We didn’t kill’em, but we’ve had days a lot worst. Never really saw any concentrations of fish. Picked up two off the bottom on a 65 foot hump near Pine Island and finally, a little piece east of Frey Key, managed four more off the bottom in 70 foot water with much deeper water in close proximity. 6 bites and 6 fish. That was it. One was a little over 21 inches, and then we had a 5 lb, three 6 lb, and one 7 in the mix. We’ve done a lot worst.
Size 2 circle hooks work just fine. Another observation, and we didn’t have many bites, but all fish caught were on clear Trilene, nothing hit our Red Cajun lines.
Nice catches…Seems the smaller fish have either grown up or went for rides in coolers from the tower brigades at night.
I used to fish 8 rods and every rod had a different color on it, from clear to hi vis yellow. Idid this in csae if a nasty tangle and a big fish on i could just clearly cut the other lines minus the one the fish is hooked to.
Over the time i never seen another color out produce another, but i do run 3’ of flouro leader from the weight to the hook. So in my case the color probably never mattered.
The only time i have ever seen a different line out fish another was when i used to crappie fish heavy. The rods that were spooled with flouro didnt always catch more fish, but they ALWAYS caught the biggest fish of the day.
Side note: flouro is just to dog gone expensive to fill the abu’s versus my tiny crappie gear. If not for that reason alone all my 6000’s would have full spools of it.
About 5 years ago before the fish kills I experimented with the Cajun red. Had 3 lines out with red and three out with Trilene XL Clear. Used the same line on the reel as I did on the leader. The clear line outproduced the red by 3 to 1. It didnt take long for me to abandon the red and go to all Trilene XL Clear. I had a spool of the Trilene green line as well and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
Wellcraft V-20 sportfish with a 200 Evinrude
Maybe we’re just superstitious, but I think the red line is going, and we don’t cut any lines until the fish is in the boat.
Interesting!! A couple of weeks ago I had some break offs useing trilene line. I respooled those reels with cajun red I had laying around in my shop. Since then I have not caught many fish on those two reels at all.The other reels have been catching the majority of the fish and they are spooled with clear suffix. I did not think anything of it until I read this post. Think I will respool again with the suffix.
Seapro43
What kind of trilene did you use. If you used the cheap stuff that comes on the big real it is garbage. My preference is the XL (red box) in clear. Fluorocarbon is my favorite, but not worth the money for me.
Wellcraft V-20 sportfish with a 200 Evinrude
Going cheap is just throwing ones money away in our opinion which doesn’t mean that one has to buy the absolute best. We think we’re using good stuff in 12 lb Berkley XT in the blue box and the Sensation in the silver box. Haven’t had any bad feelings about the way it performs. Have heard good comments about Suffix but haven’t used it yet.
Berkley trilene big game on the 650yrd spool is all i buy anymore. Green in color
yea i wouldnt use any other colored line besides clear or green. i have flouro on some of my reels. my favorite line is the trilene in the red box and sufix siege normally 8/15 pound test on freelines and down rods
Weston t
I had some of the trilene big game 10#. It was good for about two months then got brittle and had zero knot strength. might be better in a heavier line. But I’ve been using trilene XL clear (red box) for over 20 years and haven’t found anything better. maybe fluorocarbon, but not sure if its better or the same.
Wellcraft V-20 sportfish with a 200 Evinrude