BUSHY ON LURES
IF, like me, you own one small boat and you want to do every form of lure fishing known to man from it, you inevitably have to do a lot of tackle organising. I suppose it is a bit like preparing an F18 fighter-bomber for its next sortie. Depending on the mission, you need different weapons.
I do have a game-fishing box, and inside the game-fishing box there is a basic lure trolling selection. To keep the weight down in my boat I try to stick to the lures that have really worked for me. Most of us are lure junkies to a degree and my shed is the place to find trolling lures that might one day work, almost worked once, should be a good colour or could be the next big thing. These lures are in the shed – the real killers that have stood the test of time and fish are in the boat. My basic selection of lures is no big deal and there are no surprises if you take a close look at what’s there. If you’re just starting out on a fishing career, however, there are some simple tips on selection, rigging and storing that just might start you off on the right foot.
The biggest lure I run is 23cm, which isn’t huge. It is just a simple pusher lure with a black hypalon head. I made this lure a long time ago when I didn’t have enough dollars to buy a proper Peter Pakula pusher. I was smart enough to measure the head on one of Pete’s lures so maybe he should get the credit as to why the lure catches fish. I also put quality skirts from Yo Zuri in the “evil” colour scheme on the lure. I didn’t have much faith in the lure to start with but after a while it became obvious that fish liked it and it caught some nice yellowfin, dolphin fish and marlin on a few different boats. I originally rigged the lure with a single hook because I was probably lazy and maybe didn’t want to buy two stainless steel jobs. Funny thing – the lure swam really well with one hook and even though it has only caught a few marlin, the hook-up and landing rate has been remarkable.
I like to use wind-on leaders so my lures are all rigged with short six to seven foot traces. On small boats crews are usually short-handed and on my boat I’m often out there by myself. I see a big advantage in being able to gaff fish off the rod tip so rigging with the wind-ons and short leaders is a definite plus. I have a good set of outriggers on my little boat and the pusher usually sits on the short one.
The next lure on the list is the only relatively new kid on the block. It has its chance because too many of my mates who do more lure trolling than I do are catching all sorts of fish on it. This lure is not much different to the generic small pushers I have used in the past in this long ’rigger position but it has a cupped face that works at a wide speed band and bluefin tuna love it. In another concession to the modern world I have rigged the “new kid” with an Owner Jobu hook. These hooks have a flattened hook point that is supposed to pull out of fish less than a traditional style point. The other advantage to the Jobu hook is that it definitely sounds trendy which in game fishing can be important!
I run a medium jet because it stays in the water in any conditions and some days its lazy action takes more hits than the other lures. I can’t tell you why, but on just about any boat a medium jet is worth dragging, especially if there are yellowfin around. Small boats are affected by sea conditions a bit more than larger boats so I also think that having a range of lures out the back that contains individual lures that work at different speeds is a good thing. At normal speeds your pushers and bullets might be attractive to fish but let’s imagine trolling down-sea and surfing forward down a large wave. For that period of time a medium jet probably looks fantastic to a fish even if the slower lures are a bit out of control.
You just can’t beat small bullet-headed lures if you are trolling in any blue water. Striped tuna, mackerel, albacore, yellowfin and – more often than many might suspect – marlin eat these little lures. I rig my little pink bullet heads on at least 200lb mono because you just don’t know when a decent yellowfin or marlin will take a fancy to one of them. In a small boat light gamefish are bread & butter and the little bullets are magic.
Over the years I have caught a bunch of different species on deep-diving hard-bodies. There are missions where I will run a whole spread of deep divers but I always make sure that I have at least one in the basic lure box. You can tune most deep divers to run fast and there aren’t too many bluewater species that won’t have a crack at one. Yellowfin, mackerel and kingies are all good targets for a deep diver. If you’re looking at the battered old green warrior with the rusty hooks in the photo on this page – don’t be too concerned – the hooks have just been touched up and I reckon he still has a few fish in him.
Sometimes you really want to troll up a frigate mackerel, striped tuna, longtail tuna or mack tuna and they just won’t co-operate. The answer often is to troll a very small fly (like a white Lefty’s Deceiver, for example). Having a few of these type of flies at hand in the boat takes up little room, but they can often save the day – especially if you are trolling for a bait that might catch you a monster fish.
There are a million trolling lures out there and another million ways to rig ’em, but you have to start somewhere and this Bushy basic collection might just give you that starting point.
