Some thoughts on fishing Iron

[Fiskadoro]

Recently I saw a interesting question on how to fish iron, one of my favorite ways to fish. It got me thinking which led to a PM which has now lead to this post.

The guy was talking about fishing a 6Xjr around Lobster buoys in an area with current. They were using the simplest method you can fish the jig. The old cast as far as you can, let it sink to the bottom then retrieve straight back to the boat at it's best working speed method. This was actually the first way I learned to fish Iron over twenty years ago. You can do a lot of other things with a 6Xjr to catch fish, but it's a good consistent method, kind of the oldest trick in the book, and it has worked for me for numerous Yellows all up and down the coast.

The question they had was related to casting direction, and current. They said they get more bites casting long casts up current, and said they did not know why, then asked if bait swims with the current.

Well they were on the right track. It's not so much that bait swims with the current, it's that baits do not swim against it unless forced to. In other words bait doesn't swim with the current so much as drift with it. Anchovies and Sardines are not the athletes of the fish world they can't swim very long against the current, so the tend to ball up and drift with it.

The Yellows that feed on them hold at good ambush points and then pick them off when they come by.

Those yellows caught with the sink then retrieve method around those buoys are holding position in the current waiting for bait to wash down to them, and essentially what your getting is a reaction strike, when you fish them with Iron this way.

It's all about energy, instinct, and competition.

Groups of Yellows anything from two to five to more will hold in the current waiting for bait to wash down to them. A single bait coming towards them sets up a competition scenario where the first Yellow that get's to the bait get's to eat it. It then becomes a race as to which yellow get's to the bait first. That is why they are not line shy, why they slam those Irons so hard and take them so deep. They are trying to eat that bait before the other yellows can get it.

The reason that they hang around the lobster buoys is that the ropes create small eddies in the current where the can easily hold their location without expending energy, but also without sacrificing their visibility. They are sight feeding and the trap ropes are a great way for them to escape the current without a loss of vision.

They don't offer cover or protection, just an area of low current immediately behind the rope, but they are just a single line so they don't block as much vision as kelp. In other words Trap ropes under the lobster buoys create an ideal hunting ground or ambush point for the yellows.

Fish do this all the time. Halibut lie down behind low rocks and wait for bait to come down current, and any trout fisherman knows that when fishing reaction baits like spinners in streams you always want to cast up current and reel the bait down with it to catch trout looking upstream.

So essentially by casting your Iron upcurrent letting it settle then retrieving it straight back, your moving it downcurrent through the lobster buoys, and your presenting the lure in a manner that looks natural to the fish.

Now I've often when I've heard people talk about this type of fishing they say that most of the fish they catch come on the first few cranks. Well that makes sense if you think about it. While your iron sinks the line is going to get washed down current as it sinks. It's like a parachute flare, as the flare drops the smoke trails away down wind.

With sinking Iron the line trails away downcurrent. So even if the current down deep is not moving the exact same direction as what you see at the surface, when you let a lure settle the first few cranks are going to pull the lure in the direction of the line which is directly down current.

One trick that you can use to capitalize on this that's worth considering is one used by hardcore open water swimbait fisherman.

They fish two rods. They cast one out and let it settle to the bottom leaving it in freespool with the lure resting on the bottom so that line pulls off the reel as they drift down current. They then cast the other rod out let it settle to the bottom, then leave it in freespool while they reel in the first rod.

What the two rod method does is not only get the plastic or Iron well away from the boat, but it also lets the line settle down deeper and wash directly down current from the lure. When you start reeling the bait swims down with the current staying close to the bottom in the strike zone for a longer time. If you just cast let it settle then reel it up when it hits your the bottom the bait still is moving down current, but comes up at a more vertical angle. With the two rod waiting method the bait swims the right direction for a longer period of time in the strike zone.

I've used this and it works.

The only negative is you can't use it in a area with a ton of rock with spectra. The spectra sinks down and the current tends to wash it into cracks or spaces between the stones and hang you up.

