Sport Fishing Magazine's Editor,  Doug Olander, had a great article on Spectra knots in their August 2006 issue. Titled "At the Breaking Point", he did a lot of quantitative testing of base tensile strength on a number of Spectra fishing lines, then did a lot of comparison testing of different knots for connecting Spectra to mono leaders, Spectra to terminal tackle, etc. The IGFA's testing equipment was used to make the measurements.

You'll have to read the article to get the details, but here are some of the more interesting points:

• A 12-turn (not 20) Bimini Twist turned out to the be best way to create a double line. As most people know, Spectra does not have good knot strength even though it is extremely strong, so a double line winds up being a requirement in a lot of situations. Note that Doug confirmed that all Spectra lines over-test, ostensibly because of poor knot strength.
  
  
• The best way to connect a heavy mono leader to the Spectra is to use a Yucatan (AKA "No Name" or "Bristol") knot to the Bimini Twist
  
  
• A Double Palomar knot was the strongest knot for connecting Spectra directly to terminal tackle.
  

This article sparked considerable debate in a couple of different forums, because past testing by several people indicate that a 70 - 100 turn Bimini is the only way you can get close to 100% knot strength. Doug's testing indicated high-turn Bimini Twists are weaker than the the 12 Turn Bimini

May, June and July saw a couple of magazines ( Big Game Fishing Journal, Pacific Coast Sportfishing) feature articles on making a small boat fish better offshore. We were excited, to say the least, until we read the articles.

They were great issues, but we forgot that to most people, a "small" offshore boat is 21'. Sheesh...

Still, there was some good info in the articles, although many of the points have already been discussed here. We recommend that you take a look at the May/June 2006 issue of BG Fishing Journal, and the July 2006 issue of PCS. Some of the more interesting points:

Big Game Journal, May/June 2006:

"Making Your Small Boat Fish Big" by Captain Jim Freda,
Captain Freda adjusts his speed "by ear". That is - when he finds a speed where he is getting strikes, he adjusts his speed to reproduce the sound of the motor, rather than trying to match a tach or throttle setting.

"8 Steps to Make Your Boat Bigger" by Captain Tred Barta
Capt. Barta is a controversial character, to say the least. A lot of people disagree with what he has to say. But he had one bit of philosophical advice in this article that I really liked: "Success in bluewater fishing is all about believing in yourself and not changing techniques like your underwear."

Pacific Coast Sportfishing, July 2006

"Tricked Out Trailerables" by Bill DePriest
A number of points already covered here, such as outriggers/downriggers, more rod holders, larger bait tank. One nice touch was a set of tuna tubes for the transom of the boat, fabricated from PVC pipe and plumbed into the livewell system. A nice touch for a billfisherman. The author also replaced his ice chest with a soft-sided kill bag, which he felt was easier to clean out, and more convenient to store.

Sportfishing ran an interesting article titled: "D.O.A." by Ron Ballanti. The article describes approaches to raising large fish which have died during the fight. Definitely not an easy process, so the tricks mentioned should be a big help if you find yourself in this situation.

The key point: when this happens, you can not pull straight up on the fish. Your best chance of success is to go down current (or swell/wind), and move off a fair distance before you start pulling. The idea is to get the fish to plane up, rather than try to lift it directly. If you try to plane the fish against the current, a head-down attitude can actually cause the fish to dive deeper.

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Hooks, of course, are critical to your success. Marlin magazine ran an article in their March 2006 issue titled "Choosing Hooks for Billfish " by Captain Peter Wright, describing current trends in offshore hooks. A couple of points (pun intended) of interest:

Offset circle hooks (ones in which the point is twisted slightly off plane from the rest of the hook) are as bad as J hooks when it comes to gut-hooking fish. Offset circle hooks should be flattened, or thrown away if you are interested in using them for catch-and-release fishing.


Owner JOBU hooks are becoming popular on the West Coast for trolling lures. These have shorter shanks and wider gaps than hooks like the Mustad 7731 or 7691.


