Hex heads & teaser

[Back In Black]

Guys,
I"ve just bought 4 hex heads for the first time. I usually troll with hard bodies like X Raps etc but after seeing so many reports this season with guys catching wahoo & mackerel on them, I thought I'd give them a go.

My question is- what speed do you troll at??

Also,I bought a witch doctor teaser, so how far out do you put it??

Out of interest, if something chews on the line, will the teaser float, as they aren't cheap & I'd hate to lose it.

Thanks,

Tony

[TREVELLY]

Tony,

I was talking to a guy at the stand at Tinnie and Tackle show where I bought these jetheads and hexheads and he reckons they should break the surface every 3 seconds - can't remember his name but he used to be on Brownies Coast Watch and is sort of "famous" but as I don't watch TV it meant nothing to me.90450

Speeds I troll jetheads and hexheads are 12kph to 18kph as they seem to blow out of the water over 20kph.

Having said that I am geared up now for high-speed trolling 30-37kph where you troll a 1kg weight 10m in front of lure to keep it in the water ;D

With the teaser just put 2m of heavy multi-strand wire on it so the razor gang only scratch it.

Put the teaser near enough to the lure so when attracted to the teaser they find the lure - if two lures at say 30m and 60m then teaser at 45m.

[team_mongo]

Hexheads - 10-12kts
Dont know if a WD will go that quick, and if it does its gonna have some serious drag on it!
The WD is normally close, closer than the short corner.

[Nicko_Cairns]

so in knots that's about 6.4 to 9.7 (from the km/h post above).

a charter boat out of darwin ran their WD at only about ten metres back, then they had lures at about 15m and 20m, so nice and close to the witchdoctor, they just had it tied on with rope.

cheers.

[Horse]

Hexheads run well at 12knts and if the conditions are right you can get 15knts out of them. The Yanks run rigs like trev is talking about with up to a 1kg lead trolling sinker keeping the lure in the water at over 20knts. When chasing big Hoo they like the lure to stay underwater at all times

[fish'n'chippy]

Most Witch doctors won't run at speeds over 8 - 10 knots in moderate conditions and will start to spin, but keep them short (10-15m is plenty)

Doctors are not that effective early morning, late afternoon or in heavily overcast conditions, but birds work in any situation (just putting that out there)

Trolling speeds for hex heads (or other weighted lures) is a combination of speed v's distance.
It is easy to run them @ 20kn +, just set them back 100 or so meters back (depending on conditions)

You can even achieve similar results with 'standard' lures by running them further back than normal and uping the speed, if your only doing 12kn you don't need hex's.

G

[nezevic99]

As far as teasers go, we've had our best results with a type of beer can teaser. Easy to make up to look like a bowling pin teaser using old beer/coke cans and 200lb mono. I use green Strongbow aluminium bottles as the aluminium is heavier and they don't wear out as quick. Cheap, looks amazing in the water and puts out a sonic boom like no other when the cans "breathe".

[Midnight]

I have caught all my mackerel and wahoo at 6.5-7kts, including on hex heads. Never found any need to troll any faster.

Re the witch doctor, make sure it is the first thing you retrieve when you hook up. They sink at rest and they are easy to forget and then run over while fighting a fish. Don't run it on wire for that reason.

[nezevic99]

And if you are running multiple teasers and short handed i.e. the doctor plus a surface teaser, run them both on the same side with ropes of an identical length. That way you can pull them both in together. It's faster and you can worry about any tangles in the ropes after you get the fish off the line.

[Back In Black]

And if you are running multiple teasers and short handed i.e. the doctor plus a surface teaser, run them both on the same side with ropes of an identical length. That way you can pull them both in together. It's faster and you can worry about any tangles in the ropes after you get the fish off the line.

Hadn't thought about it, but how deep does the witch doctor travel? I just assimed it would be near the surface.

Tony

[nezevic99]

Not sure exactly but I think it's a few metres down. It was originally designed as a downrigger to troll baits off the back. A surface bird, daisy chain or beer can teaser will run and splash on the surface with the doctor flashing away underneath it.

[paullee]

Mate when you buy a rigged Pakula Witchdoctor teaser it is rigged with thin rope through a big snap swivel so that is how i would rig it. They run a metre or so under the surface and when working you will see flashes of light through the water from its reflection. They often "swim" across the back of the boat due to the angle of the front of it.Never purposely trolled at anything much more than 8 knots before but any quicker and it will break the surface depending on how far back you have it and conditions on the day. 10 metres behind boat would be max imo probably even less. Bought some hex heads today myself so gunna give em a go myself tomorrow. Good luck on the hoo i will post my results also....

[nezevic99]

http://www.pakula.com.au/index.php/witchdoctor-exciter