big fish with big baits - or elephants eating peanuts?

[hookedonbass]

I saw this post posted earlier and thought I would ask for some opinions.

You can catch more fish on rubber or bucktail when they are feeding on small bait or when its cold water. How many cows were caught in NJ this year with humongo wood?
I read on facebook about a 50lbr caught near island beach this week. Don't know if I can mention the name or not its a surf guide named Nick Honachefsky. He caught a 50 lb bass on a teaser!

If you can catch them on a teaser what is all the bugaboo over $50 plugs?
Will big plugs catch more big fish or is it just designed to catch fishermen?

[seamonkey]

I can't speak for where I fish which is mostly cape may. I have read at montauk there is a lot of white bait which I assume is spearing and rainfish. When the bait is small the bigger fish would have to feed on it.

[hookset]

Match the hatch. I rarely toss big wood. I think when you have rough surf it makes sense because they need to find it. Small bait should = small presentation.

[nitestrikes]

Agreed on the rough surf part. Those conditions I usually throw big. Often a good bucktail gets it done as the fish are near the bottom feeding. When the bait is small tins have always served me well.

[SharkHart]

It was a teaser but it was a Tsunami sand eel it looked like 7" It kinda depends i think,but small is no issue, on my best night this Yozuri Mag darter was working well but then this happened with a 30lber, only bass i kept this year

19988

[cowherder]

Nice!

[fishinmission78]

I read on facebook about a 50lbr caught near island beach this week. Don't know if I can mention the name or not its a surf guide named Nick Honachefsky. He caught a 50 lb bass on a teaser!

If you can catch them on a teaser what is all the bugaboo over $50 plugs?
Will big plugs catch more big fish or is it just designed to catch fishermen?

Nick did catch that bass on a teaser. I heard about it a day after he caught it. So elephants do eat peanuts. Might not have been an exact 50. Real Capt Al's report, read it carefully between the lines.

"Therefore, it was most unusual when the catch of the day was made after 4 p.m. when Nick Honachefsky of Normandy Beach fished a local beach he hadn't been to since Sandy -- the storm that wiped away just about all traces of his home while taking all of his tackle, and a lifetime of his outdoor writing photos and articles with it. Honachefsky had that beach all to himself in continuing 25 mph northeast winds creating five-to-six-foot whitewater surf. Though the bass and blues had been feeding on big bunkers, he cast his usual schoolie rig with a Ava diamond jig plus a Tsunami Eel teaser. Yet, the bass he hooked on the teaser was no schoolie. After a lengthy fight on surf spinning tackle he slid the largest linesider of his life on the beach.

He said he was "humbled by her presence, and only had her out of the water for less than a minute before she tail slapped me in the surf on the way back through the crashing waves. I am still shaking!"
Honachefsky said the bass "taped out at 49 to 50 inches to the fork, and 29 to 30 inches in girth". Using those measurements in the formula puts her over 50 pounds.

The one cell phone photo along the rod on the beach isn't that impressive as it wasn't one of those sagging belly bass.

I suppose the variation in measurements was the result of making the quick live release. If you ever find yourself in such a situation, it only takes seconds to get a length measurement with your rod. In order to use the formula (length times girth squared, divided by 800), you need the length to the fork of the tail rather than to the tip of the tail. If the fish doesn't measure to a convenient spot such as a guide or writing on the blank, make a light scratch in the finish with a hook.
Girth is critical to determining weight, and you can't get that accurately without something that bends. If you don't have a tape, just cut your line at the swivel and run the line under the widest point of the fish until the end meets the standing line. Clip it there, put it in your pocket, and you'll have an accurate girth measurement upon arriving home.
Honachefsky also got lucky that there wasn't a smaller bass or blue around to hit his jig while he was fighting the 50 on the teaser. Almost invariably when that happens the two fish tug against each other -- and the big one breaks off even on a light drag."
http://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing/index.ssf/2015/12/jersey_shore_fishing_hoping_fo_2.html#incart_river _index

[hookedonbass]

It was a teaser but it was a Tsunami sand eel it looked like 7" It kinda depends i think,but small is no issue, on my best night this Yozuri Mag darter was working well but then this happened with a 30lber, only bass i kept this year

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=19988&stc=1
Great shot and catch. Love those Mag-Ds.

[finchaser]

depends on how many fish you want to catch IMO peanuts

[Rip-Plugger]

if large bunker are around then you fish with large plugs especially since the fish will be after them.
less so with bass to a degree and as for gators,they carry cleavers with them so,a small gator can take on an adult bunker.
most of the guys I see fish with lures I would use for LMB.

[Rip-Plugger]

as for elephants eating peanuts,,,an elephant will eat an Italian combo sub and they are vegetarians,,,

[storminsteve]

Lol good one!

[storminsteve]

I think for me that mostly in the fall when the sandeels and very small bait is around I start focusing on teasers. I have heard of some big fish being caught on them. My biggest on a teaser was about a 17 pound striper early morning at Island Beach in late October. If bigger bunker were around I would definitely be throwing bigger stuff.

[surferman]

as for elephants eating peanuts,,,an elephant will eat an Italian combo sub and they are vegetarians,,,
Haha