ULTIMATE ANGLING - the Ultimate SA Fishing website
OFFSHORE ANGLING => General Offshore Angling Discussion => Topic started by: Capt. Hook on July 05, 2010, 09:54:57 PM
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It is a common belief that the fish are scared of your boat, whilst the fact is that they are actually attracted to it. Armed with this knowledge and the correct dynamics of setting up your lures; and the knowledge of how these lures perform, your can turn your small ski-boat into a mobile FAD (Fish Aggregating Device) and convert your litres of fuel into kilograms of fish. This is already common practice on the large sport fishers, and with a little bit of thought you can do the same on your smaller boat using similar dynamics on a smaller scale.
The fact is that game fish are attracted to the prop wash and wake created by your boat when it is underway, and the fish actually come up to investigate this and then stumble across your lures grouped like a school of fish which they would never have seen from as far away as they can see your prop wash. Game fish are also used to chasing schools of fish as opposed to a group of one or two fish and so you need to imitate a school of fish together with the prop wash and wake created by your boat and capitalise on the inquisitive nature of these game fish. Placing your lures in the prop wash and wake of your boat is crucial to getting them to perform at their best and to get the fish to see them. They will serve very little purpose placed far behind the boat, as you need all the commotion, noise and action to make your mobile FAD work.
So many times I see anglers out on the water with a single lure trolled miles behind the boat at a slow speed and whilst this may work if your lure happens to cross the path of a fish it is not going to get the fish to come to you and it takes for ever to cover the water.
The first dynamic that you need to explore is how each of the different types of lures work, what depths they work at, what speeds do they perform at, what do they imitate, and how do they behave. Then you need to match your spread to the speed you want to troll at so that they all can perform correctly.
SOFT LURES
These are the most misunderstood lures on the market and I have seen so many anglers out there who have spent a fortune on a collection of these and after trying them once or twice unsuccessfully they stay in the box never to be used again. These soft lures are designed to work on the surface and will only work if you place them in the correct position and troll them at a speed fast enough to generate a smoke trail (trail of small bubbles). These soft lures can be separated into 5 main groups.
Feathers, Bullet heads, Meanie Heads & Jet Heads
This group of lures is designed for high speed trolling and the faster you troll them the better. These lures are all weighted in order to keep them in the water at high speed and any where from 5 knots up to 17 knots, best between 6 knots to 12 knots and for feathers even faster. These lures will perform differently depending on the sea conditions, prevailing winds and the lure type. I love fishing with feathers (My favourite is the Williamson Feathers) and have trolled them even when my boat is on the plane at around 20 knots with extreme success so do not be scared to use them at speed when travelling long distance to and from your destination, they can produce a real unexpected surprise which really helps on a quiet day. These lures have no specific shape or action and so rely on speed to get them working and when pulled at the correct speed will create a smoke trail and you really need to test them out to see how they perform close to the boat. The best position on the wave for this type of lure will be behind the wave so that they have space to ride, placed any where else these lures will jump out of the water and start to tumble. The final positioning has to be done once you are at your desired speed and then you need to maintain that speed. If you change your speed, then you must tune the position of the lures. By doing this you will get optimal performance from your lures and the best chance of catching a fish. You need to sight the lures behind the boat and watch their position regularly and if the conditions change like your wake and lines affected by wind, swell and currents which will influence the performance of your lure. The best positions for these lures are on the long & short out rigger positions and the deadly shot gun position from the diagram. These lures also perform extremely well when rigged in conjunction with a small exciter bird on the long and short out rigger positions. Tip: You can enhance these lures by adding a strip bait to them.
Cavitators, Plungers & Darters
These are the most versatile of all the soft lures and can be placed in almost any position in the spread and are designed to surf the waves of the wake created by your boat and so must be positioned on the face of the wave to allow them to surf and create an erratic broken smoke trail as they dive with each wave and then break the surface on the next wave. Cavitators will work well on the long and short corners, long and short out riggers position and on the shot gun position and they can be used with and without exciter birds. Large Cavitators can be placed in the prop wash position without birds. These lures can be trolled between 6 knots and 10 knots, and it is important to ensure that they are created their smoke trails at the speed your troll or you will render them useless. Be sure to fine tune them once at your speed so that they are in fact surfing on the face of the wake wave. It is also important that you match your lures to perform at the same speed as other lures in your spread. This will be different for each position, each kind of boat and the prevailing weather conditions. This means that you need to experiment to find out what works best with what and when. Spend some time on the water and test all your lures out and make some notes so the next time it is easy. Tip: You can enhance these lures by adding a strip bait to them.
