Robin's Reports

4/25/06 Trolling 101 - Lures & Bait

Troll? No, not those funny little people hiding under bridges but something you do with a boat at low speeds with ballyhoo dressed in skirts behind your boat. I promise, it is not a foreign language. Let me add some pictures to help. To the left is a ballyhoo bait fish with a hook in the bottom. The line coming off of it is held in the forward position by wrapping a copper wire around the bill. This and the flying fish are natural prey for most pelagics (sails, swords, wahoo, kings, mahi and cobia). No, they are not alive when all this 'rigging' is done to them. And tonight, I had to brine the pre-pkg'd rigged ballyhoo that we bought this afternoon. The kids and I made a heavily saturated salt solution with a little bit of baking soda to boot. Then, we added these 'hoos to it and then placed in the frig over night. The frig part was NOT my idea. I will have to air it out tomorrow. Ick!!

Here are skirts.

No, I'm sorry, there is no mini's or micro-mini's. There aren't even legs involved. These are placed over the nose of a ballyhoo to attract attention. Color depends on the weather, the preference of the fish that particular day. Some fishermen will put out different colors and see what is attracting fish, then put more of that on later.




This creature is another lure. Lures can have different heads on them. Some vary in shape or in weight. Some include a large plastic lip in order for them to swim lower in the water column. I like the pretend eyes and flashy colors. I don't know why more young girls aren't interested in offshore fishing. Look at this purple! Some lures have bubblers or noise makers (like propellers) to attract fish by sound. If they hear something, the are curious enough to check it out. Then, they're hooked with color and taste of ballyhoo right behind this. The reason why you put bally's behind this is to mimic the look that the bally is chasing something else.

Anyhow, I think we're prepared and while we'll get a late start with the Captain coming in after his morning meeting, we should be able to have a nice picnic lunch over cobalt blue water, catch a nice tan, hopefully catch a nice fish and then come home in time to put Jack to sleep early. My older son is looking forward to catching his first dolphin as much as I am. Oh, it is not dolphin, the porpoise. It is the fish dolphin, AKA mahi mahi or dorado. See pic.