Tillery 11/14...18 hours of it

[catfishrus]

Dream Team hit Tillery yesterday. Started the morning with a decent hook up on a 20-25 lb blue...lost it when the hook came out. Hooked up again...lost it too. Hook pulled out again. Moved around and caught some 5-8 lber. Then around lunchtime I caught a 20-25 lb flathead on cut bait. Little after lunch Eric hooked up with a nice one...fight was on as I grabbed the camera to get it on tape..filmed Eric and as I turned to the fish...she came off..hook pulled out again. About 3.00 Pm went for more bait...found some and returned to fishing right before dark. Caught a nice 30-35 lb blue after the line broke on another fish. Then Eric hooked up on a decent fish..didnt think it was nothing special...maybe 20-25 lber...well all be danged if it didnt twist the hook around like (I have never seen before) and got off. Fished from 4.00AM to 10.30 PM last night and admitted defeat. Dont know whats up with the hooks pulling out and all the other things that went wrong yesterday but the current was ripping and we was running tight drags with 10 ozs of weight and it wouldnt hold early yesterday morning. Fish seems to be scattered out but if you waited long enough..one would come by. We ended catching 6-8 fish...the flathead and the 30-35 lb blue...rest was 5-8 lbers. Sorry no pictures...blue was bleeding but okay..so release it quick..the flathead...we thought we had on film..but today...its not on there...maybe Eric forgot to hit the record button. No big deal..we looking for bigger anyways. Water temp was 56...plenty of threadfins in swift island..but small ones.

[Bream baiter]

You guys should try circle hooks. You can let a fish swim accross the lake on a slack line and the hook won't come out most of the time with the 7/0 Owner circles that I use. I believe I'll just wait awhile before I go again. That's just too much current.

[beastmaster704]

Sounds like a good day out ....... Y'all better work on that hook set before dec 5

[catfishrus]

Well moral of the story here...we put our time into it and hopefully we learned a few new tricks. I been here before with different hooks and switched to new things.... I been pleased with the hooks I use...none of our fish really slamed the rods yesterday...so Im hoping it was just a lite biting day. Add in the fact of heavy current and holding on to them was a task in itself. The 20-25 lb blue I lost felt like a giant but we seen him come to the top. Bream baiter ....Ive seen circle hooks fail too..although you might be right with the heavy current. I seen CMJ loose a 45-50 lb blue one day on the Pee Dee river to a circle hook. I think its just part of fishing sometimes..things arent going to go your way all the time. BM ...we will see you at Tillery on Dec5. with sharp hooks.

[circle hook]

congrats guys sounds like a pretty good trip to me. I been noticing lately that my hooks haven't been hooking up either, khales or circles, but mine ain't being getting bit.... seriously though for the past month the fish i have caught haven't really slammed it, they biting lite for some reason. Also where have the bigger shad got to? been hard to locate for me, Tillery or badin. whats up with that?

[Pier Pressure]

Way to stick it out fellas. You got into some decent fish.

Circle Hook, I know what you mean about big bait. I'm going on the hunt for some huge gizzards this week on Badin and Tillery. If I come up w/some I'll let you know. They have not been in their usual haunts for this time of year for me, that's for sure. I'm looking for some that you can't even get your hand around (the kind you gotta hold against your chest to get a hook in 'em ).

[jerry9497]

we was running across Badin...out in the big water and the sonar clouded up so bad I couldnt see arches, so we stoped and threw the net just to see if it was plankton or trash from the current. caught a bunch of minnow size threadfin shad, nothing of any size. but on side image...they were as far as you could see in both directions.

[1 Gearhead]

Catfishrus it probably didn't help the hook up ratio when the gap of your hooks are full of leaves and sticks like some of mine were

[catfishrus]

We had that problem too early saturday morning...wasnt as bad saturday night though. We was wondering why only two rods was getting hits..until we went to move and seen all those leaves.

[rivercatsc]

What kinda hooks are you guys using? Man that sounds like 1 heck of a night.

[catfishrus]

7/0 king kahle hooks. Here is the bent hook that caused livebaiter to loose a fish. I have striaghtened them before when hung up(not this bad)....but never had one to bend with a fish on...I bent some removing the hooks with the pilars before also. What I like about these hook is usually once you get it set ...its not coming out... without pilars. Weve caught some good fish on these hooks...including livebaiter 71 lber this month...caught some nice flatheads on them too. Now we havent fished current this strong too often and I do run a tight drag...the line breaking was where the 10 oz weight was sliding on the line..I put one of them quick change weight slides on my line...we noticed it was fraying the line about midday and took those off. So I can see the line breaking on the hook set once but this bent hook blows my mind. Notice the point has even been bent over a tick. All I can figure is the hook stuck in the hard part of the jaw and when the fish rolled ...it twisted this hook with the heavy current and tight drags.