Flat Faced Pushers, Concave Faced Pushers and Popping Lures
These lures are to be used with a rod in an elevated position to keep them on the surface where they perform best, and so are best placed on the long and short out rigger positions and on the shot gun position, the can be trolled between 6knots and 10knots and are designed to swim on the crest of your wake wave. These lures will take a large amount of air and push it into the water creating an extreme smoke trail and a noisy splashing action and are sure to get the attention of any game fish in the vicinity. Again with these lures it is important to fine tune them once at your set speed to ensure they are placed correctly to deliver optimal performance. These types of lures also work well in conjunction with exciter birds on flat seas. Sail fish and other surface hunters find these lures irresistible. Tip: You can enhance these lures by adding a strip bait to them.
Daisy Chains & Spreader Bars
Daisy chains are a group of five or six small Feathers, Squids (My favourite) or Meanie heads and are designed to enhance your mobile FAD be creating a larger school effect. These work best when placed on the short corner or prop wash positions and can be used with or without hooks. With hooks they will produce small bait fish constantly, and if you want larger fish then you rig them with out hooks to avoid the smaller fish and they will really aid your FAD by causing smaller bait fish to run with your school and enhance your effect. Daisy chains can also be used in conjunction with exciter birds. There is not really enough space on a small ski-boat to place a spreader bar and if you really want to use one then the prop was position will be the best place to rig them. Spreader bars are best used for attracting sail fish to the boat and must be hook free.
Soft Plastics & Squids
Small squids and large squids trolled behind your boat from 1 knot to 17 knots and are extremely effective. They can be placed in any position of your spread. From bright colours to natural colours squids will always produce fish. There are several ways to rig them with and without weights so you can use them on the surface or deeper down. The same applies to soft plastic baits which are really so versatile. If weighted they work best in the prop wash, long and short corner positions. You need to get out there and experiment with soft plastics and squids.
HARD LURES
From shiners to spoons to hard plastics with enhanced actions and the age old wooden crank baits and jerk baits which in their modern form are now made from moulded plastic. I would have to say that my favourites are the Rapala X-Rap range which give phenomenal performance even at speeds as high as 8 knots and are ideally suited to swim in your spread with some live, dead or strip baits. The Rapala X-Raps have the splash bait collection which are designed to run just below the surface 1-2ft and the magnums which can dive down to 30 ft. These lures can be placed in any position in the spread and the deeper runners are best placed on the long and short corner position and the prop was position. When placing a deep runner in the prop was position you can rig your shot gun position with a dead or live bait or even use a large jet head and bring it in closer to run almost on top of the deep runner. This is very effective for catching Wahoo and Tuna. You can also rig heavy sinkers on the line to get these hard lures to run deeper. Hard lures are better trolled at slower speeds fro 1 knot up to 8 knots and can work well with certain soft lures at the higher speeds. At lower speeds hard lures will work well with live baits, dead baits and strip baits. Remember that your wake wave pattern will dramatically change at slower speeds and you make need to compensate for this by letting your lures run further back than at high speeds.
BAITS
There are numerous ways to rig baits for trolling and I am not going to go into detail with that for this article. Strip baits can be used on Squids, Feathers, Bullet heads, Meanie heads, Pushers, Cavitators, plungers and Darters and are best placed in the long and short out-rigger positions and on the long and short corner positions. Live baits can be trolled without any lures which are then best used with a circle hook placed in front of the bait, and can be used with skirts and so on. The best position for live baits will be on the long & short corners or in the prop wash position. Dead baits can be trolled with out lures in the same way as live baits or can be used with various weighted rigs to enhance their movements. Sardines, Mackerel, Squid, Bonito, Shad and other small fish all make excellent dead and live baits.
In conclusion; you need to try matching the food that is around and do not be mistaken by thinking that big lures equal big fish. For example in the summer of 2007/2008 there was large flying fish around and so larger lures produced, in the summer of 2008/2009 the flying fish were small and so small lures produced better. Many a fine fish has been taken on small lures.
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Tthis is exactly the type of info that help guys catch more fish the first time they use it.
Good stuff
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Awesome post FA... have some cred!
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Brilliant post.. Well done! (clap) (clap)
By the way FAD stands for Fish Aggregating Device. (hit)
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By the way FAD stands for Fish Aggregating Device.
So I found out when reading up on FADS, but this was long after I wrote that piece.
We learn everyday......
