Tackle Express Blog

Fishing live bait is one of the most productive and easiest ways to catch a variety of different fish in Southern California. Finding out which bait to fish, how to hook it, and how to fish it can be difficult for anglers to understand. 

Fish smell in parts per million and who's to say how much scent we should put on.  If we load the lure with a gel, and the water is cold, not much of the scent will come off since it is thick and coagulated on the bait.  When the water is warmer and the gel scent is more viscous, it will come off easier presumably giving off more scent.  Should we put less on in the summer and more on in the winter.  Fishing has always been about the little things and taking into consideration these and other factors may make a huge difference.

I prefer to look at inches-per-crank (IPC) instead of gear ratio because IPC is more accurate.  IPC measures the inches of line that are returned to the reel while you turn the handle.  If you have a tall narrow spool with a slow ratio of say 4:1(for every 1 turn of the handle the spool turns 4 times) the IPC might be 22.  On the flip side you could have a wide spool that has 5.2:1 and have the same 22 IPC.  Gear ratio can tell you a bit about the reel, but knowing the IPC will give you a true gauge of how fast your lure is coming back to you.

Let’s start out by discussing the different line and leader combinations. The first one that comes to mind is the classic, all monofilament. This is definitely the most cost effective option when it comes to spooling. It’s also great for beginners as mono tends to be much more forgiving when it comes to casting and line management. The drawback is that mono needs to be replaced fairly often as it loses strength every time it is fished. Sunlight and repeated exposure to water can also weaken it by breaking down the physical makeup of the line.  It also has a tremendous amount of stretch that can, in some instances, lead to missed hook-sets and lost fish.