Favourite Trolling Lure

[Blue_Escape]

Ok all you "Blue Water Legends" what is your all-time favourite and/or most productive (& dolphin friendly ) trolling lure for travelling around our Beautiful Moreton Bay?

[wessel]

Dolphin Friendly????

Mate, now you have me. We chase yellow tail and big eye tuna that tends to hang out with HUGE dolphin schools. We see the dolphin breaking the surface and depending on what their behaviour is like, will tell you whether they are hunting or just cruising. If they are on the hunt we get ahead of the pod and start trolling a pattern ahead of the pod. I have never hooked a dolphin like this, neither have any of the locals that I learned this from ever hooked a dolphin on a trolling lure. I used to refuse to troll lures around dolphins and I stay well away from whales. I respect anything in the water that is bigger than the boat, it is a far way back to shore if you have to swim.

If the tuna do not take the lures, we will stop and throw in a livy if we have them, and the dolphins refuse to take them. Never, ever, ever, ever has either a lure or a livy been picked up by a dolphin..... Am i missing something here?

To answer your question - Rapala Mag 14's (Red / White) and Storm DT15's - anything that looks like a sardine to get a bit deeper. Surface skirts in pink white combo's also do well. That is over here though which is nowhere near Moreton Bay unfortunately - Hope to be down there in April next year.

[Blue_Escape]

Hey Wessel,
sorry mate..just kidding about the dolphins

Although it is interesting that Dolphins are generally too clever to take a bait/lure. I was down in Tassie last year and did see one hooked in the Mersey - I think it was sick/injured and probably struggling to catch fish....

I think the lures you mentioned are popular over here to - as well as Halco Lazers being another one.

Cheers
Blue

[jeffo]

bluewater... and moreton bay... do they go in the same sentence.
never fished the bay but for around here when chasing tuna and mackeral its hard to go past the old blue pillie (lively lures)

[Kiktz]

I agree with Jeffo, The Lively Lures have given me the most luck in the past. Getting hook ups from Spotty's to The odd yellow tail king.

[Kiktz]

Sorry But I have to mention, On a trip to the banks one of my mates that was on another boat hooked a Dolphin on a Livey. As you could imagine at first he thought all his Christmas's came at once but when it started its aerial display, the gaw dropped and really wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

[magicpudding]

I'd agree with the hard bodied lures mentioned above, but still our most successful tuna lure is a green and yellow malisa 35 (i think). Rigged with a single stainless hook, it's caught plenty of tuna, wahoo and mackeral and the skirt still looks the part.

C.J.

[Blue_Escape]

How do you rig the skirts- I've never tried them before.. ???

[jeffo]

multi strand wire (or mono if your game) fed through the head and conected to a gamakatsu SL12 8/0 and a loop on the other end to connect to main line... any of the little skirted lures are dynamite on tunas and razor gang, but as CJ mentioned the skirts can cop a fair old beating and need replacing.
tiny pakulas and wellsys malissa's both work well when trolled at around 6-7 knots.

[Jeremy]

Blue,

don't try rigging a skirted lure if you haven't done it yourself before. There is a bit to it to get them to perform at their best. You can buy them ready rigged (for $40-50) or get a mate to do it for you. Some tackle stores also have the knowledge and service to do it for you.

In my opinion and experience, it is far more productive for tuna and mackerel to troll live baits, pilchards or both, and a bit cheaper too. But there is alot of satisfaction in getting a fish to eat a plastic bait and it is cleaner and less fuss.

You can waste alot of money trying to set yourself up with a range fo trolling lures at an average cost of $20 to $30 each, so if you do buy a few, make sure they will do the job. I like the Halco Laser Pro and the Lively Lures Blue Pilly as both swim well and handle a range of speeds to over 10 knots.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[DaneCross]

You can waste alot of money trying to set yourself up with a range fo trolling lures at an average cost of $20 to $30 each, so if you do buy a few, make sure they will do the job. I like the Halco Laser Pro and the Lively Lures Blue Pilly as both swim well and handle a range of speeds to over 10 knots.

Good call Jeremy. But Blue, I've never had much success trolling inside the bay. If you're interested in pulling a few macks and tuna from the bay all you really need is some 15-20g slugs and a spin outfit. During the summer months the bay is alive with these species smashing up bait schools all over the place. All you have to do then is cast your slug into/on the edge of one of these feeding frenzies and crank it back to the boat - too fast is not fast enough! Getting within casting range of the schools can prove to be difficult some days, but thats just part of the fun From what I found last season, the baitfish never appeared to be over 5cm in length, therefore any hardbody trolling lure is going to be much bigger than the bait the macks are naturally feeding on.
Outside the bay however is a whole different story, I like the halco lazer pro 190s for out there
Join us out there one day, bring on summer, I can't wait.
DC
P.S. Lucky_Phill will be selling some great slugs, guaranteed to get you onto some bay pelagics, for cheaper than anything you'll buy in a shop, at this weekends boaties market (see general chat for details). Hows that for a plug Phill??

[mjc85]

Ok, my favourite method to catch big spaniards and the likes is by trolling skirts with a sinker in the head with triple gang hooks and a pilly, i will post up a few pics of the macks i picked up over a weekend last summer if i can find them.

I also used out jet ski when i felt like fishing the schools, i was using 5kg line and a variety of different slugs but mainly the raider 20 gram. I would get a run up as fast as i could, like 60-80km/h aiming towards the school and hit the kill switch just before i came in close proximity then i would glide straight into the school and have them boiling at my feet then cast straight into them, its pretty hard when u get a decent fish though on such light like, i pretty much had to grab their tails but i play to get a short gaff. Once i got the fish in the footwell i had a short piece of 2x2 and beat the living shit out of them

[mjc85]

Here is one of the spaniards i got, then got one almost twice the size the day after but i can't find a picture, we also got plenty of smaller ones and a few schoolies but didn't keep them as this was enough.

[mjc85]

LOL and everyone gives me shit and says im flexing in that photo but im not seriously, was when i was fit and played football, im fat now

Here is another pic of some rodent mactuna's i got on the jetski, they arent best eating but my neighbour is indonesian and makes a mean curry from any fish

[Blue_Escape]

MJC85,
you may not want too many people know on this site about the jetski as they might try and sink it