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Forum nameSaltwater Fishing in California
Topic subjectRE: Croaked in Pursuit of Halibut, Huntington 3-21-03
Topic URLhttp://www.calfishing.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=9340&mesg_id=9352
9352, RE: Croaked in Pursuit of Halibut, Huntington 3-21-03
Posted by Surfan, Mon Mar-24-03 06:05 PM
bartman, Here's a post that I posted on another board that should answer your question.

Kastmaster Tutorial 101
Posted by Surfan (Senior Member - Posts: 562)
on Mar-22-03 11:30am

Fishing spoons seems to be a lost art with the advent of plastic lures. This tutorial is primarily for surf/shore fishing.

For fishermen who sometimes need to cast far to reach the fish or cover a lot of ground in search of fish, spoon lures are a invaluable. With a Kastmaster spoon, try a steady slow/medium retrieve, just enough to keep the lure above the bottom and also enough to keep the lure rocking back and forth. At a slower retrieve, the spoon will almost look too vertical to attract fish and moves at about a 45 degree angle from the bottom. Just a little too fast and the croakers won't bite. For halibut and most surf species, pretty much the same retrieve but you can up the speed a little if needed. You can see how the retrieve affects the lure's action by watching the spoon during varying retrieves off a dock in a clear water harbor. Experiment a little with the retrieve and if the fish are there, they'll bite.

Keeping your pole tip up helps the lure from dragging bottom on a slow retrieve, but also means more slack to reel in before you set the hook. When you feel the fish hitting the lure(hard taps), don't set the hook just yet and keep up the steady retrieve to begin to reel in the slack and to check if the fish really has a hold of the lure(you'll feel a steady weight at the other end of the line). Now that the fish is on, reel faster to take in the slack and set the hook. After you set the hook, continue to reel hard to keep the fish on as you lower the rod to fighting position, fish on!

You'll be surprised at how long a fish will hold on to a piece of metal and you'll also be surprised at how many times a fish will continue to bonk it's head and mouth on the hard metal lure until it gets the whole thing. A 3/4 ounce spoon casts well on 6lb mono and 10lb Fireline(4lb diameter). Also you might want to attach a small chrome swivel to the front ring to keep the lure moving freely and reduce tangles. Lastly, prism tape helps a lot and you can try stick-on eyes too. Oddly enough with the right retrieve, fish like spoons a lot, maybe not as much as swimbaits, but a swimbait won't always cast far enough to reach the fish or cover as much ground as a spoon.
Surfan

P.S. The link below is another Kastmaster tutorial. Krocodile spoons catch fish too, maybe a little better than Kastmasters but don't cast quite as far.

http://www.ncoif.com/htdocs/bogus/kastmaster.html