Trolling enquiry??

[rando]

Having just got in from a delivery trip from Roslyn Bay to Manly, on a mates 60 fter . I have a couple of questions on towing lures.
We passed though/ near countless schools of working fish, some so close i could identify individual fish,, Lots of Mac-Tuna , but also Mackeral, and LTs.
We tried a variety of lures:small skirts in black and gold, and in blue/silver, 190 to 220 CDs and similiar in qantas , blue green and a bibless thing about 150mm with rattles in pink and white.
We did not get a touch.
Are we just unlucky or are we doing something wrong.
Boat speed was 9-10 knots
all the lures had wire trace except one little 20 gm slice I pulled on a hand line.
We had that much fish around us at times I thought we would dong one on the head rather than hook one.
My mate does these trips regularly and his success rate is dismal .

What can i do to get him a fish or two.??

Cheers
Rando

[Jackinthebox]

I'm surprised you didn't tell him to pack a spin rod & some 20 - 40 grm slugs

[samson]

Match the hatch mate

[JustOneMore]

Your going too fast mate, slow the troll down to 5.6-6 knots for the lures with bibs, skirts can go another knot faster. These are the speeds, I have found the most successful. But if you are going over schools and still don't get a strike, alter your speed from this up and down, 0.2 knots can make a difference.

Good luck.

[jez and suze]

hard to match a hatch when what they are eating is the size of a match head!

[revs57]

Ahhh ya needed a couple of nuclear chooks mate!!!!

[Vindicator]

Can these nuclear chooks also catch a cold?!?!?!

[rando]

Thanks guys for the info.
I could'nt see what they were feeding on there were no bait showers to speak of.
I did try the 20 gm slug on a hand line but that was ignored too.
I thought about a chook, Revs, but had to rely on what was in his tackle box(not a lot)
Next time I'll pack a spin out fit and some gear.

So bring it down to 6-6.5 knots. you reacon
We went through patches of fish working on the surface from just south of Big Woody that went for a couple of kilometres, Im pretty sure it was mackeral,( no fish breaking out)
Are there any lures I should take ,,,other than chooks,, thanks for that Revs ,,, you still have to show me how to use em.!!

[sharkymark2]

I was up in New Guinea and out from Lizard Island to Lae on a 250' bulk sand carrier. We use to troll blue squids at around 12 knots and caught heaps of tuna and coutta and mackerel. Got a marlin by Lizard Island. Saw his head and beak come out of the water and our braid clothes line and 100LB wire trace went "ping". Got a huge wahoo at lizard island but couldn't pull him in as to heavy to lift. Almost lost the first mate from the boat deck when he was trying to pull in a tuna at 12 knots. The tuna was going like a popper in the water. Every time he buried into the water there would be a burst of blood showering from his gills. Funny thing is that the pink squids were absolutely hopeless. so don't know about the speed being a problem?

[Smithy]

Can't have been speed. You will catch Tuna all day long high speed trolling for Wahoo and Spaniards up to 18knots. Will have been a match the hatch issue. Tiny slugs or SPs on spin gear with light leaders might have been the only way to do any good. Maybe a jumbo minnow to pick up the big Longtails and Mackerel feeding on the Macks and Bonito if they were hanging around underneath.

[Simmo2]

What does 'match the hatch' mean???

[rando]

Smithy

I think he has the big lures covered, about 6 in various colours and a couple of small skirts. Though I might take a Mac-bait next time.
Ive seen some big prerigged plastics, around including one that was a good looking Gar, what do you think of them,???

When you say tiny slugs & sps do you mean spin them, or troll??

One of the problems on big cruisers is they dont like stopping , as the stabilizers stop working , and they roll like buggery.
All right if you dont have lots of "cruising stuff" that can get thrown around, TVs hot water urns, fridge and freezer full of stuff.

Lifes hard when your toys cost double the price of an average home.

[Crestcutter]

Get up ahead of them Rando and flick some small slugs, or small placcies. I use white in any brand in plastic. And as small a slug to match. They are (usually) feeding on white bait so match the hatch.

Darryl.

[disorderly]

What does 'match the hatch' mean???

Try using lures that are actually representative of what bait the fish are actually feeding on.

scott

[jman2016]

hard to match a hatch when what they are eating is the size of a match head!

This happened in keppel bay. Fish were feeding on fry the size of your fingernail! Ignored everything, skipped slugs, sinking slugs, plastics, raiders. My son scooped up a net of fry that looked like herring? The largest of which was about as big as your thumbnail.

Next time I'll take a picture