fishingworld.com.au | February 2015 | 65temperature charts you improve your working
knowledge of currents. It will soon become
clear to you how fickle the dominant current
can be as tongues of hot current move large
distances inshore and offshore in only a day.
Halcos save the day!
On my inshore trolling grounds off the Gold
Coast we catch a mix of marlin, dolphin fish,
Spanish mackerel, wahoo and tuna. The
primary target at this time of year is small black
marlin, which mean all the pretty skirted lures
are on mono traces and vulnerable to toothy
biters like wahoo. Some of our wahoo are
incredibly small – I’ve caught them well less than
four kilos. This doesn’t make them less
destructive, however. It can be very expensive
when you get a “zip” bite. This is often just a
f leeting bent rod, a couple of ratchet clicks
followed by a line limply blowing in the breeze.
It is like throwing $50 or even $100 in the
ocean, and does nothing for the karma on the
boat. I’ve found that by running a single Halco
190 Laser Pro on the long corner position I have
a very effective wahoo eradicator. This generally
keeps their fangs off the more expensive skirts.
Most times a single wahoo in the spread will eat
the Laser Pro rather than the skirts, as will a
Spanish mackerel. This has more than halved
our lure losses due to bite offs on mono traces.
Rigging the Laser Pro with two large single
Decoys on triple split rings also greatly improves
the hook up rate on marlin, and I’ve been quite
surprised how many black marlin we’ve caught on
Laser Pros since changing to singles. I’d rate these
lures as being the best blue water-trolling minnow
I’ve ever used and their durability is outstanding.Time The Change
Despite the fact that you may have 600m of water
under your hull, marlin have a distinctive bite
pattern and chew best on the hour around a tide
change. This means you should plan for exactly
where you want to be on the tide change period.
When the bites are slow there’s a tendency to go
wandering looking for greener unknown pastures
as you troll vast tracts of seemingly lifeless ocean.
If you mark a big bait school and don’t get a bite
off it, makes sure you are back on it for the hour
over the tide change as you’ll definitely have more
chance of cracking a bite pattern. Regardless of
whether you’re chasing blues, blacks or stripes,
they all love to feed on a tide change. If you look
at tournament skeds where all strikes, hook-ups
and tags are recorded, there are generally big
clusters of activity around this time. I’ve been well
off the shelf chasing blue marlin from my trailer
boat and had six boats in view and seen every boat
hook-up within half an hour on the tide change
when the preceding three hours produced just one
bite for the f leet.Fellow travellers
Dolphin fish are a true oceanic pelagic
occurring in all tropical oceans of the world.
The temperature and food requirements theyIMAGE: NATHAN BAJADA.