Goodbye Snag and Drag

Catching my live bunker. We had a great fall season on bass out of Fire Island and Jones in 2024. The bunker pods were exploding with bass tearing through them. Whales and seals were in the pods eating bass and bunker. The old weighted trebles were flying everywhere as the fleet got onto the schools of fish doing the old snag and drag of bunker. Unfortunately, with our supposed decline in the bass population, the snag and drag is not the best way to catch and release bass. And, if you ever watched a party boat thick into the fish, it's even worse as the fish bounce around on the deck while the mate nets another fish. Way too often, the bass are deep hooked with the weighted treble. During the on deck surgery, the bass is stressed to near death. Many times the hook is not easily retrievable and the fish has it's gill or stomach fatally damaged. Some think if they cut the line and let the fish go with the treble still in it's throat, it will survive. It won't. With all that said, I was as guilty as anyone out there while doing the snag and drag. Not anymore. My grandson guilted me when a fish I tossed didn't make it and he said it's sad to see the fish sink away. That was it. I needed to come up with a way to use the lawful circle hook instead of the weighted treble to catch bass. Although at times I still cast a treble to snag bunker, most of the time I toss a 10' heavy weighted Percy Castnet with a large mesh and light webbing. In the bay castnetting with this net for bunker is easy. I have a 24' Carolina Skiff with a large platform on the bow and stern to stand on and be steady. At 70+, throwing a large, heavy castnet off my Contender while in the ocean is tough but if Percy can do it at 85, I figured I could do it too. After the first try, I quickly found out that tossing from the deck over the gunwale was tough so I decided to try and throw while standing on my bow coffin box. Trying to balance was tough with almost any wave action. Well, I do not recommend this as a way to toss a castnet in the ocean. After the first throw, I was almost in the drink with the net. So, back to the over the gunwale deck toss. I'm really good at throwing a castnet. I began tossing a castnet with a southern redneck for mullet in the mid-70's while in the Navy stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fl. I was hooked on castnetting immediately. Back to today, I practiced in the bay on my Contender until I got the over the gunwale technique down. The ocean swell didn't matter if I was standing on the deck. I had to toss the net up and over the gunwale without it catching or hitting the side of the boat and closing the net prematurely. I was content when 90% of my throws opened as they should. Even in 30' of water, with a cooperating school of bunker, it was one toss and done. So now, I will throw a castnet to catch most of my live bunker bait even in the ocean. The extra heavy net along with the very light mono allows the net to sink very fast. After letting the net sink ten feet, I usually haul it back in with all the bait I need and all in good shape for livelining. A Percy net is pricey but worth it. However, if I were to do it over again, I would buy an 8' net instead of a 10'. Not that I can't toss the 10' but a 10' is harder to unload bunker while standing level with it on the deck of the Contender. That's not the case while on my Carolina Skiff and standing on the bow or stern platform. I'm up an extra 2' and can hold the horn while dumping the net. At 6'3" and standing on the deck level with an 8' net, I can hold the horn and lift it high enough to dump the net onto the deck without annoying net tangles.

So, I have my bait, now back to the no more weighted trebles and the snag and drag for stripers. I'm not pooping on others that still use the snag and drag method but I'm just tossing out another idea you might want to try and it's very effecttive in the live baiting of bass with a circle hook using bunker and spot or whatever. I don't know how many of you live line for bluefin with bunker or other live baits. I do it whenever I can. Everytime I live line tuna, I use a bridle off the nose made up of some type of braided line or cord to a circle hook. I see others, while using a circle hook, hook the bunker through the nose and toss it in with a balloon. They get hit and their hookup ratio is not optimum or they lose the fish during the fight. Why? By taking a circle hook and hooking it into the meat of the bunkers nose you have stopped the circle hook from free swinging. The hook does not easily slip to the corner of the mouth for a solid hookup and may just pull out of the tunas mouth or not catch enough tuna's jaw which leads to a pulled hook. The bridle allows the hook to be free swinging with no meat in the gap. The hookup ratio along with the hook placement deep into the corner of the jaw is much better. With this in mind, I decided to change over to a circle hook for live lining bunker for bass instead of using the weighted treble. This also goes for those who snag and rehook the bunker onto a J-hook or circle hook without a bridle. I agree, tying a bridle takes a little bit of work. While tuna fishing, you don't do it too often so it doesn't matter. While bass fishing on a hot bite, no one wants to take the time to make a bridle. Some use the duo type snap with the snap in the bunkers nose and the hook free of any meat. That's an okay choice but you lose a lot of bunker as they are ripped off while the thin wire of the snap tears out of the nose on the initial hit and the bass swims away with the bunker or too many times the hook comes free of the snap and the bunker and the snap swims away.

