Trolling for Spanish

[nowornever]

How fast and how deep any suggestions?

[Edmo]

in my experience spanish like a bit of speed, any thing from 8 to 15knts.
But as for depth it varies on your location but we have found they like the drop offs on our local grounds and reef areas deep or sallow, so i guess skirts will troll the surface at speed and big bibs to get you down from 2 to 6 mtrs.
Hope this is abit of help cheers Edmo

[Wahoo]

all depends on what lures your using, follow the conture lines, find bait balls in deep waters (50m ) and work that, you should see something around the bait balls, a few mates use down riggers for the big macs and seem to do ok

Daz

[skipalong]

only use big baits and troll at 3.6knots works an absolute treat

cheers justin

[levinge]

in my experience spanish like a bit of speed, any thing from 8 to 15knts.
But as for depth it varies on your location but we have found they like the drop offs on our local grounds and reef areas deep or sallow, so i guess skirts will troll the surface at speed and big bibs to get you down from 2 to 6 mtrs.
Hope this is abit of help cheers Edmo

Not so!!!

We use Xrap 30's (30Feet Deep) and troll at 4.5 - 5kts and catch them in depths from 17 to 30 metres.
Spanish Macks are a typical predator (opportunist). if the lure is producing a good action then they will strike. I believe trolling too fast for them, they usually give one shot and if they miss, thats it.
Trolling at a slower speed allows them to make a definite strike. Using this style of trolling method, my wifes has scored 2 pb's, in december a 14kg Spaniard and January 17kg Spaniard. We haven't tried for the big boys yet, but thats on the cards

Both of these big boppers were caught behind a couple of islands.

Reef edges are also a prime area, look for the birds feeding and the Macks won't be far away!!

[Coralkraut]

We troll @ 6-7 Knots, pulling Halco Crazy Deeps and extra large Mackerel Maulers for Spaniards and Rapala CDs for the smaller cousins, hook up rate is about three hits for one fish on average

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

The slower you troll that bigger the fish enticed. Big spanish are sucessfully targeted trolling large dead baits, or trolled live baits from 1-4 kilos. Smaller spanish are often landed trolling at much faster speeds. If you want XOS spanish, use bait. If you want small spanish for a quick feed, troll lures or gar from 3 to 15 knots.
Slow means 1-3 knots. XOS means 30-40 kg.
Cheers,
Johnny Mitchell

[Horse]

I have found the bigger fish are deeper so a downrigger or trolling baits with torpedo sinkers helps to get in the zone. Slow and even stopping to get your baits down deeper has worked for me

[Pete62]

We mostly use Live slimies, slow trolled @ 3 - 5 knots.

JM, I lived on Fitzroy Island for a year ('89) and the pros used exclusively Gar rigged double hooks, wind on spring on the nose and a skirt over the top, is that method still used up that way??

Used to be a killer and I still have some rigs.

Cheer's Pete.

[MarkLong]

Pete,

Would you mind taking a photo of the rig and posting it. Sounds interesting.

[therapy]

Pete62,
I was talking to a mate of a mate who is a pro fisherman out of Airlie Beach and that is the same method he uses. He is almost exclusively a spanish mack fisherman. Gar with a pink skirt over the nose..
Cheers......Terry..............

[Pete62]

Yep, will do Mark.

Yeah Terry, looks like they are still the chosen tool.

Cheer's Pete.

[disorderly]

The slower you troll that bigger the fish enticed. Big spanish are sucessfully targeted trolling large dead baits, or trolled live baits from 1-4 kilos. Smaller spanish are often landed trolling at much faster speeds. If you want XOS spanish, use bait. If you want small spanish for a quick feed, troll lures or gar from 3 to 15 knots.
Slow means 1-3 knots. XOS means 30-40 kg.
Cheers,
Johnny Mitchell

Thats some good advise....

I'm quite impatient when trolling and want to cover some ground along reef edges looking for the bait so its shallow diving laser pro's and 5-10 knots ...once an area which shows good bait is found and a spanish is caught I'll continue back and forth in that general area and have picked up 3-6 school spanish(and often some pesky shark macks for the neighbor) between 6-12 kg in very little time on quite a few occasions...

This suits me perfectly as I'm a bit paranoid about cigutera(sp?) ...and like to hear the ratchet screaming regularly...

I've only caught 20 kg + models on live or dead baits ...the guys around here who seem to catch the most larger sized spanish prefer slow trolled wolf herring out the back of the islands and out into the shipping channels...its a bit too boring for me though...

Scott

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Yea, the gar rigged on two hooks is still very common on a lot of mac grounds. It really depends on the fishery and the target size of the fish wanted.
Unpressured grounds will see ample fish pulled on lures and gar. In pressured waters, smarter anglers will discover tactics, even using gar, and still catch a lot of fish. On a lot of inshore grounds where plenty of boats operate and add of interaction with mac congregations a lot of the mega spanish ( 30+ kg) only get landed on bigger baits presented as natural as possible. You won't catch too many big spanish on lures in not so remote places. (25kg aint big).
The cunning fisher will catch good fish while a lot go fishless.
Cheers,
JM

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Here's a you tube link of mine that shows a few caught super slow trolling big baits. It's a short snippet, but you can see how slow the boat travels whilst in fishing mode.
Cheers,
Johnny Mitchell