28 August 4- 18, 2017 VOL. 36 • ISS. 17

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can’ t be improved.” AND so... time marches on. Being an enthusiastic student of human history, I have always marveled at the progress that humankind has made in the tools and inventions at his disposal. Sure, we have been walking for millennia, and walking still gets us to where we are going, but think about how fast we can get from place to place in a Bullet Train or a new Ferrari.

Certainly, we can still look at each other and talk face to face, but think about the miles we can cross with a smart phone. You get my point. The old way may still work, but the new way can be much, much better.

The same goes for fishing. I can still use my old fiberglass rods for fishing( and I still do on occasion), but I would trade them in a heartbeat for a modern graphite rod. I can still cast with my old Pflueger Summit direct drive casting reel, but why would I when I can use a Daiwa Steez? And why would I stick with thick, springy, stretchy nylon monofilament when I can use one of the new PE superbraid lines? Why, indeed?

As impactful as these many developments have been in the fishing world, you still have to sucker a fish into biting your hook, and the more natural your offering is, the higher the percentage you have of being successful. That is one rule that is hard to argue.

For decades, fishermen have been catching fish in the briny deep, and San Francisco Bay has been a focus of a lot of that effort. When I used to have a boat in the bay, my friends and I would harvest hundreds of fish every year, and without bragging, I would have to say we were one of the most productive boats out there. It has been many, many years since I sold the boat, but still, when

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I started getting out fished in the bay, I had to take notice.

Whether fishing from shore or a party boat or perhaps a friend’ s boat, I took note that certain anglers were getting a few more fish than I was, and that disturbed me a lot. A lot of poking and prodding around and a few astute observations brought me to the conclusion that the one thing they had in common was... a fluorocarbon leader.

It was hard for me at first to swallow that fact, that a fluorocarbon leader was the factor in these anglers’ successes. After all, we are talking about big, vicious, voracious predator fish swimming around a murky, swirling, tide driven environment, not trout fishing in a still, gin clear reservoir! And to make it even harder to believe, even dumb old cross-eyed halibut were more susceptible to fluorocarbon leaders!

Fluorocarbon, of all the common leader materials, has a refractive index that is closest to water. That is a fancy way of saying it is nearly invisible in water.

If you think your favorite nylon monofilament is invisible, think again. There are so many YouTube videos of lures as they are moving underwater where the line attached to them is sticking out like a neon light bulb that it is revelatory.

Let’ s face it... most fish have pea sized brains and aren’ t mental geniuses. If they were that smart, most of us couldn’ t ever catch one. The laws of natural distribution say that in any given population, there will be the smart ones and there will be dumb ones, and I am of the opinion that for the average angler, we are content to use means and methods that will catch the dumber half of the population.

But... if you could do or use something that would let you catch more fish in the smart half of the population, then you could be one of those irritating fishermen that catch fish after fish when everyone else is just sitting there getting sunburned or seasick.

NEXT TIME: Finding out the fluorocarbon advantage.

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This big East Cape roosterfish was landed and released on July 11. Photo courtesy of VAN WORMER RESORTS, East Cape, Mexico.

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“ We are still seeing good numbers on striped marlin, blue marlin and sailfish. Some days guests are hitting the triple crown by landing all three in the same day. Something that was very difficult up until these last few weeks,” said Dalmau.

When buying a new trolling lure the fisherman has many options. Most tackle shops offer lures that are already skirted, already skirted and rigged and most offer just the lure heads. A tackle shop that has employees who are experienced in skirting and rigging lures can help alleviate the expenditure in time involved with doing the job yourself, but for many of us the hands on aspect of the process is an important part of the fishing experience. In order to get a new lure to run properly a fisherman must pay attention to three different areas.

The first area is the head itself. It is preferable to purchase a head that is not skirted or rigged in order to determine if the lure is properly balanced. This is especially true if you are purchasing the lure from a shop with which you are unfamiliar or purchasing a specialty head.

I know anglers that have many heads that cost in excess of $ 100 each, and with that kind of money involved you need to make sure everything is as perfect as you can get it.

A very good method of determin-

“ Our anglers are seeing decent size dorado in the 30-50 pound class. This is the first time in 3 years that we have seen a consistent run of dorado of that size and it is a welcome sight. All in all the fishing has been very good and we are off to a much better start all around than this time last year. With the return of the bigger dorado and the wahoo bite off and running, this is a great time to be down here,” Dalmau exclaimed.

ing the balance point is to string the head on three feet of line. Tie one end of the line to a fixed object and hold the other end so the line is level and tight. With your free hand spin the head on the line and note the position where the head comes to rest. After doing this several times you will have a very good idea of how the head is balanced.

The balance point is the section of the lure that ends up closest to the ground when spun on the line. If the head is cut at an angle the balance point should be centered vertically through the high / low points on the face. If the lure is not properly balanced it may run to one side or not have the proper action, constantly spinning instead. If the lure is flat faced or bullet shaped make a note of the heaviest side, as this will be important when skirting and rigging the lure. When skirting the lure try and make the eyes, if any, or the demarcation line is using a multicolored skirt, centered and at 90 degrees from the balance point. While this will not affect how the lure runs it is more esthetically pleasing.