Excellent question SR!
We fished 2 different ways. The first day, we used special cigar minnor rigs that consist of about 4ft of wire connected with haywire twist to a red 1 ouce jig head. The rig also has about a 6 inch length attached to the jig head with a stinger treble to hook into the tail. Those rigs swim well at around 3.5 - 4 mph, so in general we did not take the boat out of gear.
The next day we fished islander/seawitch style ballyhoo rigs with heavy mono leaders. We pull these aroun 6.5 - 7 mph. I like throttle back when hooking up at that speed.
I think it boils down to the angler/driver communication. When I'm driving and someone hooks up I say, "talk to me", meaning tell me whether I need to speed up or slow down. On day two we hooked up pretty solid with one dolphin, I was at the wheel and I did not pull it back in time. This causes the fish to jump wildly and he inevitably spit the hook, or at least it did in this situation. Anytime you can get the dolphin to stay in the water I think it helps. JMO
Last year we hooked up with a big boy, had to be over 30. We fought him for a long time, even passed the rod off 3 times. If my memory serves me correctly we put it in neutral during that fight. He came off half way in after some cool jumps.
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1994 Wellcraft V21
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