Quote:
Originally Posted by BigTunaL
A couple of question for you:
What is a "mega"
I've read my FF manual 100 times and spent lots of time fine tuning on the water to get it to show my lure sinking but I cannot seem to find the right settings. I tried 83khz, 200khz, and both 83/200 but it didn't seem to make a difference. I also have "Jigging Mode" and tried to dial in the sensitivity but nothing worked. I was wondering if you can share your settings that allow you to see your jig and fish approaching it.
I have a Hummingbird 698 with DI and SI.
Thanks in advance
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Megabaits are like an iron but made out of a lead based alloy. I like them for several reasons. They are relatively small for their weight which means they have a fast sink and you can cast them a mile. They swim well at speed, but they also have a very good downward flutter, and it's one of the few jigs that I have found that tuna will hit on a unattended sink. By that I mean you can cast it out let it sink with a completely slack line and tuna will hit it going down.
That is really important to me.
When I'm out trolling for Marlin or Tuna I don't always have the time to stop and throw bait on every small paddy I find. You can troll by them but the fish around them won't always meter or come up for your jigs. What I like to do is take a Megabait on a rod with 30lb spectra up on the bow, and then cast it well ahead of the boat right next to the Kelp. While the boat closes on the paddy, I just try to keep up with the slack, and then the line goes tight when you are passing the paddy. By then bait is already down deep, I just keep reel in gear and the bait hauls ass up to the surface due the the boats forward speed, and as it does so it swings back behind the boat and right up into my trolling pattern, bringing any followers right into your jigs.
One of four things happens... most of the time nothing (dry paddy) sometimes by the time you get the slack out you are already bit (hit on the sink) sometimes the jig gets hit on the way up (hookup), or occasionally a whole school tuna follows the jig to the surface and you get multiple jig strikes (mayhem). Oddly I catch more tuna doing this then Yellows, though I have caught both throwing on paddys.
Here's a tuna I got off the East end of Catalina that hit on the sink next to a paddy where I saw a boil.
Unfortunately you can't see the Megabait because it completely swallowed it.
That day I was fishing with Steve Mras a expert small boat Marlin fisherman, so we had four big Marlin jigs trolling and a drop back rod rigged but we were not fishing for tuna. All morning Steve was laughing at me casting iron on paddies, and boiling fish, but he stopped laughing when I got that one. I was overjoyed. I also caught a 160lb Striped Marlin earlier that day, and the tuna was dinner. So a big win/win.
That fish was on a blue mackerel pattern.
Here's another on the Sardine pattern.
That fish was suspended, about a 100 feet down under a paddy. I had two strikes: one on the sink that I missed but that fish ate it coming back up. Right after that one I hooked a second one that was larger, and actually broke it off on 20lb. It ate on the sink, took off fast, when I threw the reel in gear my drag was still tight from the previous fish, and I just did not have time to react. Hate that!!!
This Ling was taken on glow back pattern I really like for deep dropping on structure.
That fish hit while I was yoyoing the jig a few feet above a structure in Malibu one of three or four big males I got that day all about the same size, all metered fish.
There are better Irons for fishing surface Yellows but for the vertical drop directly on marks the megabait is my go to lure. I know I said the jig four onces but they are really 4.5 ounces, and relatively cheap, even at melton.
http://www.meltontackle.com/products/megabait-lures.html
So your meter is probably set up wrong. I run Garmins so this might not be exactly right....but.....
Set it up at 200khz, sonar, fish ID off, I think for your finder the setting is advanced user, but the idea is to simplify by making things manual, not automatic.
The rest you want to do on the water. Launch your yak and go to about a hundred feet over clean sand. Drop your iron down to the bottom and real it up a few turns. Go to your sensitivity setting and turn up the gain until you can clearly see a line forming maybe six to ten feet off the bottom. That is your jig. Jig it up and down a few times to make sure. Now keep dialing up the sensitivity until the screen gets filled with clutter. That is your use range. Basically you want to keep the adjustment between those two settings. Try various settings on the meter, and see how you jig looks with various settings. Basically you want to run as much sensitivity as you can without metering too much junk, and as the conditions you may have to change it. There will be some areas your not going to be able to see your Iron because of the junk in the water. This is especially true around kelp. So basically the cleaner the water the better it works, but the more you play with it the easier it will be for you to tell what is going on.
Generally fish make a decent mark if you are really over them. If you can see your Iron clearly but the fish mark is weak that means the fish is not really directly under you but somewhere off to the side, but you'll figure this stuff out as you play with it more.
I also use the meter when fighting fish. For instance say You hook a big yellow. Watch him underneath you on the meter. Say you are passing over structure and he starts to sound. When he's well up you don't have to worry but if he hauls ass down right at the structure you are going to have to stop him before he gets there. I want my fish up in the top half of the water column as quickly as possible. Kelp is another issue, if you see kelp on the meter you want to keep the line moving. Moving line cuts kelp, static line wraps. If you see that your fish is around kelp don't play tug of war, you want to keep them moving.
It's just a tool. Your finder is much better then mine. Just keep it simple and play around with the settings until you find what works for you.
Good luck!!!