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FA Mike you are an inspiration to your fellow anglers your knowledge and knowhow is absolute exceptional and highly appreciated thanks. When your boat is ready I am I will enjoy fishing with you :thmsup" :thmsup" :thmsup" :thmsup" :thmsup"
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Onde..... you and me both Bro!
FA......do you think there is space for 2 NOISY buggers on the new boat? At the same time?
Johan, lets do it! Lets get schedules right and go fish with Mike?
Mike? OK with you?
Cheers, RB
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Onde..... you and me both Bro!
FA......do you think there is space for 2 NOISY buggers on the new boat? At the same time?
Johan, lets do it! Lets get schedules right and go fish with Mike?
Mike? OK with you?
Cheers, RB
You guys are welcome, but I don't think there is much I can do for you that you can't do for yourselves really. Summer is better for this kind of fishing...There is fish around,
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Nice one FA. :resp:
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You guys are welcome, but I don't think there is much I can do for you that you can't do for yourselves really. Summer is better for this kind of fishing...There is fish around,
FA All in your hands you tell us in advance when, where and myself and Roy and whomever wants to join us. This is a booking from me thanks
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FA All in your hands you tell us in advance when, where and myself and Roy and whomever wants to join us. This is a booking from me thanks
Thanks, just pm me your number & email.
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No man, FAD stands for Full of Awesome Dollies!
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Brilliant advice :fnx:
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Credit for your FA and some extra for the Z-craft you report on.
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hello,
how do you set the drag to troll with a reel that has a star drag ? do i leave the spool released and set the clutch? so when you get a pull you only have to do a quarter turn to engage the reel and the preset drag ?
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hello,
how do you set the drag to troll with a reel that has a star drag ? do i leave the spool released and set the clutch? so when you get a pull you only have to do a quarter turn to engage the reel and the preset drag ?
Thats a tough one, as it will vary according to the lure you are pulling, I simply do it by feel, that there is enough tension to set the hook, but loose enough so the fish can run until you get the rod in your hand and tighten up.
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thank you
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hello,
how do you set the drag to troll with a reel that has a star drag ? do i leave the spool released and set the clutch? so when you get a pull you only have to do a quarter turn to engage the reel and the preset drag ?
Just tighten up the drag till it stops pulling line.
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:tkx: very interesting, learnt a thing or 2.
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:tkx: Thanks FA I've been doing it all wrong will try the new method this weekend. :win:
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What a brilliant post, well done mike
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Hi Mike
thanks for the info. It will help us newbies a lot in the summer months. Will definately try it in Ponta in Dec.
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Hey FA,
That is great info, I agree with you last point, match the feed as best possible. I struggled for many years mooching around too slowly, I found speeding it up to over 9 to 12 knots helps and you cover more area, my strike rate has definitely increased in the last few years. I like the softies and if I look in my box my hard headed 10" purple, Blue and whit has the most scrapes and knocks on it... this is prob because most of my trolling time is early morning and late afternoon, I like to try other things during the heat of the day. I like to try new things too - cylumes inside the skirt in early hours - no luck on that one yet! I also dump my lures in the bait bucket before they go in the water to mask anything that has contaminated the lure. My lures are washed and put in zip lock bags after every trip, this stops you contaminating them with salt water when they not used and stops you getting a nest, I will post a pic when I am back in SA next month.
When out for the yellow fin tuna or Stripies I drop the whole array back 1 wave and the shot gun back even further and take out the bird.. they seem to be shy and often take the lure set furthest from the boat as oppose to blacks that seem to like whatever is in the wash. I don't know if this always works but gives me something to do and makes me feel better that I am doing something! If I get a big yellow its all stop and the chum line starts....but..
If the longies are about I hit the throttle up to about 16knots. They seem to like the speed, if one rod goes keep going don't slow down.. you wont get more fish on out the shoal if you turn off the tap.
With needle noses, the bigger the bait the better, a 200kg black can swallow a 50kg yellow - no problem so don't be shy on the live bait, that 3 kg skippy won't do. I don't use live bait much in the Cape as I seem to catch too many suits (sharks) but it makes for great species targeting in some areas like Angola where there plenty of Blues.
I have put a pick of some of my favorite lures.... some have caught more fishermen than fish but they still go in the spread depending on time of day. This marlin got hooked in the heart (under the chin) - if it is gonna die, please don't try release it! A circle hook would have prob saved this fish and I am changing over my lures progressively.
Hope this info help you... and again thanks FA, learned a lot about lure types.
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Thanks for your info
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Mike,
Thanks mate, exactly the kind of thread i've been looking for!!!
