bait vs X

[Scotthmt]

So this is my first commercial season, i am fishing out of bodega bay. We have been doing decently getting 11-21 fish per trip. The thing is that 50-80% of our fish have been coming on bait using cable baiters. The other boats are putting up the same numbers as we are but they are using spoons and hoochies. We have put spoons and hoochies out there and have done decently with them, but cannot match the catch ratio of bait. Its a pain to run bait but its working, and i have no problem to keep on running it, but what I'm wondering is why are my spoons and hoochies not fishing like everyone else's.

So far we have tried changing things up, running all spoons, going to 3fa leader, going flasher spoon spoon flasher, messing with the length of the leader from the hoochie to the flasher, changing up colors, troll speed from mid 2.x to low 3's. The voltage on the wire is very low, maybe .1 or .2. I am thinking i may get a blackbox, but all my thru hulls are grounded, all zincs are new. I have tried different spoons, gold hammered, pink white, silver red, silver green, silver prism. Some stuff catches a few fish but I can't find the consistency. One day a certain hoochie will catch 6 fish, the next day i'll stick a few more of them out there and it will catch none. Has me feeling like a dog chasing its tail. i have a snap swivel that attaches to the spoon, maybe i should have a straight snap, or crimp directly to the split ring on the spoon? hell, i don't know, maybe i am just thinking out loud.

[Bobf/vfaithbodega]

Hey it's a sratch bite we're killing it with bait try to keep it on the down low in bodega. Let everyone run there junk and you keep the wires full of prime rib and they'll keep loading up.. It's so funny guys won't use it and but we're doubling those guys. We're running bait and hoochies we put the spoons away tell we can't keep up with the bait. Good luck see you out there.

[Bobf/vfaithbodega]

This is my first year running my own boat too. I've worked on party boats for years and all we used was bait so had to put it out and like you said it out fishs every thing. I think guys are lazy.. I just bought 2 cases of the green label were ready!!

[kelper1]

Seems like once you get dialed into what hoochie/spoon the kings like, you can do pretty well on them. Herring takes time, and if other fish are around like cohos or pinks, it can be a frustrating deal.

[Crawfish]

Junk is great at times. Bait is great at times.
But neither will outperform each other all of the time.
It's really hard to pattern the fish with so few of numbers being caught and the weather being bad.
What your experiencing is not uncommon. Do what works best for you.
If you need to raise your line voltage there are ways of doing it. If you are keeping up most of the time with others leave your boat alone and just focus on your gear and SOG.

[Bobf/vfaithbodega]

We'll i was humbled for the last two days because the bait was not working and the cheep throw aways spoons we're killing it..