[countryboy79]

Blewett falls was below normal yesterday at 2:00. That means they close the flood gates at tillery. Tillery should be back to normal in a few days....

[1 Gearhead]

I have use that same hook for years without any problems and only bent them trying to get them out . I don't loose many fish that are big enough to pull the rods down its the little fish that can't get the big bait and the hook all at the same time Those are the only fish I feel we miss and most of the time I don't want them dinks anyway. (MOST OF THE TIME)

[Rookie12]

I've only ever straightened out one hookon a fish and that was on the congaree in heavy current with 6 oz. of weight and fish that slammed the rod, almost couldn't get it out of the holder. it's only happened to me onve. I think it was a Eagle Claw L042.

[Stonewall]

Congrats on the good day/night Mike and Eric!

I've had one hook bend on me from a fish and fish ripping current 90% of the time. It was a circle hook in 10/0 (can't remember the make) They were an experimental hook not released on the the market yet and I don't think they ever were! I would have to say you got a week hook Mike.

Try using a snap swivel instead of the sinker slides. If you get swivels with the loop big enough it will slide over the knot and not bang in to it, but too big and it will slide over the swivel going to the leader. I noticed the sinker slides tearing the line up a couple of years ago and went to the snap swivel without any more problems.

[katsandsuds]

Originally Posted by Stonewall

Try using a snap swivel instead of the sinker slides. If you get swivels with the loop big enough it will slide over the knot and not bang in to it, but too big and it will slide over the swivel going to the leader. I noticed the sinker slides tearing the line up a couple of years ago and went to the snap swivel without any more problems.

I started using the sinker slides several months ago and have not had a problem with them freying the line. Before that, I used the snap swivel like Stonewall mentioned, and it would cut the line once in a while. With the swivel, 3 sides touching the line are the smooth wire, but the 4th side is the straight sharp edge of the metal swivel body. I also retie all my main lines and leaders after every trip so there is fresh knots and line each time. Now with the slides and extra work of retying every trip, I have not had any problems with my line freying. I still perfer the swivel over egg weights, something about lead rubbing my main line just doesn't sit right with me, plus it is an agravation to change weight size as the conditions change. I wonder if you just got a bad batch of slides and the is sharp edges from the mold process.

[circle hook]

10oz weight,heavy heavy current, recipe for bent hook. Crus when i fish the pee dee, when she's a rolling seems i do better with the circle then. I use both khales and circles, Gamma's, don't think they will bend but if you get one bent call me. not trying to change your mind, a man likes what he likes. Katsand suds sounds to me you might have been using snaps and not snaps swivels. the flat part you talking about doesn't touch the line, only the swivel. Then again I like for some to get away, they get bigger and bigger, each time i tell about it

[catfishrus]

Well I found a solution to the weight slides...works good too. The slides I was using was metal ones...bought at bass pro...well I got digging and found my team catfish weight slides( won them from the mega raffle)...they made of plastic...I rubbed them pretty hard on the line...not even a scratch...I thought WOW!...well I reached and grabbed one of my old ones...rubbed it back and forth 7-8 time and it cut the line into. Simple solution through one of our sponsers!

Been thinking about the lost hook ups too...here is what I believe might of been the problem...we use to setting the hook with 2 oz weights...well go to 10ozs and set the hook with the same rod...it takes all the action out of the rod just to get the weight off the bottom leaving very little power into the hook set. Thus a lost fish that was pourly hooked.

Bent hook..Im still amazed at that one...but next time heavy current..I will try the Gamo circle hooks. CH I believe the strenght of them kahle hooks are very close to the Gamos....Im going to test them with my scales....Gamo will bend at 25lbs of dead weight.

[Pier Pressure]

Check out the Gamakatsu 4x strong hooks if you think the hooks will bend, damn sharp and I've yet to bend one. They don't come w/an offset eye, so they aren't the best for snelling. Equipment failure is the absolute worst way to lose a good fish IMO. The Gamakatsu big river hooks are even thicker.

[1 Gearhead]

I will take a Khale and a Gamma to work tomorrow and poke them on a Rockwell to see surface hardness , I can also microscope them and take some scoped pictures . I'll try and post the magnified pictures . If our metalurgist isn't to busy i'll see what material the two are made of .