So there you have a few ideas. Use at your own risk, Jim

[Fiskadoro]

Damn!!!!

I actually rewrote the above post while I was offline, but then when I came back for some reason couldn't edit it.

So here's the new improved (longer) version with more juicy details

Recently I saw a interesting question on how to fish iron, one of my favorite ways to fish. It got me thinking which led to a PM which has now lead to this post.

The guy was talking about fishing a 6Xjr around Lobster buoys in an area with current. They were using the simplest method you can fish the jig. The old cast as far as you can, let it sink to the bottom then retrieve straight back to the boat at it's best working speed method. I call this Cast sink crank Iron fishing, and this was actually the first way I learned to fish Iron over twenty years ago.

You can do a lot of other things with a 6Xjr to catch fish, but the old cast sink crank is a good consistent method, kind of the oldest trick in the book, and it has worked for me and other anglers for huge numbers of Yellows all up and down the coast.

The question that came up as related to casting direction, and current.

Someone said they get more bites casting long casts up current, said they did not know why, and then asked if bait swims with the current.

Well they were on the right track. It's not so much that bait swims with the current, it's that baits do not swim against it unless forced to.

In other words bait doesn't swim with the current all the time, so much as drift with it. Anchovies and Sardines are not the athletes of the fish world they can't swim very long against the current, so the tend to ball up and drift with it.

The Yellows that feed on them hold at good ambush points and then pick them off when they come by.

Those yellows caught with the cast sink crank method around those buoys are holding position in the current waiting for bait to wash down to them, and essentially what your getting is a reaction strike from them, when you fish them with Iron this way.

It's all about energy, instinct, and competition.

Groups of Yellows anything from two to five to more will hold in the current waiting for bait to wash down to them.

A single bait coming towards them sets up a competition scenario where the first Yellow that get's to the bait get's to eat it. It then becomes a race as to which yellow get's to the bait first. That is why they are not line shy, why they slam those Irons so hard and take them so deep. They are trying to eat that bait before the other yellows can get it.

Your iron appears to be a frightened bait fish that's lost the rest of it's school, or a bait that's been singled out and is running from other fish. So it's easy pickings. I have a hunter friend that used to say: "What do you do if a bear chases you in open country and you can't climb a tree?" "You run downhill!" That's because a bear with it superior strength can outrun you uphill.

In a similar fashion panicked bait almost always runs down current when they are not in a school. They can't outrun Yellows uphill into the current. So when your Irons running down hill and a Yellow sees it and starts closing in heading up current it instinctively believes your bait is dead meat because it's got no where to go, and that's why it wants to get it before some other yellow does.

The reason that they hang around the lobster buoys is that the ropes create small eddies in the current where the can easily hold their location without expending as much energy. Swimming in current takes work, less current means less work. They are sight feeding and the trap ropes are a great way for them to escape the current without a loss of vision.

The ropes don't offer cover or protection, just an area of low current immediately behind the rope, but they are also just a single line so they don't block as much vision as kelp. In other words Trap ropes under the lobster buoys create an ideal hunting ground or ambush point for the yellows holding in current, feeding on bait washed down by current.

Fish do this all the time. Halibut lie down behind low rocks and wait for bait to come down current, and any trout fisherman knows that when fishing reaction baits like spinners in streams you always want to cast up current and reel the bait down with it to catch trout looking upstream.

So essentially by casting your Iron up current letting it settle then retrieving it straight back, your moving it down current through the lobster buoys, prime ambush turf, presenting the lure in a manner that looks natural to the fish, that's also likely to trigger a instinctual aggressive reaction strike. No wonder it works.

Now often when I've heard people talk about this type of fishing they say that most of the fish they catch come on the first few cranks. Well that makes sense if you think about it. While your iron sinks the line is going to get washed down current as it sinks. It's like a parachute flare, as the flare drops the smoke trails away down wind.

