The following offshore trolling tip is from Captain Ken at Reel Draggin Tackle - Check out their full line of offshore and Chesapeake Bay tackle!
Tackle Chat
Customers frequently come to me and state "When I am trolling for Yellowfin Tuna, I never seem to be able to get more than one hookup. It is usually the WWB (way way back) line. What should I do?". This scenario is presented far too often and deserves some discussion. Feel free to comment on what works for you, here is how we fish the Canyon Draggin
When trolling for Yellowfin Tuna, the WWB is almost always a big (7 to 13" Bird) followed by a squid chain with a green machine slammer style stinger. The job of the big bird is to make a lot of commotion on the surface (like breaking bait fish) followed by either stragglers of slightly larger fish feeding on the bait. A large pelagic game fish like Yellowfin Tuna and Marlin will see this action and feel left off the dinner invitation, crashing the party going for the larger meal, your slammer stinger about 8 feet behind the bird. The bird is doing its job, attracting game fish. More often than not the dinner party is crashed by multiple tuna. When there is only one hook bait back there, you get one hook up and the rest go away hungry.
The Squid Bird Daisy Chain with the Slammer teaser is a very effective lure and teaser. To capitalize on its effectiveness we like to place two of these in the middle of our spread. First, our spread is built around Spreader Bars. We usually have four bars out, two off each outrigger. The two flat lines consist of skirted ballyhoo. We run the Squid Bird Daisy Chains with the Slammer stinge in a short shotgun position. The line closest to the boat is set equal distance to the spreader bar on the inside outrigger. The one furthest back is set equal to the spreader bars in the outside position of the outriggers. The entire spread is kept tight, as close together as you can without creating a tangled mess.
When boat traffic is heavy and the bite goes cold, there is a tendency to break with the plan and send a lone centerline WWB; don't do it! In this case send the whole spread back. The same rules apply, send the entire spread back and get away from the boat traffic. When the bite turns on, you will be rewarded. Another trick we turn too in these cases, is switching all of the spreader bars to bird bars. When you have to really work for a bite, you need all of the surface action and bait in the water you can muster. Nothing makes more spread action than four bird bars and two center line bird chains. In fact, Capt. Joe Riley on, Muff Diver Sport Fishing always runs at least two bird bars. He favors Rainbow out of Ocean City and replaces the squid stingers with Green Slammer Stingers.
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