Questions On Flukes

[Bill Jr.]

After work I went fishing at a local St. Louis lake and I decided to try a fluke. Caught 13 from 6:15 - 8:15 I have a few packs of them but I think this was only the 2nd time I've ever tried them as I get so set in my ways. I'm really trying to use different baits I'm not comfortable with. The lake has a bunch of wood in it and I was amazed how weedless they are! I'm looking forward to using them more during the summer. I'm sure there are people out there that use them a lot and had a few questions.

1. What line is normally used? I used floro to get it down a little easier as I was throwing it weightless but didn't know if mono was used more often

2. What type hook do you use? I used a 4/0 wide worm hook.

3. What action? I was basically doing a fairly quick jerkbait action but should you let it sit and sink more?

4. I hooked about 4 or 5 on the lower lip (see pic). I was using more of a sweeping side hook set. Am I setting the hook wrong or does this just happen sometimes?

Any help is appreciated

[fishinwrench]

Sounds like you need to giving advise rather than asking for it. GOOD JOB !

A sweep to the side has always worked best for me on sluggo/fluke/floating lizard type baits.

Gamakatsu 58414 is as close to a perfect hook for the fluke as you'll find.

I like P-line 15# and use a no-slip loop knot.

I put a chartruese stripe on the back of my flukes with a Spike-it marker (helps me to track it and see the takes).

Where I fish they are a Spring and Fall bait (with emphasis on Spring. I get no fluke lovin during the Summer.

That's about all I got.

[Bill Jr.]

FW - Thanks for the props but always room for improvement I like the Spike-it on the back. I'll have to give this a try. That is why i love this forum as I can always learn something.

[Stoneroller]

I don't use mono for anything. it floats. there is rarely a time I want my line to float and if I do, a leader works just fine.

I use a 3/0 swimbait hook for 4 inch baits and a 5/0 for 5-6 inch baits. (1/0 for 3 inch)

You can also try rigging them on: a weighted swimbait hook, a slider head, a donkey rig, and a darter jig head to name a few. Fluke is my favorite soft plastic and there are a million ways to rig them and fish them. Usually I dead stick it till it hits bottom then twitch it along like a jerk or twitch bait.

In a lake, with submerged grass beds or water willow that terminates in 'deeper' water, a fluke on a slider head can be deadly when fish are negative or neutral.

Zoom makes my favorite flukes. I like the disco shad color, but any of the silver flake/white combos work well. I also have good luck with the bass colored ones which are a watermellon color.

Bass have a nerve that runs to their tongue. Bass that are hooked through this nerve have greater than 90% mortality rate. I had no idea about this until I read about it in In-Fisherman. Guess that's why single hook lures are always point up...

[Mitch f]

Sounds like you need to giving advise rather than asking for it. GOOD JOB !

A sweep to the side has always worked best for me on sluggo/fluke/floating lizard type baits.

Gamakatsu 58414 is as close to a perfect hook for the fluke as you'll find.

I like P-line 15# and use a no-slip loop knot.

I put a chartruese stripe on the back of my flukes with a Spike-it marker (helps me to track it and see the takes).

Where I fish they are a Spring and Fall bait (with emphasis on Spring. I get no fluke lovin during the Summer.

That's about all I got.

Funny, that's exactly what I do with a Spike-it marker as well. Since I use a neutral baitfish color fluke and I sometimes can't see them flying thru the air or in the water slowly sinking. My Lasik surgery was only on one eye so I can still read a computer screen without glasses. This causes me to loose the baits flying thru the air and my casting depth perception has suffered. BTW, I love the Arkansas shiner color fluke. Sometimes crimp a split shot on the 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook shank that you can slide front to back so you can adjust the fall tilt from horizontal to nose down. Also allows the bait to sink a little faster with faster current or deeper water (much easier to keep pace with your partner who's throwing a crankbait and working your way down a bank). You can also use the Superline EWG's which are slightly heavier to help sink it a littler faster.

[RSBreth]

I also use superlines with a fluoro leader - usually 12 lb or heavier unless I'm fishing Table Rock or Beaver away from heavy cover.

I like an EWG hook and 4/0 is about as small as you want to go.

Action can be anything from working so fast is skitters across the surface to barely twitching it as it drifts in current.

Using superlines I don't have to worry much about hooksets - but I do a sweep set basically.

I like all kinds of Fluke style baits, a couple that I'm never without are the realistic looking PowerBait Jerkshad for when the fish are picky, and the 4" Bass Pro "Shadee Shad" which is a Bass Assassin clone. The smaller 4" is amazing in the river and smaller creeks, and sometimes the fish want a smaller profile.