With sinking Iron the line always trails away downcurrent. This is especially true if your using heavier line like 40 Mono. Mono has a greater drag coefficient then spectra so the heavier mono is pulled more down current. So even if the current down deep is not moving the exact same direction as what you see at the surface, when you let a lure sink and settle with heavy mono the first few cranks are going to pull the lure in the direction of the line which is trailing off directly down current.

Spectra is superior for vertical jigging or Yo Yo fishing because it's thin diameter, lack of stretch, and sensitivity allow you to fish more straight up and down and detect more bites on the sink, but you'll notice that guys who religiously fish the cast sink crank method invariably prefer heavy Mono. They may not get many fish on the drop, but the line as easier to cast, and it reacts more to current.

Essentially as the lure sinks the line bows into kind of a "L" shape where the line close to the lure trails along the bottom and the line near you yak is going more straight down.

With all that in mind, reverse the whole thing.

When you cast down current with a 6Xjr and heavy mono you get the exact opposite results. The line bows the opposite way making an upside down "L" where the line at the lure is going straight up, and the line closer the the yak is trailing off along the surface. When you crank the bait will just rise straight up and not run with the current. Now there are times that works but if your hooking fish deep that way you're better off dropping straight down and fishing Yo Yo because you have more sensitivity and control, and if your hooking them on top you might as well be fishing surface Iron to maximize you time in the upper water column.

So if you get my drift, current matters with cast sink crank iron fishing, and you should for the most part always be casting up current when you use this method.

One thing I could add is there is a trick that you can use to capitalize on this that's worth considering. It's something mostly used by hardcore open water swimbait fisherman, for C-bass Halibut and Bass.

They fish two rods. They cast one out and let it settle to the bottom leaving it in freespool with the lure resting on the bottom so that line pulls off the reel as they drift down current. They then cast the other rod out let it settle to the bottom, then leave it in freespool while they reel in the first rod. When they get the first one in they cast it out again, let it settle, then put it aside and reel in the second rod that's been sitting letting out line.

What this two rod method does is not only get the plastic or Iron well away from the boat, but it also lets the line settle down deeper and wash directly down current from the lure.

When you start reeling the bait swims down with the current staying close to the bottom in the strike zone for a longer period of time. If you just cast let it settle then reel it up when it hits your the bottom the bait still is moving down current, but comes up at a more vertical angle. So with the two rod waiting method the bait swims the right direction for a longer period of time in the strike zone than it would if you used one rod.

I've used this and it just works.

The only negative is you can't use it in a area with a ton of rock with spectra. The spectra sinks down and the current tends to wash it into cracks or spaces between the stones and hangs you up. So once again it's actually better to fish this way with Mono, thirty or even forty pound if your fishing in areas with lots of rocks.

The other issue is you better have a rod holder up front for the second rod, because if you hook a good fish the other rod that's in freespool is going to be out there a long ways, and you'll need to be able to throw it in gear and quickly crank on it one handed to clear it while fighting the fish.

So there you have a few ideas I'd throw out there based on my experience.

Use at your own risk, Jim

P.S. If some clever moderator just wants to move this one up and replace the first one with it...I'd be much obliged

[YakMedic]

Thanks for taking the time to put this information out. It is greatly appreciated.

[taggermike]

I may disagree about some of your observations. Bait fish tend to swim in to the current and most bait fish are extreamly strong swimmers for the size. Dines and chovies are filter feeders and moving in to the current provides them with a new feeding oportunity continuously. Strong currents will move the bait backwards even though they are swimming upcurrent. Weaker baits will fall back out of the school where they are picked off by predators. This may explain the effectivness of lures pulled down current and plastics long lined across the bottom. And you are right that yo-yo/heavy iron can be amazingly effective. The iron is fishing the whole water colume both down and up. Mike

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by taggermike

I may disagree about some of your observations. Bait fish tend to swim in to the current and most bait fish are extreamly strong swimmers for the size. Dines and chovies are filter feeders and moving in to the current provides them with a new feeding oportunity continuously. Strong currents will move the bait backwards even though they are swimming upcurrent.

