Thread: Bubble leader...

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Originally Posted by Rufus

Pulling a lure behind a bubble rig? I need some enlightening on this practice. Can you pull properly rigged live bait behind a bubble, too?

The short answer to this is no. A fish's (or a shrimp's) flesh would not stand up to repeated casting, the jerking motion and it would not run true. It's a reflex bite anyway, so you want something that looks like a baitfish in the water to a Spanish mackerel. Some people do attach a shallow running crankbait to achieve that appearance. I'd think that you could use a bubble, partially fill it with water and cast a shrimp way out there and just leave it out there for them to find in really clear water).

Originally Posted by Rufus

Pulling a lure behind a bubble rig? I need some enlightening on this practice. Can you pull properly rigged live bait behind a bubble, too?

I pull a spoon (cheap imitation 1/2 oz. castmaster) behind a bubble most of the time (when I use a bubble, which is less and less as I age). Some days I do better than others using regular sunglass holders, somedays not as well. I also use small baits like an H2O, but not often as I don't like giving them to $hark$.

As advantages, you can cast farther and it keeps either from coming out of the water on a faster retrieve. I guess the disadvantage would be that the presentation is less "natural".

Eym_Sirius and Fredric, thanks for the polite insight. I, sometimes, ask stupid questions.

This time of year, decades ago we used to catch good numbers of larger spanish and schoolie kings by using 1/2 a cigar minnow under a popping cork. Only problem with the popping cork was sometimes the following fish would try to eat it thinking it was 'barf' from the hooked fish. A clear bubbly might work better in that situation ;-)

I threw a popping cork w/ a DOA shrimp for awhile one morning and the cork kept getting hit, not the DOA. Canned that idea.... LOL

Originally Posted by BFG

I threw a popping cork w/ a DOA shrimp for awhile one morning and the cork kept getting hit, not the DOA. Canned that idea.... LOL

The learning curve includes what to do and what not to do. However, you should know that what works one time may not work the next time and what didn't work last time may work exceptionally well next time. I've seen a DOA shrimp behind a popping cork (used by CarlF back in the day) just absolutely kill the Spanish! I'm glad that you mentioned the DOA experiment because I have a similar experiment of my own I need to try on Spanish with a fake shrimp.

Up around Auburn in the early 80s I learned that white bass fall for a zara spook with a trailer popping bug. Hooks on the spook are useful backup and a long, thin white bass popper is similar in size to a crappie jig (another common Spanish trailer for a bubble). That rig would work on Spanish too.

And around Virginia where I grew up, little Clarke spoons behind a bubble or trolling weight are the ticket for Spanish because you can't reel them away from a Spanish.

A good size feather crappie jig has produced well for me behind a bubble but I have had so many birthdays that the only way I use a bubble now is too move off to the side and float a live LY under the bubble. I will not fish in the main area with a lot of other anglers because I do not want to get in their way.

Originally Posted by Pier#r

This time of year, decades ago we used to catch good numbers of larger spanish and schoolie kings by using 1/2 a cigar minnow under a popping cork. Only problem with the popping cork was sometimes the following fish would try to eat it thinking it was 'barf' from the hooked fish. A clear bubbly might work better in that situation ;-)

I've recently used a cigar-shaped weighted float (for casting distance) but I've gotten cut off a couple of times. I know that it was another big spanish hitting that cigar-shaped float zipping through the water. I'm rethinking the whole float thing so that I don't get cut off so often when I get a big Spanish mackerel on.