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Cut-Offs More Myth Than Fact

Posted Aug 17, 2007 by Frank Sargeant

Updated Aug 17, 2007 at 08:06 AM

Frank,

I have always wondered why outdoor writers and anglers have found themselves so fixated over the gill plates of a snook. Reams of paper have been devoted, and wasted, on insisting unless one is armed with a mono leader of hundreds of pounds, or wire, you will certainly be ‘‘cut off’’ by the gill plates.

Your story in the Aug. 12, 2007 Tribune prompted me to write. Just north of the terminal end of the gill plate of a snook lies what I will call that portion of the gill plate which has caused such misconception. Its sharp edge points to the tail of the fish. The great majority of hooked snook swim forward not backward. Hooked fish swim against the restraining fishing line. In a great many instances, if not in every instance of a hooked snook, the leader never touches the gill plate. The only exception which comes to mind is when a hooked snook jumps and flares its gills. Then, exists the potential, particularly if the angler ‘‘bows’’ to the fish thus placing slack into the line, for the leader/line to become entangled in that portion of the gill plate located north of the terminal end of the gill plate. If such entanglement occurs, your famous ‘‘cut-off’’ results.

I am convinced after many, many years of fishing the writings on gill plate cut-offs are more myth than fact unless, of course, hooked snook have learned to swim backwards.

What outdoor writers seem to regularly neglect from their snook writings is informing the angling public of the devastating effect on mono leaders, sans those of 100-pound test and above, by the lips of the snook. At the lip is where the vast majority of snook ‘‘cut-offs’’ occur, not on the north end of the gill plate.

I’d like to hear from you if you think otherwise.

Norman S. Cannella, Sr.

Norm,

I don’t disagree that the rough jaws of the snook do sandpaper their way through mono leaders, particularly lighter ones. However, I do think that in numerous cases where the leader breaks on the first run of the fish, as the fish is going away, that the leader can come over the shoulder of the fish, and in that case could easily be cut by the gill plate. In cases where the broken leader shows no roughness or sanding, it seems to be fairly likely that the cutoff was on the gill plates rather than on the jaws, to me. On the other hand, I brought this up with Scott Moore, and he said he thinks 90 percent of the cutoffs are on the jaws. In any case, thanks for sharing your thoughts, and tight lines. FS