• Should you try to sharpen circle hooks? The general recommendation - DON'T. If you change the angle of the turned in point, it will not seat correctly in the corner of the fish's mouth. If such a hook gets dull, you should discard it.

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The April 2006 issue of Pacific Coast Sportfishing featured an articled titled "The Thin Line Between You and Fish: Spectra " by Dave Kodama. This is a good article that covers just many of the currently popular ways to attach Spectra to your fishing outfit. Here are a couple of other interesting points from the article:

When using a loop-to-loop connection to join Spectra to a mono topshot, be sure to pass the topshot 2 or three times through the Spectra loop, rather than just once . Otherwise, the topshot loop may be cut by the Spectra loop.


Spectra melts at a lower temperature than nylon monofilament. In situations where Spectra and monofilament lines are tangled and allowed to run over each other (as in multiple simultaneous hookups), the mono will usually cut through the Spectra due to heat buildup.


• Many people use a splice to join mono or fluorocarbon to Spectra. The usual way to finish the splice is with adhesive and thread over the end of the Spectra. Another way to finish it is to use Sato crimps , which are very small precision-made aluminum crimps. Believe it or not, these are as small as a thread finish, and much faster to do. Sort of pricey, but highly regarded among long range fishermen. See: http://www.satocustomtackle.com/procrimpkit.htm

Not mentioned in the article is the issue of the strength of Bimini Twist knots in Spectra. Bimini Twists used to be known as "Twenty-times around knots" because in monofilament, 20 twists will yield 100% knot strength. In Spectra, it is clear that more twists are needed to reach 100% strength, however, there is some controversy about how many more turns are needed. Recommendations we have seen range from 30 twists to 100. We're sticking with 100 turns, or a coaxial splice, as mentioned in our "Tips and Tricks" column.

There have been a number of Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) that have been introduced recently. One question that pops up occasionally is: why wouldn't you buy a PLB instead of an EPRIB? They are smaller (small enough to be worn by an individual), also waterproof, and usually cost a bit less.

The answer is - you could! But you have to understand the limitations and design specs of PLBs: The Equipped to Survive website has a greate writeup on this subject, but here are the main issues:

EPIRBs and PLBs can be categorized as either Class 1 (operating temperature range of -40?C to +55?C) or Class 2 (-20?C to +55?C). Both Class 1 and Class 2 EPIRBs must float with the antenna deployed and out of the water in the normal transmitting position. Class 1 PLBs are required to float, but do not have to float with the antenna up. Class 2 PLBs are not required to be buoyant.


In the U.S., EPIRBs are required to have a strobe light that activates automatically when the beacon is switched on. PLBs are not required to have a strobe.


EPIRBs must have a tether long enough so that they can float freely while secured to a survival craft. PLBs must have a tether of some sort, but it may be something as simple as a wrist strap.


EPIRBs must operate for at least 48 hours. PLBs are ony required to operate for 24 hours





• PLBs are manually activated only. EPIRBs can be manually or automatically activated.

Given the above, it is probably a better bet to have an EPIRB for your boat, and if you have the coin, PLBs for your crew.

Along with the seminar on the Shimano Butterfly jigging system, we attended a seminar by Cannon on downrigger setup and use. It also proved to be very useful, providing some great tips. The highlights:

• Use a snubber to attach the weight -The speaker uses a polyurethane shock cord (similar to the one shown to the left) to attach the weight to the wire. The reason - if the ball snags on the bottom, the cord stretches and hopefully pulls the ball free without the massive shock that would occur it the ball was attached directly to the cable. If the ball does not pull free, the snubber will break - better than ripping the downrigger off the mount!
  
  
• 
  courtesy Cabelas
  Clips and Grips - Rather than use a permanently-attached release clip, the speaker uses a clamp like the one shown on the right to attach the release clip to the cable. The release clip is crimped to a short length of cable which is attached to the bend of the clamp. The clamp jaws go over the downrigger cable at the desired location above the weight. This arrangement has the advantage of allowing for removable and vertical adjustment of the release clip.
  
