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Eels over bunkers, a fishing question!
Guy I fish with has us on a boat spot with a slow pick of nice fish. It is his boat and he is primarily a bunker chunker unless Bobber or I pressure him into some maybe less productive though more engaging method. Each tide of late has produced 2 or 3 bass up to 38lbs and none below 26. But... Nothing more than 3 fish a trip in 5 trips or so. So I was thinking it might be worth at least moving around the spot and drifting it to see if we can increase the catch rate. I am not particularly experienced with fishing that way but I do know that many people fish bunker in daylight and eels at night. Anyone know why people do that? If we can get the bunker for free and the spot is loaded with bunker is there any advantage to fishing eels just because it is the middle of the night?
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if the spot is loaded with bunker why don'y you fish live bunker? |
Back in the early 2000's when we primarily comm fished with eels nite and day out at Squibby and nomans we would crush. Then pogies started becoming more common and it turned to chum/ chunk or yo-yo game
Anywho, there were many instances where we were crushin fish on eels and a boat would pull up and toss a chunk of pogie and the bass would not touch an eel again. All they would eat was pogies So my advice would both to drift it and use fresh, fresh pogies chunks Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device |
About 10 years ago I was Yo-Yoing in Narr Bay with 2 other boats. It was actually the first time I Yo-Yoed. It is so deadly it should be illegal. The 2 guys I was fishing next to were Comm and had their limit of 5 fish in 15 minutes. Theses were all 20# and up.
You really can't high grade as the fish inhale the pogie and the pogie is full of lead anyway so even if you released the fish, it would probably die of lead poisoning. |
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Many times we would troll pogies along back of e-islands in shallow water. Believe it or not trolling a dead twisting rolling and cartwheeling pogie would out fish a live trolled pogie 10-1 Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device |
The “eel only at night” thing is puzzling to say the least. I generally don’t fish from boats but 20 years ago I was invited on a day trip fishing Montauk rips for bass. One of the best skippers in the fleet. Every other boat was using diamond jigs. Our boat had a very nice bite of larger bass using three way rigged eels. It just felt strange using them at high noon. It got me to thinking about it from the surf. I would never use live eels during daylight... but would catch plenty of daylight bass on my rigged eels! So why does it feel “weird” using live eels in daylight. I’ve never been able to figure it out.
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I used to have great success drifting live eels on and around the ledges between Scituate and Cohasset during the day. Then I went to plastic imitations and never looked back. But when Boston and Hingham harbors filled with bunker schools in the 80’s I loved using my trolling motor to slowly drag a live bunker around. Large gator blues around necessitated 60#wire to treble through nose and I’d run wire off that hook to a smaller treble stinger near the tail. Was fun to watch the bunker start freeking out and the anticipation of what was waking behind it made it a hoot.
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I don't fish during the day alot, when I do its either live mackerel or pogies, I always keep a dead one rigged and ready to cast, some days they just want them dead, and just play with the livie... when it comes to matching the " hatch " I've always believed in most cases that something different thrown at them gets their attention quicker, mainly because anything different in nature doesn't last long ,as far as eels during the day.time of year and water depth seems to play a role, I've done well in the fall using live eels under the bright sun, but in my experience, eels don't hold the attraction during daylight hours most days they do at night, deep water shoals or fast water seems to be the exception...for me, I hate the sun, hate crowds and hate being seen... must be why I fish at night.
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I remember back in the day when the Vineyard live herring Crew would go ballistic because they were hammering fish on live buckeyes and then the RI/BuzzBay boats would show up with live bunker and turn the Live Herring bite off like a switch.
Live Bunker > all else perhaps. |
Well given that I am not the captain, we spent another tide at anchor with chunks, but this time the couple fish were measured in inches instead of pounds. It certainly is an uncomplicated way to fish and I have to remind myself it is hanging out on a boat sipping a beer with a shot at good fish, but it always leaves me itching for a more active and engaging method.
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Boss man .not live …...far from it ><><>:devil2:
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always a exception >Denis & I had a good bite going on keeper bass [daylight ] he started chumming .I told him not to .. he kept throwing some over the side ,,,,,, the bite switched to blues & never came back ><>
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Still have a spot on the canal during certain tides in the summer that right around a certain time I can drum up really nice fish with a live eel during the day it’s literally a 15 min window but almost a guarantee
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Trolling butterflied herring was lethal back in my “ute”.
Always fished eels day and night too. |
I can't add anything as to what's the best bait or when or why, but I will say this. Compared to other baits, eels are easy to get, easy to keep, easy to cast, easy to fish, last a long time, and work live, dead or rigged. Not many other baits that collectively you can say all that about. If I want to use bait, they're pretty much perfect for a lazy bum like me.
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Timely post I need to add yo yo to my bag of tricks ... because as you can see by my fish finder I can drop a live pogie 3 way and not get a sniff .. and Ive fished the whole tide ..
was thinking eels to switch it up ? eels at night off the beach cant be beat |
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was anyone else catching those fish wayne ……...
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Could be a school of bait, no?
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getting pogies was difficult today ……………………… same guys that have been catching are still catching .If I was younger or able .I,d be fishing nights . at least the cuts down on the blues .,.,
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