Paradise Cove Report 6/3 (and J-Plug design flaw????)

I fished for stripers at Paradise yesterday 2:30-5:00 p.m. for  nada.  I went to the pilings just west of the public fish. pier and back to the PC Yacht marina for nothing but some strong sporadic wind.  Then at 4:30 I had one ten second "hook up" near the "hope" buoy at the mouth of the marina.  I didn't hook the fish and couldn't believe it since the double treble hooks looked like anything near would be "snagged up."    I was thinking that maybe my slow troll (into the wind) had the trebles hanging down and the fish hit the plug body and carried it for a while as the hooks hung harmlessly out of the way.   Have you had any experience like this with a J-Plug?  The next time I'm pulling a J-Plug I might be tempted to put a rubber band on the plug to keep the hooks close to the body (but then if I did that why not just use another lure!?!).  I like the plug, but I assume I'm not going fast enough for the design (even though I was paddling medium effort into a good headwind).  Is that right or is this "kayaker flaw"?

Tom 

I have read that stripers have mouths that are not that easy to hook. so either use a very sharp treble,
or a single for greater penetrating power.

I bet the hook was in the mouth, but not set. and it came out.

the striper experts will probably know.

J

I'm no expert, but I've had fish drop off the trebles relatively often- I know that they often strike the lure front first, and when the line comes tight it ends up twisting the hooks. I've had the split rings open up 'cause of this...and have actually dropped a lot of fish when trying to land them (ok since i C&R anyway).

always amazes me that with six hooks floating around you can manage to lose a fish.

I sure hook up with the net, my pants, a second rod line, tethers and anything else around me on the kayak often enough that you'd think a fish in the vicinity of the these hooks would get it, too.  I don't have much experience with stripers, the tough mouth parts makes sense.  Maybe I'd better sharpen the hooks.  Thanks for your ideas.
Tom

if steveS is not an expert, then who is?!?!

even with rockfish, sometimes I see those jigheads wiith the big barbs
not penetrate and the fish can get off.

Tom, see the striper trolling tutorial on coastside by Sal. he makes some
remarks about using a loose drag and sharp hooks and how sometimes
the hook does not even penetrate to the barb anyways. but if he has tension
on the line, he gets the fish in...

barbless hooks allow the fish to come off, but they also penetrate a lot
easier, I am pinching more of my barbs or using hooks with smaller barbs.

I seem to waste time unhooking a barb anyway, sometimes I think you can
catch more fish in a hot bite with a barbless hook?

just some more ideas for you there.

Didn't some do a barbed vs barbless hook penetration test? I seem to recall the barbless winning out fairly convincingly...

if steveS is not an expert, then who is?!?!

LOL-- you ever see those old guys in the green boat trolling off marin? They're like 387, and 492 years old?  Those are experts. I thought i did pretty good when i had my sabbatical two years ago getting a few hundred stripers in a year. One of those guys told me he'd caught over 1000 -- and that was in August.

On my crankbaits, I put more burly split rings, switched my hooks over to these Owner trebles, they have a tiny little barb- easy to unhook, sharp as all get-out. The other thing that i've done- ala Mooch- was put a single hook on the front. Seems like i'm dealing with less twisting.  Add a final, little hair and sparkle to the treble (ala x-rap- learned that one from ChuckE) and I'm done...