This has been what I have been doing this fall. My hookup ratio has been very high and all but one fish was hooked in the jaw. The one that wasn't was easily unhooked. Also, with my boat, I can easily keep all the fish in the water with my thumb in it's mouth and little worry of being hooked by a treble during the unhooking process. A circle hook has very little chance of hooking you as most are turned away from your thumb and it's also easy to use a dehooker to free the hook. It's my opinion of a really good way to use a circle hook with bunker or other live baits. As I said, it's my opinion and like assholes, everyone has one. I'm not saying your way is wrong. It's my technique and I like it. My grandson is thrilled each time we release a bass virtually unharmed except for the fight and a hole from a hook in the jaw. Previously, I never let him unhook a fish with a treble in it's mouth while the fish is in the water. Now, he does it all the time.

I know, this is turning into a boring infomercial with the end trying to get you to buy some kind of crap. Hopefully, it's not and if one of you guys likes the technique, I'm happy.



The above photo is of the parts along with a link to some of these items purchased on Amazon. I'm a gadget guy. I like trying to make something that works better for me. I'm not opposed to sharing and if you like it great, if not, please share your ideas as I, like this community, like to see what others are doing. The stainless tube is 1/8" OD with a 2mm ID. The 6" black tie wrap is just shy of 2mm wide. The Spro size 5 swivels are either very tight to put on the Gamakatsu 6/0 circle hook and does not need an o-ring (my old way) or with my new way, I use a very small o-ring and a larger swivel for ease of installation. I really like these o-rings and I use them a lot for different types of fishing. Although I have the tiny black o-rings in the photo, I mainly use the larger red o-rings. They are very tough and rare is it that I lose the swivel and possibly the bait. The bent wire on the lanyard is bent on purpose. After using the 1/8" stainless tube to make the hole and insert the tie wrap into the bait's nose, I slide it onto the bent stainless wire. The bend keeps it from sliding off. I have two on my lanyard in case I drop one. Why all this crap when you can use a duo snap like below, I feel the tie wrap is much tougher to rip out of the nose of your bait than the thin wire of the snap. Also, and most importantly, the hook on the snap does not turn as easily as the tie wrap and swivel.



So here's what I do after putting a swivel on the hook with either technique. I slide a tie wrap through the hook swivel. I then put the tie wrap into the 1/8" tube (does not have to be all the way in). I push the tube through the nose of the bait. You can position it vertically or horizontally. I do it horizontally on my bunker. In the below photos, I don't have a photo of the hook attached with the swivel and tie wrap. I only took a photos when I was first trying this technique out. It worked without the swivel but not as good as when I began using the swivel. I put the the tie wrap through the swivel before I put the tie wrap into the tube. You can do it either way but I found it easier to place the tie wrap through the swivel before handling the bunker. This also works really well with dragged eels. They don't spin up your line.



I know this is wordy. Thanks for getting this far. This really works well and helps protect our bass from extra stress while unhooking. I'm sorry I didn't have any photos of actually having the tie wrap and swivel/hook setup in the bunker but I'm sure you get the idea. We were catching too many fish to take a photo.