Wire leader or no wire leader? That is the question.

I hate to lose lures. For some reason, the thought of losing even a $3 bucktail jig really upsets me. I know that it is best to fish your jigs or plugs close to the bottom for bass, so I’m ok with the occasional lost lure if I’m flirting with the bottom, but when I’m cut off by a bluefish, I just really feel bad about it.

This past weekend, I was able to get out in the boat in Boston Harbor with my brother and father. We got out later than anticipated, but stumbled upon a school of mackerel that seemed content feasting on juvenile herring. I decided to fish the outside of the school with a small soft plastic shad hoping there may be some stripers around feeding on either the herring or mackerel. My brother put on the sabiki and tried getting a few macks to live line. It didn’t take long for me to hook up, but it wasn’t with a striper, or even a big optimistic mackerel, but rather with a ten pound bluefish. After a short fight, the razor sharp teeth found my 20lb mono leader and that blue was gone. In the meantime, my brother hooked up with a few mackerel that were nailed by a bluefish or school of bluefish on the way in. There was only one little hook left out of 6 on the sabiki rig.

Being the hopeful angler that I am, I still felt there would be bass hanging around this bait. I fixed up another rod with a 40lb mono leader and a slightly larger soft plastic and got back to work. A few casts later I hooked into a much better fish. After some good runs I got the fish to within sight of the boat. Turns out it was another bluefish, this time around 15 lbs. I could see that my line was in the danger zone near the corner of the blues jaw. As I reached to grab the fish, one quick move parted the line and off went my second lure for the day. I was upset.

I decided that even though there had been no surface action and no blitzing fish that I was going to put a wire leader on and a topwater plug with a single siwash. By now the bait had dispersed and it was looking pretty disappointing. We came across a small commotion on the surface, which looked like a mackerel going after a juvenile baitfish. I decided to toss out my newly tied wire leader and topwater to see if there were any bluefish around. It didn’t take long before I had an explosion on my plug. I didn’t get a good look at the fish, but I assumed it was another good sized bluefish. After a couple good runs and some give and take, I got a glimpse of the fish. It was a nice bass.

That was all I caught for the rest of the morning. I need to learn how to take better pictures. This fished pulled the boga down to just below 20lbs. Something about the way it is held, or maybe it’s the white shirt, but to me, the fish looks small. Or maybe it is the crappy cell phone used to take it. I’m still bitter about losing the soft plastic shads, even though it only cost about $1.50.