Anybody trolled menhaden for kings? They’re plentiful right now, but the ones I’ve been castnetting are fairly small (3-4 inches). Are they hardy enough to troll? We used to use treble stinger hooks toward the tail with larger bait, but if you used menhaden, would you just dangle off the treble behind the 'haden due to it being so small?
If I net some larger menhaden I will slow troll with them. The smaller ones like that I usually put out on a flat line while drifting over a wreck or live bottom.
wonder if you could flat line the smaller ones with a balloon rig? I’ve never tried it, but it may be better than trolling with the small ones…
flatlined live hadens for sure, i know they don’t hold up well at any kind of speed… but drifted might be the ticket.
If your going to drift with them I use a smaller leader then I would if trolling. Its not so much of a reaction strike if your floating around. Drifting gives them more time to look at it so I go with smaller leaders.
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RedX, what kind of leader would you recommend for drifting? Will mono hold up for kings?
For drifting I will use a wire leader because there will be some to crash the baits hard. There is a way to run part of the leader for the stinger hook thru the bait so that is not exposed. When drifting that king could circle the bait several times observing it. A smaller number 3 wire or even a 2 wire keeps him from seeing it as well for those shy bites drifting. The only time I will run a fluorocarbon leader instead of wire is when Im chunking/chumming larger pieces. I will use a smaller hook and hide it in the bait and free line it back with the rest of the chum chunks. You will get cut off at times but its a good way to get baits on a hard day of fishing. I use the chunking method on FLAT calm days with no chop where the king are shy to bite a wired leader. When you are chunking they are not going 25mph when they hit the bait like they would trolling a live. A capt. I know told me once “if a fish doesn’t have to use alot of energy to eat, It wont”
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I fish mostly at the reefs out to 60’,and do a lot of anchored fishing while chumming.I have been experimenting with using braided line for leaders instead of wire while fishing live bait on balloons.I get more bites and have never been cut off on the inital strike. If you know or think kings are in the area and won’t bite wire, this is worth a try. For what its worth I use 50# Suffix. I do the same with spanish now, I tie my spoons directly to 15# braid with no swivel, I lose a few spoons but the increase in bites is well worth it.
You can’t catch fish on a dry line
marshpicker-- so 50lb braid for kings and 15 lb for spanish? how long or a leader? never tried braid- that’s a good call!
If the fish are there they will eat big pogies and small ones. Biggest king ive ever caught (45lbs) was on red-nosed, half dead 4 inch bait. As far as leaders, I don’t troll anything but wire. On those flat calm days when I think they might see the leader, I pull out the kite. It’s deadly!!
was going out tomorrow on my 19 ft, but winds are steady 19kts currently. i think we’ll shoot for next weekend…
I just put 300yds of 30lb Power Pro braid on the Penn 750ssm. I’m going to try it for jigging and trolling for kings. I use a double leader with any rig I tie. I try and keep most my rods with it hooked to a swivel and then I can attach anything to that afterwards. If you’re going to use straight braid, I highly suggest doing a double leader. Very easy to tie and if one strand of the leader pops, the other is still there and strong.
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Those peanut shad can be used for kings…but they play hell on 10# spanish.
try jigging up local baits such as threadfin/green backs or scaled sardines or large cigar minnows, they are much hardier and very easy to catch. if there is bait, there r predators lurking
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