Live-Lining Bunker for Bass

[fish401k]

For me this is a new style of fishing - can someone teach an old fisherman a new trick and explain this in detail. Thanks!

[FireFly]

I don't know if this will help but I have done a lot of live-lining with Macks for Bass. I use a circle hook and pierce the back of the mack just behind the fin. I tie a balloon on roughly 10 feet from the hook. Let line out about 20-30 feet and let the mack swim around. I use a baitrunner reel and let the mack take line if need be.

When you see the balloon go balistic you know a bass is under your mack and ready to pounce. Then BOOM! The balloon goes under, your reel is screaming and you flick the baitrunner button to stop line from going out and the circle hook is set.

It is one of the most exciting forms of fishing you can possibly do and will catch fish if they are around.

[parkerman]

HI Fish401...this could be a long one. Depends if you are fishing at night or the day.

During the day using bunker, shad or whatever you are letting out takes a little getting used to. Naturally the bigger the bait the better chance you have hooking with a Trophy bass.

If you are starting off throwing weighted trebles for bunker and snag one you can always wait for the trebile to bring the bait down and use that set up. Most of the time a snag is what it is and you do not know where the trebile is on the bait. Once you have some bait this is another way. A nice size for the bunker should be about 6 inches up to about 9 inches

Set up a rig with either a Fish finder, with 1 or 2 OZ sinker on it, or a egg sinker to a barrell swievel, then to a 50 pound leader about 36 inches long with a 6/0 or better size hook. I personenly will hook the bait in front of the dorsil fin. Try and fish some drops offs or rips fishing on the drop itself. Once the bait is down you will feel it swimming and after a while it will almost feel normanl untill a bass comes around the bait. Then you will feel the bait starting to get excited and move around a bit more then usuall. If a fish is going take it you feel a good bump on the bait.....DON"T TRY TO SET THE HOOK YET It will tempting to bang it then but what for the second or third bump and then stick em...and hold on

This may take a few times to get used to it and this method is used when you are targeting larger fish, 25 LBs or bigger.

If fishing at night live eels are the way to go. Just about the same setup adjusting your weight with the current. I would use a 3/0 or 4/0 hook.

When hooking the eels make sure you have pleanty of rags aorund. I keep my eels in a bucket with some small holes in the bottom for drainge. Put the eels in the bucket with a rag over them and put some ice on top of the rag. The cold will make the eels a bit more lethargic and slow them down enough for easy handling. Once you have a rag in hand grab the eel as close to the head as possible and slap the body over the edge of a cooler trying to break it's spinal cord. This will prevent the eels from wrapping it self around your leader when it hits the water and freshens up a bit. Open the mouth of the eels and run the hook in the top part the mouth through the skull just past the front lip. DON"T GO THOUGHT THE TOP AND BOTTOM LIP!

This is little differnet then the bunker becuase you will not feel the eels getting nervous. When a bass hit is there will a big bump and that is when you set the hook. STICK EM!!!

I am sure there are other people who have there favorite methods and hook preference but at least this will get you started.

BTW both methods require you leaving the reel in free spool and thumbing the line out.

Good luck and let us know how you make out. Won't be long now

[djy]

i use a 7/0 octopus on a five foot leader (60#)tied to a three oz. trolling sinker. hook the bunker through the top of the mouth only. if you go through the bottom & out the top the bait wont live as long.fish this rig while you drift stay in contac with the bottom . you can use this rig for eels, porgy's,anything that is in season the bass will eat. just keep your baits legal size.

[DD]

Count to at least 5 after the bass picks up the bunker before setting the hook. Bass will usually remove the scales from the bunker prior to swallowing.

If you get you bunker back with no scales, you know you did not let the fish run long enough.

If the bunker schools are on top, your best bet is to keep your bait directly below the school where the feeding bass are. Allowing a bunker to sink as soon as it is snagged is a good method, although you will frequently lose baits that are not firmly hooked. If you do not have spare baits, reel the bunker in and rehook through the top of the mouth and send him right back out where he came from.

[KenZ]

The key is to get the bunker down underneath the school and into the feeding zone. I'll use wieght, as one of the previous posts mentioned in either egg sinker or fishfinder with a bank sinker. What I also like doing is clipping the tail fin so that the bunker is forced to swim downward, it also slows it down so it can't swim away as fast.

[Parapapam]

...really dumb question.....

What is "bunker?"

I take it that it is live mackeral?

[DD]

no

bunker = menhaden (or pogie south of the Mason Dixon)

[parkerman]

If you do use a PORGIE or Sea Bass, legal size of course take a pair sissors and trim the dorsil and the tail fin.

I even pulled one bass with a 7 inch sea robin in the gut. Really must of been hungry.

[cjd]

maybe a dumb question, but is there any reason this would not work with perch? I just got a deal on a shiamano 3500, and I am looking forward to trying this on the chesapeake.

chris

[DD]

Parkerman-

What we call bunker are called POGIES is some areas of the south

DD

[Harpoon]

Hook through the eye's

egg sinker

let her eat it 1,2,3,4,5

Your on !

[parkerman]

PORGIE here = scup , not even close to the same as a bunker here.

[2ndCurse]

Not the same fish, but works the same way.
Tom

[rogerstg]

Here in RI:
Porgie = scup
Pogie = bunker, menhaden

[honkers89]

First we throw a cast net and fill the livewell with menhaden. Neext we put two over one hooked behind the top dorsal and one through the top of the mouth, I like circle hooks and the fish usually hook themselves.