Practical Boat Fishing
Loading your boat up with a bunch of pre-made rigs, lures and all the terminal gear you need for a day or extended trip saves you time out on the water. DAVID GREEN explains.
MOST of the anglers reading this magazine either own a boat or fish with a mate who owns one. We all plan our trips and look forward to the days we get to spend out on the water. Some trips are planned months in advance, others happen when a window of opportunity arises. Weather and sea conditions can’t be planned long in advance and the following article is about fitting out your boat in a versatile way so when you head out for a fishing trip, you have the ability to try a few different options if the first plan just doesn’t work. To do this I carry my “boat box”. This is a large grey tub that is heavy and full of tackle. Often we never venture into the boat box when the fishing goes to plan, but more often I find that when the fish we intended to chase doesn’t show, carrying a range of other bits and pieces often sets us up to try for other targets. As well as the boat box, I have a number of large trays full of species-specific gear. These are labelled “marlin light”, “mackerel box”, “wahoo box” and “big marlin”. These all contain pre-rigged lures for the specific species and a range of bait rigs. In summer I always pack the lot when heading offshore as you never know what may turn up on the day.
The big boat box consists of about half a dozen other boxes that often come in handy, and while carrying a virtual fishing library of gear and rigs around adds to weight, there have been plenty of times that having all this gear on board saves the trip. A lot of days when “Plan A” comes together the boat box goes untouched, but more often we find ourselves fiddling around in the box when the marlin trip turns into a dud (as has been the case this year!) and we end up chasing jewies instead.
The boxes within the boat box are as follows:
Rigging gear
This holds pliers, leader, crimps, spare skirts, super glue, wire, and anything we may need to do a quick re-rig or make a new rig that isn’t in the box. I carry a wide range of leader sizes, as it’s often hard to pick what may turn up. This gear is important most trips.
Pre-made rigs
Spending time at home making up rigs saves you fishing time on the water. This box contains pre-made live bait rigs, light wire rigs for spotted mackerel, a big range of bait jigs for catching livies and ganged hook rigs. The pre-made rigs cover most of the options from deep-water live baits through to paternoster rigs and snapper and jewie rigs. They are all stored in zip-lock bags in a sealed box and this system saves a lot of time out at sea.
Casting lures and plastics
I always carry a box of metal casting lures and a few poppers. When surface fish suddenly start chopping, you may need a range of lure weights and styles to match the bait they chase, and I generally have two spin rods rigged ready to go in the boat at all times as these opportunities often happen with no warning. Even while trolling, we commonly cast to fish chopping on the top. Small tuna make fantastic livies for bigger fish and we also quite often catch everything from wahoo to tailor on cast metal lures. But if you aren’t prepared you miss out. The majority of lures in this box are Lazers and Raiders in sizes from 15 to 125gms. Regardless of what I am chasing, the boat box comes along every trip.
There is also a range of soft plastics that come out regardless of what we are fishing for. These include jerk shads, curl tails and a range of smaller minnow style soft plastics that are very useful on the troll as well. Versatility is the key. While marlin may be the target it is nice to have a few snapper lures in the boat just in case.
Deepwater jigs
Carrying a roll of big deep water jigs is a bit like filling your boat with bricks, but it is quite surprising, particularly in winter, that jigs can save the day. Sometimes when the current runs hard it is almost impossible to bait fish, but fast sinking deep water jigs are still an effective option. So even if you aren’t primarily planning a jigging trip, they are well worth bringing along. I also carry a box of spare rings, assist hooks and some Kevlar braid for re-rigging jigs.
Hooks and sinkers
The sinkers stay in the boat and we never venture offshore without them, even if chasing marlin or surface fish. Sometimes getting a bait down deep can turn a bite around and a range of ball, bean and snapper leads up to 500 grams can make a big difference. And when the trolling is dead and you see those diamond shaped schools of big pearl perch on your sounder a quick trip into the boat box can get you a tasty feed. A single tray with a wide variety of different hook patterns and jig heads that cover most options is also included. These range from number 2 to 12/0 in size.
Miscellaneous box
I have this other tackle box that tends to accumulate a bit of crap, but it’s good for storing the odd new lure, a few tools and bits and pieces from floats to tiny whiting hooks to wire paternoster rigs. While this box remains “unclassified” sometimes it carries something that comes to the fore. Last winter we had a plague of big leatherjackets that bit off every rig we had. I quite like eating these tasty fish and from the depths of the boat box I found a Japanese solid wire paternoster rig that looked clunky but was indestructible. When this was baited up we caught leatherjackets two at a time, which was handy on a relatively fish free day. Just don’t let your “miscellaneous” box grow too big.
The various boxes I carry weigh about 20kgs all up, which is a fair bit of weight, but over the years I’ve learnt that even the most carefully planned trips cannot accurately plan the fish. While a lot of boaties will always have most of their gear aboard, I find getting organised with all the bits in one big tub makes life a lot easier. A couple of times a season, on those blown out days where it is too rough to venture out, I’ll put a few hours into the boat boxes; fixing rigs, adding replacement gear and generally cleaning things up.
As well as the boat box, there are a couple of extremely versatile outfits that I always carry with me regardless of what we’re chasing. The first is a jigging outfit consisting of a Shimano TN40N Trinidad on a T Curve 400 series jig rod. This can be used for jigging heavy metals, deep water live baiting, bottom fishing and even light tackle trolling. So when the blue marlin don’t bite on the heavy gear, a jig rod and a change of plans will catch you fish. The next outfit I always carry is a rigged spin rod with a metal lure at the ready. I have a few of these outfits in various weights, but they catch tuna on metals, are good for snapper fishing, catch livies on bait jigs and are generally very versatile. I just leave a spin rod rigged in one of the rod holders on the side of the centre cabin ready to go.
So while your best laid plans may work, setting up a good boat box of gear will let you change your game plans easily out at sea, and if you store all this stuff in one
big box it is simple to store and simple to remove.
