One of the basics in offshore fishing is finding likely areas to work with “signs”of fish life. Usually a color or temperature change, a rip, upwelling, eddy, structure or known bottom feature are the first places to begin searching. Once you’ve found this “area”, the next link is to establish if and what type of bait is it holding.
I have fished on and watched boats troll for hours around bait yet never have a strike. For instance, trolling big lures around an active school of skipjacks is rarely productive, yet catch a skipjack or two, rig them and troll around, most likely you’ll get some sort of bite, especially if you live bait them. However, live baiting may not be permissible or the best possible option. Trolling covers more ground than live baiting and to establish that your target species is in the area may require you to cover ground around the school.
Before we can troll with our rigged or live bait, we have to catch the bait, assuming we have plenty of the near shore caught baits aboard – ballyhoo, mullet and mackerel, when the opportunity to “match the hatch” presents itself, being ready to catch bait can make your day. Aboard my boats and in my travel kit we keep several different types of bait catching gear ready at all times, and the beauty of this is that these bait rigs will work anywhere we fish. Basically we’re looking to catch bait in three ways, jigging for it, trolling for it and throwing a cast net on it.
Catching threadfin herring, cigar minnows, blue runners and other schooled baitfish we jig using the pre-made R and R Tackle Sabiki rigs. Typically, the most critical thing with rigs is the hook size and working the rig through the school. We prefer the eel skins and pink shrimp skins in a #6 or #8, however we sometimes need to go smaller to get the bites. We had special rods made that are 9’ and rather stout at the tip so we can stack one rig under another. This gives us the ability to cover more of the water column and also catch more fish per drop, making the time invested in catching bait minimal. We use casting reels on the bait rods to cast to the schools when necessary. A good three or four ounces of lead, sometimes more helps to get the rig down quickly into the bait zone. These rigs are also great explorers, when you mark something on your machine, drop a rig into it and see what comes up, chances are, that is what is being eaten by your targeted species.
Obviously for billfish, members of the mackerel and tuna families are at the top of the list. Little Tunny (aka. Bonito or False Albacore) Skipjack, Atlantic Bonito and Spanish Mackerel are all baits a Blue Marlin can hardly resist when offered up, even the little Sailfish will eat a small bonito. Many days on the Sailfish grounds the bonito will harangue you mercilessly and appear to be in plague proportions, so you never want to see one again burning up dozens of beautifully rigged ballyhoo and rigs in minutes. Yet, they are an excellent bait in their own right and any mate or captain with an inkling of ambition and skill to rig them will be prepared to fish them for other species when properly sized and when appropriate.
Though it is vastly overlooked by many offshore fisherman today, for years one of the most versatile and productive lures for catching any member the mackerel or tuna family has been a jap feather. Learning from my father, it is an absolute “must have” for so many situations from Bluefish to Blue Marlin. Two single feathers trolled from outriggers with two cedar plugs pinned to the transom and up close in the wash is still the best technique for catching school “football” Bluefin Tuna.
Ernest Hemingway wrote extensively about his use of a feather in front of a bonito strip as his favorite White Marlin bait, he caught the bonitos on a plain white feather. We know now that the hook up ratio is not good for that strip rig, but it’s still a consistent fish raiser and excellent teaser when trolled in larger sizes.
We carry every size feather that No-Alibi makes so we can tune our feather size with the bait at hand. All white is the color of choice with red/white and green/yellow in the mix as well. For the small bonitos we’ll use the 1/8 and ¼ ounce and work up accordingly, but never getting much larger than 1 ounce, remember, these are small baitfish and they eat even smaller baitfish. We rig the feathers for Bonito and Skipjack on mono with an appropriately sized j-hook to balance the feather and for the mackerels we rig the feathers on light wire, from #4 up to # 6 at the most.
We also use a multi-hook rig made by Boone Tackle called a Spanish Bird that comes rigged and ready with three tiny octopus skirts with hooks rigged behind a small Boone Bird. This rig is very effective on the small schoolies. We can usually catch the bait while still trolling for our targeted species, in this case, we will fish the rigs up close inside our baits on flat lines or short rigger positions. If wanting to put some up for future use, we will make a concentrated effort and fish the rigs a bit farther back with our trolling gear in the boat. Changing speeds and staying in front of the school while experimenting with how close or far the rigs are behind the boat is key to catching bait this way. The bite may not last long either, so preparedness and efficiency are a must to catch a quantity for future use.
Lastly, we carry two 10’ Calusa cast nets on the boat. We use the smaller nets for several reasons, they are easy to store in their buckets and an inexperienced crew member can throw them easier than a 12 footer. We carry two different mesh sizes for the different types of bait we may throw on. The small ¼ inch mesh for smaller baits like pilchards or minnows and large 2 ¼ inch mesh for mullet, threadfin herring or menhaden. Typically we will throw the net on a school after chumming them up to the surface, while chumming we are also jigging for them with Sabikis or plain gold hook rigs waiting for the school to get concentrated and come to the surface for us to throw on them.
Taking advantage of your opportunity bait situations not only increases your chances of catching your targeted species, but it creates activity and entertainment in the cockpit, breaking up a slow spell or adding to the excitement of a great fishing day. Everyone is involved and the ability to catch bait keeps the crew awake and focused. Fresh bait is always good bait, frozen bait is good bait when put up and rigged properly, but the best bait is the one that gets eaten.
Capt. Karl Anderson 