Don't be afraid to try any color you can get, either. Sometimes Smallmouths and Spots will nail a bubble-gum or pink or chartreuse bait when nothing else works.

I use lead flytying wire or solder to add weight to my hooks, weight closer to the head gives a spiralling fall, where weight centered at the bend will give it more of a 'glide".

Another thing about having a rod ready with a EWG hook like that is that you can switch to other baits easily. Unless I'm wading with only one rod I almost always have one rod ready for a fluke. If the fluke isn't doing it I can slap on a senko, a floating worm, or put a tube on there. Great setup.

[Al Agnew]

I use braid, usually 4/15 Power Pro...simply because that's what I use on all my spinning reels and I fish flukes with spinning tackle. I use 4/0 EWG hooks on the Superflukes, and usually just use the pearl color Superfluke. However, I also bought up a whole bunch of, I think, Gambler fluke type baits that have paddle tails, and figured out I didn't like the paddle tail but loved the way that bait sank. Rigged with the big hooks, it sinks almost horizontally and kinda wiggles as it sinks. It's a little bigger than a Superfluke. So I cut notches out of the paddle tails so that they look like forked tails now. I use them quite a bit.

I'm very persnickety about how I hook the Superflukes. Start out the hook point in the EXACT center of the nose of the bait. Run it through and out where the slit in the belly starts. Measure where the hook bend hits the body of the bait, and run the point back up through the slit just BARELY in front of that spot, and out the back of the bait right in the exact center of the little ridge that rund down the back, then skin hook it back into the center of that ridge. When rigged, the bait should have a very slight bow upwards in the middle of the back. This rigging insures that when you twitch it aggressively, it will zig zag from side to side with very little shooting upwards or downwards. Not that the fish won't hit it if it's popping up with its nose out of the water about every other twitch, but I just don't like the way that looks, and I think they like it better if it's zigging side to side rather than up and down.

Only other way I bother to rig it is to add a single fairly heavy split shot to the line about 12 inches above the hook. I put the line into the slit in the shot, wrap it around the outside opposite the slit, and back through the slit again before crimping the shot. That way the shot won't slide down the line. I rig it this way when the water is fairly cold, early in the spring and later in the fall. The shot takes it quickly to the bottom in deeper water, and then I twitch it like I would normally. The shot keeps it close to the bottom but the length of line between shot and fluke makes it zig a lot more freely than it does when you weight the fluke itself.

One other thing...I tried the EWG hooks made for braid with the extra little metal loop, but rigged the way I do it, the extra loop ends up being about half buried in the nose and tears up the nose and mis-shapes it, making the zigs a lot more erratic. So I use regular EWG hooks, which means the hook eye is completely buried in the nose. The little metal rings are there to remedy the fact that thin braid will flatten and slip through the gap in the eye of most hooks. To get around that without using the hooks with the rings, I tie with a double palomar knot, which is a little complicated but gives me four loops of line running through the eye of the hook rather than two loops like a regular palomar knot.

[Stoneroller]

I'm very persnickety about how I hook the Superflukes. Start out the hook point in the EXACT center of the nose of the bait. Run it through and out where the slit in the belly starts. Measure where the hook bend hits the body of the bait, and run the point back up through the slit just BARELY in front of that spot, and out the back of the bait right in the exact center of the little ridge that rund down the back, then skin hook it back into the center of that ridge. When rigged, the bait should have a very slight bow upwards in the middle of the back. This rigging insures that when you twitch it aggressively, it will zig zag from side to side with very little shooting upwards or downwards. Not that the fish won't hit it if it's popping up with its nose out of the water about every other twitch, but I just don't like the way that looks, and I think they like it better if it's zigging side to side rather than up and down.

Al, you should try the swimbait hooks that are available now. most have a spiral keeper on them that holds the nose of the fluke and makes it much easier to rig them perfectly. you can also snip off the nose of the fluke and screw the keeper into fresh plastic if the nose wears out. the come in weighted versions to so no need for split shot and as mentioned, some even allow the weight to be moved on the hook, or you can diy with lead tape to alter the fall/drift/flutter of the fluke.

[Al Agnew]

I'll try the keeper hooks again...tried them quite a while back. Don't like to clip off the torn up nose because the blunter front end inhibits the gliding action. Don't want the weight to be at the fluke on the hook because it inhibits the action more than having a length of line between the fluke and the weight. Like I said, I'm persnickety!

[Stoneroller]

i keep my 'used' flukes, chop the noses off and use them as trailers on spinnerbaits and swimjigs if they won't behave normally after the surgery.