Fair enough. I'd say bait doesn't experience current in the same way we or even predator fish do. I remember one day we were anchored in Santa Monica bay in 120ft of water fishing seabass. I watched school, after school, of sardines go by right under the surface, huge balls of thousands of sardines. My buddy was like where are they all going? and I said Nowhere! Everywhere! To them they aren't moving at all! They were just swimming in circles in one place, and it was the current that's moving them.

To them the water wasn't even really moving because they are just floating with it. The next school that came by I pointed out to him that the dines where swimming in a huge lazy circle and at any point almost half of them were swimming against what we perceived as the current and the others were swimming with it.


Since that time I kind of think that bait movement is not so much about where they are trying to go but where the current takes them.

Similarly one day I was skiff fishing the 14 mile bank working on a pic of Dorado and YFT. It was dead calm no drift and we were just sitting off a kelp paddy not even moving soaking sardines. Suddenly out of nowhere a round buoy smacked into the side of the boat spun us around that trailed off past the paddy ripping through the water at about a three knot clip.

It was like a scene from Jaws. My buddy was like "WTF" "Is there like huge shark on that thing?" It took me a minute to wrap my head around it but I then realized it must be a prawn trap, and though it seemed like we were not moving at all the whole ocean around us was moving SE. at about a three knot clip. Sure enough I checked the GPS track and we had been moving steadily south the whole time we were there, but you would never known it.

The world turns but I'm sitting still in this chair. I guess it's all a matter of perception.

The scenario I described in the post at la Jolla is of course different.

Essentially there you have a huge rise in topography caused by the point. This concentrates both bait and current as the water moves in from deeper water and crosses this rise. As a result you have a lot of perceivable current as that water moves through kelp, past traps or over the bottom. Just as the current increases as water is forced over this rise, the bait in the water is concentrated and pushed through with that current.

Say you have a strong current ripping from the north. Dines or Anchovies may be able to swim against current to an extent, but they are not going to be able to turn around head north and then fight that current far enough to hide in the Canyon. They may try but the odds are against them.

Essentially once they are that flat being pushed south by a strong current they are running the gauntlet, and that is why the fish are there to feed on them.

Macks of coarse are a different thing. They can move uphill, but I find I usually don't get the majority of my fish when they are chasing schools of mackerel, I catch most of my fish even when using macks as bait when that are feeding on anchovies dines or squid which are all far more vulnerable to current then Macks, or the predator fish that feed on them.

Jim

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by YakMedic

Thanks for taking the time to put this information out. It is greatly appreciated.

John Watson: [slowly, grudgingly.] That was amazing.

Sherlock Holmes: [deadpan] You think so?

John Watson: Of course it was. It was extraordinary. It was quite... extraordinary.

Sherlock Holmes: That’s not what people normally say.

John Watson: What do people normally say?

Sherlock Holmes: "Piss off!"

Cool!!!

I really enjoy writing these things. Mainly because it makes me take ideas and combine them into something defensible or more concrete.

It's like you take a lot of random observations, or perceptions and then try to deduce what's really going on. The models you create may be imperfect but I like to think a imperfect model with small flaws gives you more insight then no model at all.

For me fishing is kind of a mental game, where I try and figure out what is going on and how to adapt to a given situation to maximize results.

That's why I'd rather go to a new area I've never fished and figure out things for myself, then go to a known location, do exactly what everyone else does, in the hope of duplicating others known results. It's actually kind of weird but once I get a place semi-dialed in I kind of loose interest. It's the learning that get's me off so to speak. Piaget said "To learn is to invent", and though I certainly believe that, the truth is most just learn most of what they know from simple repetition.

More then one way to skin a catfish though. That's what's great about fishing we all approach it in a unique manner and get something out of it.

Jim