Wolfie rigging dilemma

[Bad_Bubby]

Hi people,

Shane (bazzaman) and I attempted to slow troll for wolfies on Saturday on a trip to Green Island out off Cairns for dissapointing results. We were at first using halco laser pro lures and getting some serious hits but couldn't get a fish in the boat. Then we thought we'd have better luck trolling wolfies back through the same area. However after at least 90mins of trolling we couldn't get another strike! This really surprised me as the earlier hits were certianly mackerel (lures cut up and big splashes when they were hit at speed). We made an effort to make the wolfies swim slowly and naturally behind the boat. We let one out roughly 20m and the other about 50m. When on the move our average trolling speed was 4 knots and average depth was 30m.

The rig I'm using comes from Bransford's tackle. Originally the wire attached to the jighead was about 20cm longer but I thought it wasn't necessary and tied a swivel to the shortened piece. Otherwise, the rig is a gang of 5 hooks that look to be inbetween 8/0-10/0 in size. The top hook incorporates a fairly heavy pink jig which I'd estimate to be around 15 grams (I'm not sure what level of significance the colour of the jig makes). As you can see the wolfies were hooked through the gut with the gangs hidden vertically beside the spine. We completed the rig by twisting a small loop of single strand around the mouth of the bait to keep it streamlined. I need to find out what I'm doing wrong, so judging by the attached pictures and what I've described can anyone suggest area(s) that need improving? thanks

A shot of the rig

[Bad_Bubby]

Shot of rig with wolfie

[Bad_Bubby]

Close up

[Smithy]

Can't see anything wrong with your rig so long as the fish was swimming straight and not twisting. Did you test it beside the boat before deploying it? The other thing about the way you have it rigged is you don't have enough hooks. You can nearly bet your you know whats that when you get hit you are going to get one that bites the tail behind the last hook. It will kill the action of the tail a bit but the way they bite you would think they can see the hooks and go out of their way to snip you off behind the last hook every time.

[daveyP]

I agree I bet you would have had a few bait come back with the tail missing just behind that last hook. The Rig I used to use around the whitsundays was just two 10/0 or 12/0, but would run wire from the top hook in the head about 20-30cm long and put a stinger type hook in the tail. This obviously left an easy meal for anything that hits them in the middle, But when targeting big spanyairds, we found the would more often than not hit that hook in the tail.

We used to troll them dead slow about 4 knots and if we got a hit that didn't connect we would free spool the wolfie would sink and they would often come back for a second hit thinking they had injured the fish. ILL try and post some pics
Hope that helps

[devocean]

Mate if they can see the hooks they wont bite sometimes.

I get a 60cm metal rulle sharpen the round end and then push it down behid the gills through the wolfy. The I get a big needle and tie a piece of line to the end and push it down the hole made by the ruler unitl it pops out near the tail.

Then get the line and tie it to your last hook and pull them through the body until they cant be seen. Position the weight under the head and fix it with sme wire.

Sometimes different weights work best. Also sometimes they wont bite due to the wire trace. Also I have had results before trolling them a bit faster but make sure they dont spin.

Also another trick that works for a mate of mine is to let them sink then power off in the boat and let em come up quyick have seen a few hook ups this way.

Good luck

[baldyhead]

Hey M8, sounds a bit like Baracuda hitting your lures & not mackerel possibly. Try slowing your 4kts down by tying a bucket or two on short ropes and chuckin em o'board. Also try using any sorta downrigger and get those wolfies down to 10m and dead slow. The area that you are trolling is and has been flogged by both me and the pros as well as many others. This makes the macks a bit shy. As soon as the wind drops again get out and try to be the first there( a 4am launch might work). A couple of weeks ago I launched @ 5am and turned the key off back at the ramp @ 8.30am for 9 decent sized macks...all around 30lb cleaned. I used wogged gar and the 3 of us had a ball. Got 7 last week about the same size, but the pros were there before me and it took a bit more cunning to catch em.
I hafta get myself a digital camera so I can post some fotos as the film one takes too long to complete. cheers baldy