So Far,,,,,,,,, an AH and a Habs JR
 

needle fish have been sacrificed to the surf/reefs/bottom.

along with two wildeye storms,
and one bomber, Long A ~transparent/blk back.

and i've only been out 4 times this year :confused:
not a keeper yet, but Good and GREATERER Times
are just around the bend, my friends!!!

Stinking GAS PRI$E$ :af: :af: :af:
this time last year i had fished RI three or four times,

sheeeety-arsed oilman for a President!!! :doh: :doh: :doh:

sooooo, how's yer loss totals and what are you losing?
just wonderin' if that is an inordinate amount per times out, or
is it just THEM damn needles i'm wroking tooooo slow?

That's a lot depending on where. Try eels.

Thats exspensive!
Let me see 1gibbs pencil popper $9.00 thats it's for poppers so far!
sluggo's
ron-z
cocohe
storms
jigs
kastmaster

i only lost 1 jig in the ditch and nothing else?.oddd?

that's alot. are you fishing pretty shallow water? hab's aren't shallow water needles IMO unless its really rough. Afterhours are good shallow, but you have to start the retreive quickly to keep them up. If its really shallow where you are, try gibbs, salty or stezko needles. if your bouncing the bottom in deeper water, the habs and afterhours are great, but your going to lose some and its just part of the game.

try a slug-go with a SINGLE gami hd live bait hook(7/0 or 8/0) with 4 finishing nails stuck in the head. deadly for big fish in shallow water

I haven't lost anything yet this season.Hung up a time or two and cut some line off due to a windknot .

Jess, try a gibbs needle. Good in the shallows.

Junior in the dark to a lobster pot line.

Since recently converting over to strictly catch & release.....

I've made some changes in the way I fish. I've noticed that my "hang-up/get stuck and break" percentage has decreased dramatically with what I've done. By just removing the hooks from the plug, I hardly get hung up at all. I still get the same amount of hits, not as many fish...but at least I know I'm not hurting the fish nor will I get hung up as often. Releasing gets done immediately, ...after all....if there's no hook to stick em' with, it's an instant release !!! I'm still working on the "Catch" part of it though . . . :huh:

....but I GUARANTEE, you'll lose less tackle.


Try it out, let me know if it helps.

lost 2 homemade sinking needles. Making your own is great, it doesn't hurt so bad when you lose them.

lost a 3.5oz gibbs polaris, 4oz crippled herring, about six 10" ronz jigs, a bomber, 9"in tsunami shad, a couple bucktails, 3oz gibbs darter, probably a couple more i cant think of.

but all worth it for a solid 6 weeks of shore fishing i've already had...

I've only lost my mind and sanity...

Couple of my skinny dannys, one of my spooks, a bunch of 8" ronz jigs, and a couple 9" tsunami shads. Bad spool of braid accounted for a 2 of the 3 plugs.

One of my skin plugs, a Tattoo diving swimmer and a SS Zig Zag darter. Same night, fairly deep water, good current and a ton of blues along with the bass dining on the feast.


:fishin:

there is a nasty double set of reefs, at my biggest producer,
between the island and the promentory i cast from.
great cover for ambush positioning, not so great for anything that swims deep;
and i DOOO use eeeeels there ~~OFTEN and very successfully :uhuh: :uhuh:

that's where i lose most of my needles,
and you guys are right ~~i'm working them way
too low for when it's shallow. don't mind loosing good wood, as the RI
builders will keep making more and one night, I KNOW, i'll land sumthin'
on some of that fine AYC that swims so sweet:bounce: :bounce:

anybody else have a slow learning curve before figuring out the "needles retrieve"??
i always thought that John's mantra was "....if you're not bored, you are fishing them waaaay too fast!", no?
had been working the top and middle that night and was going for low and slow to see what could be raised ~~ NOTHING!! it's still early up Cape Ann's way, at least that's what i'm hoping!!!

thanks for your good suggestions and tips, gents!
Greatly appreciated! should've known to go with
the cheaper stuff until i get the depth thing dialed in :bl: :bl: :bl:

I was using a Hab's canal pencil popper and broke it off on a cast. Them plugs do fly. Well I walked the beach looking and found a gibbs popper, a bunker snag rig, and after only 20 minutes I found the Hab's. So I guess I'm up for the season.

I made a similar comment a long time ago and John H. ripped me a good one that I didn't know what I was doing. If he were here I'm sure he'd do the same in kind :)

I've since come around to his line of thinking.

-spence

Tips
 

Instead of letting plug hit the water like a missle stop the cast short by fingering the line so it lands flat. Start cranking immediately and you can fish sinkers in shallow water. And keep the tip as high as possible. If you tick bottom, just find a speed that keeps you off the bottom. One last tip- fish heavy braid- it will allow you to pull free of most snags, even if you do wreck a hook. Except pots, boulders, and the like. NO weeds are 50lb. strong!

idk, i've tried every method for keeping a habs up in shallow, calm water and it just ain't happenin', unless you burn the thing in and thats not how you want to fish a needle............at least most of the time :)

yes, you can fish a habs in shallow water, but IMO there are better shallow water needlefish out there. one of the great things about needles is that they come in so many shapes, sizes, sink rates, etc. its just a matter of figuring out which is best in which situation.