The wrong lures

[reefer]

We headed out to the cape saturday with the plan of running some high speed lures early and then having a troll for Marlin later.
We got a double hook in the first five minutes that turned out to be a couple of mac tuna but shortly after we got a real solid hook up that we initially thought was a hoo but it turned out be a hefty spaniard...the first we had caught on a hexhead. We got the lures back in the water quickly and before we could get the third lure in the long corner was screaming off. Unfortunately the man at the helm did not know my boat that well and when i told to ease of the throttle, he stuck it in reverse that resulted in a snip off.

It all went quiet so we decided to go for a troll for a marlin with a set of pushers and one hardbody. We started getting plagued with small tuna and after about the tenth one hitting the hard body i told the bloke on the rod to skull drag it in and as he did it got hit by a hoo. We carried on trolling for marlin but i decided to put a couple more hard bodies on including an old rapala that i had roughly painted, thinking that there were plenty of hoo around. The old rapala did the trick but the fish turned to be a black marlin that looked like it was about 80 to 100 kilos unfortunately we did not get the black to the boat but we had a lot of fun nearly getting spooled three times.

Cheers,

reefer

[Pistol_P]

Quality once again Reefer.

Nice images too.

Cheers,
Pete

[-spiro-]

Nice fish and conditions look great too

[part time]

Great pics reefer and another good day fishing, I would not like to be the man at the helm.......

Garry

[TimD]

Nice fish there guy's :thumbsup:

Good to see the spaniard's and hoo still around the cape, i can't wait for the swell to drop off so Goldfinch and i can get into a few more on our new lures.

Did you get the spaniard on the hexhead with the green skirt in the background of your picture ??

cheers tim :)

[reefer]

Pistol Pete, Cheers!

Spiro,The conditions were good once got past comby point where it was standing up on the run out tide like i had not seen it before.

Garry, the man on the helm was very new to it and I couldn't really give it to him...had it of been you then i would of felt comfortable abusing you ;D

Tim D, No the lure was a bigger purple and black hex head run short.

cheers,

Phil

[setthehook]

love the pictures and good read cheers!

[cobia]

wow nice fish mate..what sort of tips can you give a newbie troller? is there any sort of ground or depth that seasoned pro's troll specifically?

[reefer]

Cobia,

I am only quite new to this myself but The best thing to do is go out with a local charter in the area where you want to fish and ask lots of questions. also watch Peter Pakula videos.

Hope this helps,
Reefer

[jtpython]

Awesome pics. Nice work mate. Conditions look to die for
JT

[Fishmatics]

Reefer what speed are you trolling your hex heads?

[reefer]

Fishmatics,

9 to 12 knots.

[MitchCalcutt]

Hi reefer
those small tuna up to 4kg are brilliant trolled live bait for hoo and big spanish. Benefits include saving fule and lures, the strikes are incredable and often are much bigger fish. Rigging is easy.
Mitch

[reefer]

Mitch,

Thanks for that and a very noble statement from someone who makes lures. I am pretty sure the marlin strike was a hooked up bonito as well and he had the lot. My livie rigs are ready for the next trip. Just trying to work how to make some tuna tubes without paying million bucks for them

Cheers,

Phil

[MitchCalcutt]

Mitch,

Thanks for that and a very noble statement from someone who makes lures. I am pretty sure the marlin strike was a hooked up bonito as well and he had the lot. My livie rigs are ready for the next trip. Just trying to work how to make some tuna tubes without paying million bucks for them

Cheers,

Phil
Hi Phil
when we troll live tuna we get them one at a time. when or if one gets a little sick we just put out a small christmas tree and troll up a fresh one. saves all that fuss with tuna tubes, the live tuna don't last long when the toothy critters are around, inc sharks.
Mitch

[soulfish]

Well done phill some good pics i thought it was roger holding that beaut spanyard your looking more and more like your mentor everyday.

[reefer]

Mitch,

Thanks for that I have been pondering the ways of keeping them on. We were jigging them up aswell..they were everywhere hitting everything so i suppose it would not be hard to keep a regular supply as long as we get a repeat performance.

Soulfish,

Thanks for your kind words as always. His mentoring must be working as i can catch fish without him on the boat now...I am just trying to work out who you look like but i cannot imagine him fishing.

Cheers,

Reefer

[rogerb]

Ah the purple CD18, always a killer, I took your tip and bought some purple paint now all the grotty colours I have collected over the years get a shiny new coat. I look forward to wandering down your way to give them and the live tuna a go, thanks Mitch for the tip. P.S. Any tips for a really quick rig to get them back in the water before they croak?

Cheers, Rog

[MitchCalcutt]

Ah the purple CD18, always a killer, I took your tip and bought some purple paint now all the grotty colours I have collected over the years get a shiny new coat. I look forward to wandering down your way to give them and the live tuna a go, thanks Mitch for the tip. P.S. Any tips for a really quick rig to get them back in the water before they croak?

Cheers, Rog
Hi Rog
I will draw up the specks this weekend if it rains again. I try to minimize wire so my leader is joined very close to the action. First hook usualy a larg "J" hook (depending on bait size) a second on wire is a stinger crimped to the loop of the first hook, this wire should be long enough for the hook to pinch the skin on the side of the bait not the top. and not to much wire to baloon. the hook should be half way between the ass and tail and mid hight.
Once you've got your bait in the boatdon't let it hit the deck, invert it aqap, pull out the catch hook and force the first hook through the mouth out through the nose, get your second trailing hook and measure as discribed above and drop it back in. the entire process should take 20 seconds
Good luck
Mitch

PS i will post specks once i get around to it.

[rogerb]

Hi Mitch,
Thanks for the detail I look forward to seeing the specs, it sounds like a grown up version of our mac rig, do you use a trebble as the stinger hook?

Cheers, Rog

[MitchCalcutt]

Hi Mitch,
Thanks for the detail I look forward to seeing the specs, it sounds like a grown up version of our mac rig, do you use a trebble as the stinger hook?

Cheers, Rog
No mate same as the nose hook
Mitch

[ffejsmada]

Just like this roger.

[reefer]

Jeff,

Do you get many snip offs using the mono to the first hook?

Mitch,

I take it you use wire to the first hook but not much.

I suppose it is down how many strikes you get withe mono compared to the wire...perhaps i will try both and see what happens.

Cheers,

Phil