Anglers are in constant pursuit of the next great lure that will entice that giant fluke to inhale their rig. Many inventions have come to fruition such as the chrome ball, b-2 squid rig, bucktail, and countless others. Some of these rigs can be quite pricey and many can be lost when fishing on snaggy structure.
With the ever increasing size limits, anglers are forced to fish on structure capable of serving as habitat for large fluke. Such habitat needs to harbor lots of bait and also provide structure for these ambush predators to position themselves for the strike. This type of structure includes wrecks, rock fields with its attendant coral growth, concrete rubble, subway cars, and the like. Fishing this type of structure requires anglers to fish off the bottom for fear of snagging rigs carelessly dragged over the debris field. Fishing on windless days with slow drifts works well as well as does the technique of back trolling. Flukin on such bottom yields the best results if rigs are kept a foot or so off the bottom and jigged appropriately.
Despite angler’s best efforts, even the most avid angler will lose some rigs during the course of the day fishing on such uneven structure. Low lying debris fields tend to be the most forgiving. Wrecks, with their varying depth structure, tend to be the least forgiving. Some rigs can be quite expensive. It is not unusual for brand name bucktails to cost from $3 to $10 dollars for ones in the 1 to 10 ounce range.
Many of us love to fish structure in back waters, inshore and offshore artificial reefs, natural reef structures, and around wrecks. All of us dislike the cost of losing so many expensive rigs. This led to my invention: Captain Mike’s poor man’s Bucktail.
How to make them:
The main challenge of making a Bank Sinker into a Buck Tail is attaching an eye to the larger end of the sinker, to which to tie your line. I have tried several ways to accomplish this purpose. My initial method involved drilling a hole through the big end and pushing a doubled over piece of 14 gauge copper wire through the hole. I would use the doubled over portion of the wire to be the eye and use a hammer to bang the tag ends back into the lead. I also tried putting cotter pins through the drilled hole and banging in the tag ends as above. I finally settled on drilling a hole and screwing a small eye into the side of the bank sinker. Drilling into lead is not as easy as you would think. The lead heats up very quickly, grabbing the bit, and welding it into the sinker. After breaking several bits I found it was a lot better to drill slowly and to put a small amount of oil on the bit just about every time. Operate the drill at slow speed, take your time, and you won’t break off your drill bits.
I use a size .067 drill, then screw a #216X11/16 screw eye into the fat end of the weight a little ahead the number marking (2/3/4/5/oz etc). I then attach a straight shank 3/0 or 4/0 hook to the eye of the weight with a size 3 or 4 Duo Lock snap. I try to position the hook with the point up in relation to the screw eye. This gives the hook less of a chance snagging on the wreck or rocks.
I have used mono to attach the hook to the sinker but it is just a little harder to get the hook close enough to the weight so the fish doesn't shake the weight enough to break the line. The abrasion created by the weight swinging will break 30 lb line with a decent size fish shaking it. The fish will cause the weight to go opposite the hook and the weight of the sinker will eventually break the line. If you net the fish it is not as much of an issue. When I use mono, I will use 60 pound test as this holds up much better. Using the Duo Snap eliminates that issue, and is my current preferred method.
Once I have the hooks attached to the sinker I dip the sinker into any type of enamel paint, it usually will take at least two coats to cover the lead. Allow a day between dips for the paint to dry. I haven't seen any reason to use better paint or powder coat as the wreck or rocks take most of it off anyway. When they get beat up I just dip them again. I use inexpensive red or black fingernail polish from the dollar store to put eyes on these rigs.
How to rig them:
You can dress the poor man’s as bright or plain as you want. I personally like white hair, pink hair, or B2Squids (pink glow, white glow, or green glow). I have found that any of these will work but the nice thing is you can make them your own. Last year I tried turning the B2Squid around and putting it on backwards. This seemed to attract more strikes because with the Squid on backwards the jigging action would cause the skirt to puff out giving it a bigger profile and more movement.
One word of caution when adding plastic skirts to the rig. Don't put anything plastic on the hook till you are ready to use them, the plastic jigs will react with some types of paint, making a mess. As long as you put them on shortly before you use them, this won’t be an issue.
You can rig the poor man’s bucktail off a 3way swivel with 6 to 8 inches of leader for the bucktail, then add a longer leader and hook off the 3way, much like a Tap Dancer rig. I will usually put a 2 to 3 inch piece of cut bait on the Bucktail (I prefer salted Mackerel), but squid, a minnow or any other cut bait will work.
How to fish them:
Fishing the poor man’s bucktain is much the same as with any Bucktail. Drop your rig down till you feel the bottom and quickly jig it about 6 inches up and down. This is best accomplished with a graphite composite rod matched to the size weight rigs you are using. A constant twitching of the wrist gives the best dancing motion to the rig. Do not be too aggressive with your action or the hook of the rig will entangle with the main line.
Making these rigs is very inexpensive and not so painful to the pocketbook when you lose them on the structure. I am sure over time I will continue to modify this rig. Many of you too will find ways to improve upon it like I have. Make some of your own versions of Capt Mike’s poor man’s bucktail this winter and hopefully you will catch your biggest fluke ever when next season opens up.
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