minutes for the average person's night vision to return to normal after being exposed to a white light. Your mileage might vary.....

Will the Plano Stowaways be susceptible (bleeding) to JJ's Magic dyes if dyed plastics are stored in them? I've searched and drew a bank.

Thanks Tom!

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Thanks! I'll change the setting and see how that works out. I'm still having difficulty wrapping my mind on how the sonar works and it's idiosyncrasies. I have a lot of studying to do.