  
• How Low Can You Go? The speaker offered these easy guidelines for depth control:
  
  
  • Rather than sweat the details of blowback angle on the depth of the weight (you do remember your high school trigonometry, right?), just let out the amount of cable for the depth you want to fish.
    
    Won't the lure actually be running higher than that? Yes, but the logic is that predator fish look up, so it is bettter to err on the side of being too high than too low. If you want, add a bit more, but not too much.
    
    
  • The speaker's rule of thumb: at speeds of 2 - 4 knots, you will get a maximum of 10 feet of depth for every pound of weight. Thus, a 10 lb weight will be able to run 100' down. If you want to go deeper, you have to add more weight.
    
    Can't you let out more cable? Yes, but it won't do you any good. Letting out more cable causes more drag, which just causes more blowback, which prevents the weight from travelling any deeper.
    
    
• Lure Setback - The speaker sets the lure back no more than 20 feet before clipping in . The downrigger cable already places the lure away from the boat, and in his experience, fish were not spooked by having the weight and cable that close to the lure. Keeping the lure close makes it much easier to maneuver the boat.
  
  
• Spectra vs. metal wire for the downrigger cable - The speaker felt that Spectra instead of wire would work, but he was also a proponent of using positive ion control systems such as those sold by Canon and Scottie. Obviously, you can't use these systems with Spectra, since it does not conduct electricity.
  
  
• Lever drag reels - The speaker confirmed our conclusion that lever drag reels make setting up downriggers much easier. That's because when you drop down a downrigger ball with a star drag reel, the water drag on the line tends to pull line off the reel, even with the clicker on. With a lever drag reel, you can take off enough drag to allow the downrigger ball to pull out line, but not enough to let line drag pull out line.

We recently had the opportunity to attend a seminar on the Shimano Butterfly jigging system, put on by one of the Shimano Pro Staff at the Fred Hall Fishing Tackle and Boat Show in San Diego. It really helped to clarify a number of points about the technique. Here are the things we found particularly enlightening:

• Rod action is critical. If you are using a long, parabolic action rod for jig fishing, you need to swap it out for a faster action rod. The tip needs to give a bit on the lift, then recover quickly. This type of action is needed to impart the proper action to the jig (a side-to-side darting action). Parabolic (slower) action rods can not do this.
  
  

courtesy Shimano
• A shorter, lighter rod is also a good thing to have, due to the need for constant motion of the rod. Much less fatiguing. Since you are using super-braids with this system, a long rod is not needed to move the jig, even at depth.
  
  
• Reels - A Stella or Trinidad is not required. The main things to look for are: speed of retrieve, a stout drag, and a rigid enough frame to withstand the heavy drag used.
  
  courtesy Shimano
  
  
  
• The Retrieve - An interesting point had to do with speed of retrieve. When fishing deep with conventional jigs, we often used a technique called "yo-yoing". The jig is dropped to the desired depth, then the jig is reeled in as fast as possible. The Buterfly jig retrieve is NOT like this. The side-to-side darting action is what causes the reastion strike, so a crank-for-all-you've got straight vertical wind with these jigs is NOT desirable . A moderate speed pumping retrieve is all it takes, and is much less tiring than conventional yo-yo jig fishing.
  
  
• 
  courtesy Shimano
  Rigging the jig - The key is this: attach the line to the solid ring, which has the hooks attached. The jig is attached to the split ring. If you want to try a different jig, take the jig off the split ring, rather then re-tie. Rather than rig every jig with hooks, you only need a few of the solid/split ring setups, in case you break off.
  
  
  
• A split-ring plier is a must for this technique, and Shimano has developed a couple of advanced split ring pliers (their Baysteel series), which contain a couple of different feature for opening the rings, along with scissors capable of cutting super braid, and a specialized cutter for super-heavy mono.
  
  
• Selecting jig types - the long skinny jigs work better in a slightly more horizontal retrieve, rather than directly below the boat. The jigs that are a little more teardrop-shaped are ment for vertical jigging.