Troll plastics or Livies, which one???

[Topcat]

Bait is deep, but billfish r on top of surface. What to do? And if they aren't too hungry?

[jeffo]

plastics is the go!

[Al_Macka]

TOP CAT...
YOUR ASKING 4 BIG SECRETS HERE ......

B INTERESTED ON THIS TOPIC REPLY`S MY SELF......

I find in situations like yours .Driffting over bait ball with livey , here we go magic ingrediant...... Put a cut either side near tail .don`t kill it . make it bleed ,let it STAND out from tha crowd

BLOOD SPORT .... FOOD CHAIN ....

FISH`N......

cheer`s MACKA.....

[jeffo]

hrmm... drifting over a bait school... road to disaster if you ask alot of well respected billfisherman!

[fishy_phil]

PLASTICS ALL THE WAY!!!
but me bieng a littl bias as i have a near endless supply of them in all shapes and sizes doesnt hurt either.. [smiley=cool3.gif]

[jeffo]

fishy phil- are you meaning soft plastics? or skirted pushers?

[fishy_phil]

gday jeffo
the skirted variety...plungers apollos 501s 505s pushers straight runners you name it i probably got it...this is only because me and my dad used to make them...we used to sell them to a few tackle shops but he stopped makin them because he got pushed out of the market by ol pete pakula, and health reasons.
but they work the biggest caught on them was over 950lb...off rockhampton. most of the lures where based on joe yees i think but all where slightly modified but still recognisable and he also designed a few for the pro southern bluefin tuna fishos and sold like crazy in tasmania. he also used to sell them in the complete angler in sydney. if you are interested in buying a few of them give me a message and id be glad to let you know what we still have that we'd be willing to sell. we have boxes of unpollished heads waitin to be sold or used. all are of high quality and if possible ill send a picture of a few.
cheers
phil

[setthehook]

seems trolling bait is beating lures!!! Thought id bring it to top of list again with a post to see if ya get more votes!!

[jeffo]

we had julian pepperell as a guest speaker at our club meeting last week and i asked him the a question relating to tag and releasing billfish.. my question was " what methods have proven best in relation to death after release of a billfish"
julian's answer- "lures-GOOD, live baits-BAD,dead baits-not alot better than live bait"... IN THOSE WORDS..

so if you want the fish to have the best chance of living after release then lures are the way to go!

[channo]

id have to say my opinion is it depends wether you are fishing for marlin or sail fish as we all know sail fish are a residential fish that are luky to move from reef to reef they hang around bait and its verry rare for them to travell ass for instance the sails of mooloolaba they the majority of them have been caught on livies this is the most afective way for sails but little blacks are a different storie the are a fish that migrate from cairns to bermagui they tend to rome a lot more than the sails and are more readily to take a lure as they nilly allways on there own were as the sails aare in pods any way thats just my opinion

[jeffo]

well said channon!!