I have no experience with with larger mono and snell knots, but I use snells all the time with 8lb flurocarbon while bottom rigging. And yes, snells have a weaker breaking strength. I like that when bottom rigging because when my hook gets snagged, I will break at the hook and not lose the whole rig. But I’ve never lost a fish while fighting it to a broken snell knot. As long as you don’t let the fish make a sudden pull with a tight drag, you shouldn’t have issues. However, where I do break fish off is when I am trying to hoist a fish up from the water and they shake. Seems like snells break easiest when that sudden jerk is forced on them with no release of drag. I’ve had lots of breaks that way. And we proved this in the lab one night…well, if you’d call a few guys drinking beer while playing with line, hooks, a scale and heavy weights a “lab”. Without a doubt, snells were the weakest in our informal tests, and would break with even the slightest jerk (with initial pressure at least half of the breaking strength of the line – so around 4lbs in our case) while knots like the improved clinch, palomar and other did not break.

So…I’d dump the snells. Palomar works well for me for forceful and big fish. I use them on all my line to hook connections when trolling for salmon (using 20lb fluoro) and have never had an issue – and those fish hit hard! There are other knots out there…many I’d use before a snell.

However, if the break offs are occuring to one person primarily, it might have more to do with how the knot is tied (make sure to really wet it down before cinching) or how aggressively he fights the fish in (drag too tight). Or bad line?

Just my opinions and observations. Hope to help out somehow.

I know, leave it alone and fish, but I couldn’t help make some observations on Friday night –

We boated 3 sturgeon with lampreys attached. I started counting once the fish was lifted out of the water. “1 mississippi” counts. For 2 sturg it took a count of 3 before the lampreys released, one took to a count of 5. I know it totally ignores the idea that surface tension of the water helps to knock them off, but I still thought it interesting. And at least 2 of these fish thrashed on the water surface pretty violently before being landed…enough that I thought for sure the lamps would let go.

Also Friday night I thought it was pretty quiet out there, at least from the point of hearing sturgeon jump, as compared to just two nights before. I maybe heard one jump.

No Brian, nothing conclusive…just one guys theory. But if I had to pick one theory to believe, this would be the one. Actually, it leaned more toward the idea of telling other fish there was food around…which is even better when fishing around jumping fish! I’m sure it is the same you’ve read, a National Geographic article.

Same idea of “jumping to communicate” exists for common carp. Again, just ideas and peoples thoughts, not sure if there is any actually proof.

Or maybe I should just say “D, all of the above” and just fish…

I’ve read online literature that discussed it as a communication method (based on info from some Florida sturgeon) – a fish jumps to call other fish over, so they can find each other. Knowing that these dinosaurs roam the bottoms in groups, I tend to favor this explanation.

Maybe this weekend I’ll try kerplunking with a paddle to draw the fish under my boat…

Not sure if this is useful information or not. I’ve never seen a WX2100 and just came across this post, so I thought I’d share. But when I wanted to put tracks on my fiberglass boat with rounded gunwales about 6 years ago, I found little help (that I liked), so I came up with my own method.

I cut a piece of marine starboard the size of the track, then routed that out to fit snug on the curve of the gunwale. It was a bit more complicated than that if I remember…all I had was a table saw and hand sander. I used plaster of paris to create a template of the curve, then I worked slowly to match it. When done I bolted down the track (I used an aluminum plate on the back side, under the gunwale). Fits solid with no play. I use 4 riggers, 2 with long booms, and 12lbs rigger balls and fish Lk Michigan 2-3 times a year with no issues. Including some pretty rough seas.

When I contacted the track company for suggestions on how to mount, they suggested using a marine adhesive that dries hard and non-flexible, but I wasn’t too keen on a permanent mounting because I didn’t know if I’d like the lay out I did (one small track near the stern that holds one rigger, then a longer track in middle that holds one rigger and two rod holders).

I included a pic. It is not the finished version, but you can get an idea.

Rschmidty-

To clarify your gar, what you have pictured there looks like a shortnose gar. There are 2 different species in the state and it sounds like you caught both. I personally couldn’t think of a better back up plan to slow sturgeon fishing than catching gar! And 5 of 19 sounds about right for hook up percentages. They are tough. Shortnose are “more” catch-able on lures/hooks than longnose, but you can get lucky. Rope lures works best for longnose if they are attacking bait. Might have to stick some in the boat, but hoping with this cool down I won’t have to and the sturg action will pick up. Good luck.

Hey thanks for the response. I definitely know how light they bite, we boated well over a 100 last fall. And all those fish came on crawlers, fatheads or a combo of both. We never used shad last year. But I swore by it the year before that. So it’s always nice to know what did well.

Only one of our fish came before 9:30, the rest after. Good luck the rest of the fall.

We were out too last night in the same area, but not nearly as much success as the first 2 boats. A few fish in the low 30″ range and one 47″er. Were you guys using some special sturgeon bait? Our fish came on straight crawlers and some surf-n-turf combos.

Nice flathead. That’s a pretty nice bonus!

That’s would have been a cool scene to see with the eagles! I know one caught my eye as it was swooping around near the trees and I thought it odd, but I got distracted and never followed it.