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Mike, once again thank you very much for this useful information, its going to help me a lot.
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Mike you giving all your secrets away (clap) thanks for sharing just waiting for the new boat cant wait to pull some lures behind her :happ:
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Mike you giving all your secrets away (clap) thanks for sharing just waiting for the new boat cant wait to pull some lures behind her :happ:
:cgrts: What did you decide on?
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@ Prego we went with sail fish 176 and 2x 80hp mercs in 4 stroke good value for money on a new boat
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Excellent post, great information. Would it be possible to post some pics of the various types of lures that you mentioned.
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Just came across this post and it is very helpful. Many thanks to the OP. My son is a little obsessive and he generally sets out all our lures so I am going to get him to read this.
Whit a live/dead bait we have always battled to get them to stay behind the boat without just twisting endlessly. My son tell me that we have to trawl dead slow )one engine idle speed.) If we try and go any faster then fish just spins and is soon dead if it was alive and the reel needs to be respelled as the line is all twisted.
Should we stick to the idle along thing with live/dead bait or are we doing something wrong?
Will definitely try lures closer to the boat over December.
For those at DSBC, many thanks for all the efforts of the safety officers for yesterdays COF session. As usual the weather was k*K, so I write this from the airport not feeling like I missed anything over the weekend as the wind seemed to be howling. Good to know the boats are safe for another year. As we move into the festive season, I hope you guys are able to grab a few fish. I am back down next weekend where we shall start to use the boat in earnest. Best wishes to all for a great festive season.
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How do you rig your livebaits ?
With Tony , we did not do a lot of livebaits .
But with 2 other mates , we have put them out , with no problem . We mainly use katonkel , or small yellowfins , or yellowtail .
The bill fish seems to zone in on the yellowtail , when there are shoaling up , often you will hook a tail , and a bill will come and slap it around ...
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Just came across this post and it is very helpful. Many thanks to the OP. My son is a little obsessive and he generally sets out all our lures so I am going to get him to read this.
Whit a live/dead bait we have always battled to get them to stay behind the boat without just twisting endlessly. My son tell me that we have to trawl dead slow )one engine idle speed.) If we try and go any faster then fish just spins and is soon dead if it was alive and the reel needs to be respelled as the line is all twisted.
Should we stick to the idle along thing with live/dead bait or are we doing something wrong?
Will definitely try lures closer to the boat over December.
For those at DSBC, many thanks for all the efforts of the safety officers for yesterdays COF session. As usual the weather was k*K, so I write this from the airport not feeling like I missed anything over the weekend as the wind seemed to be howling. Good to know the boats are safe for another year. As we move into the festive season, I hope you guys are able to grab a few fish. I am back down next weekend where we shall start to use the boat in earnest. Best wishes to all for a great festive season.
Drift you live baits, or troll with one motor just in gear. Lowest RPM you can go on one motor.
Same for dead baits, a small bait swimmer helps.
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Okay at least we have the dead slow with live & dead baits right.
Will try the faster technique while we are in sodwana and also keep some of those lures closer to the boat. Hopefully some good results :tkx:
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You need to match your speed to the type of biat. A mozzie or small mackerel will skip/ spin and die quickly at any sort of speed. Drifting with these baits is best, but a slow troll does work. Just in gear.
A skipjack or YFT is a much hardier bait and can be trolled a lot faster, covering more water. If you look at how fast they swim over large distances a 2 or 3 knot troll wont hurt them. The biggest killer of these is the constant jarring of the bridle in their eye sockets if its rough. you ideally want the speed constant and the line just being tight. if too slow thay can swim right up to the boat at times, rather keep them a bit back as then you can feel when they get excited.
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We tried some of this out yesterday. Left DSBC early my son laid out a spread of two deep diving rappalas, and then five knoas of various sizes closer behind the boat than we would normally do. We went to the the ships, and got a bit just past the anchor chain of the first ship, but like a poephoel I thought we had hooked the chain so I backed off the throttle and we lost that one.
Then we went past all the ships and eventually ended up coming inshore at lamercy as I needed to make a business call and being on cellc there was no reception. As soon as i started again we hooked a dorado which my son managed to boat. (We were no where near the ships) As soon as we boated that one, we immediately hoooked another, quite nice size male, and managed to boat that one as well.
We then headed out to that big drop off about 15Nm off ballito. Then we headed back at a fair pace but kept all the koans out and got not a bite on the way home.
I we were actually going quite slow when we did eventually hook the fish.
So next time we will not head as far, and will probably try live bait, but it was still good fun all the same.