In an area as large as the planet’s Oceans, it is hard to believe that there are places where fish habituate to sport fishing, but it is true. Anywhere you have condensed populations of fish with heavy fishing pressure you will find habitualized fish. Huge urban areas and derbies make the situation worse. Not all fish habitualize, only the smarter ones and they are the ones that will survive to pass on their genes to produce even smarter fish in the next generation. I call this farm boy science, hogs, cattle, chickens and fish, what's the difference? Breeding is breeding and genetics do not lie! Smarter fish are naturally evolving.
West Coast Salmon
Pro-Staff Paul Toth (owner/operator) Something Fishy Charter in Prince Rupert, B.C.
Each year along the West Coast of North America from Northern California to Alaska, anadromous species of Salmon return to their natal rivers to spawn. As these fish congregate in the bays and fjords close to their home rivers, they must go through a series of habitualization steps.
First, they must slowly adjust to a decrease in salinity; the TDS will drop from 30,000 PPM to 10,000 PPM or lower in just a few kilometers.
Secondly, they must learn to survive the predators that await their arrival, Killer Whales, Seals, Salmon Sharks and the most deadly of all, the commercial fleet.
The Salmon that have survived all this now have to face a new danger, an armada of anglers. Popular fishing areas have formed over the years where boats congregate almost bumper to bumper. The naive fish get clobbered the first day they are fished by the anglers but the survivors quickly learn what to avoid and how to stay alive.
Each time new fish arrive the fishing is good for those fish only, the fish that have been there a day or two have developed zipper lip and will not bite. If new fish don’t show up for a while the angler’s success rate goes way down. Despite the lack of new fish and zipper lip there are always a few fish caught mostly by locals and guides, this keeps the crowd ever present.
A similar scenario occurs with Striped Bass all along the Eastern Sea Board and the California Coast of the U.S. Like Salmon, the Bass are returning to spawn. New fish are eager to co-operate with anglers but quickly habitualize and develop zipper lip once they have been fished a while.
My wife Rachel and I have been fishing anadromous fish for over 25 years with a scientific approach.
We always get our fish and this is how we do it.
Check your boat’s electric field.
I rate this as #1 and the most important.
Note: Do this on the fishing grounds with both cannon balls at 75 feet and the kicker running and in gear.
Using a common voltmeter, set the dial to DC20. The negative terminal goes to the hull of your aluminum boat or the motor mounts of a fiberglass boat and the positive terminal goes to the downrigger cable or water.
If your boat is over 0.65 it is too hot for Salmon, perfect is 0.62 volts.
If your boat is over 1.1 it is too hot for Stripers, perfect is under 1.0 volts.
To read more on this subject see Check your boats EMF and Rust Fisherman’s enemy. The bottom line is if your boat is too hot, fish are avoiding you never seeing your gear. Most anglers regard this topic as nonsense and immediately discount the whole science. That’s too bad because most anglers return to the dock empty handed.
Avoid the crowds.
Although you are confident of your boats electric field being perfect or low it will draw the electric field of a hot boat that gets too close raising your own electric field.
You can easily register this on your voltmeter. This is electric field contamination and can happen from 100 feet away. It will go away after a bit.
Check your Cannon balls.
Since they are a great mass of lead, the purity of the lead will dictate the strength of the electric field it will produce when fishing. Recycled lead is full of other metals that produce a very strong, very weird electric field fish do not like.
Do not buy cannon balls with any other than stainless steel eyes, any softer metal will turn it into a strong battery able to manufacture and store electricity. To avoid this whole mess I coat my balls in latex, that way there is no electric field forming while fishing. To read more see Check your balls.
CHANGE THE MENU
Now that your boat and gear have the perfect electric field you are attracting fish to your down rigger cable, so show the fish new tackle they might not have seen before. If everyone is using flashers and Hoochies go to a spoon or cut bait without a flasher. Salmon that see flashers going by all day will soon be flasher shy, recognizing it as danger and will avoid it.
Use new terminal tackle and hooks every day.
The best anglers and guides use new hooks and swivels every charter, religiously.
Most don’t know why thinking it’s a luck thing, realistically tackle develops an electric field that gets stronger every hour it is used. This field does not go away but gets stronger each day it’s used. Most anglers without knowledge will use the same gear all week or all season. Needless to say they have minimal results.
The Game Changer.
To be a consistent successful angler you must pay attention to all the details we have talked about so far. It’s not rocket science but common sense science. Even when all details are perfect, the fish have the last word and can decide to be non-co-operative.
The only guarantee you can use is the Electron Fish Attractor - Salt Water Series. Fish can’t resist it, they just can’t help themselves.
EXAMPLES OF HABITUATED SALT WATER FISH AROUND THE WORLD
Boca Grande, Florida, U.S.A. Tarpon
We have good customers local to the area that love catching Tarpon. They don’t do the derby thing but fish in the pack of boats that’s always present. They use the Electron SW 1 and keep it secret; they also say that they never wait more than 10 minute for a hook up!
New Zealand, Wrasse
Here the lad’s fish a wall a thousand feet down for a fish they call Wrasse. Many boats fishing the same wall using the same gear day after day has resulted in habitualized fish with a bad case of zipper lip. These fellows ordered the Electron out of desperation did some modifications to their gear as per our website and now limit every time they go out.
Bad news for us they keep the Electron secret.
Pacific Ocean, Tuna
Yes, even out here in the open ocean our long line clients report Tuna shying away from their lines. They claim that there are too many ships targeting Tuna, a species that I think has learned to avoid the electric field of the hook. Marine Biologists look at the catch records of these ships to adjust annual quotas (where they exist) trying to regulate total catch limits. These quotas have decreased over the decades marking a decline in total fish stalks.
Our Captain friends argue this, saying their sonar shows many fish, they just don’t bite as they did in the past.
We currently have two ships that have been using the Electron SW 1, for four years now, of the long line fleet they always finish first, in about a third of the time of the rest of the fleet saving over $100,000.00 US on fuel. The Electron is their most closely guarded secret and that’s okay with us.
If you missed reading part 1 here is the link: Why some fish are impossible to catch (Part 1)
Tight Lines
Rick Crozier