SPORTFISHINGMAG.COM 69“It slows you down to that perfect 2½-knot drift.”
When he’s fishing specific bottom structures
for striped bass, Leonard positions his boat with
extra leeway. “Start your drift upwind of the
structure you’re fishing,” Leonard says. “Watch
the GPS and know where you want to be, and
maneuver the boat to stay along that line. On your
next drift, you’ll know whether you need to start
longer or shorter, or this way or that, so your bait
is on the bottom as you go past your spot.”
Off Montauk, striped bass often congregate on
rips formed where strong current crosses steep
ledges. “Seas could be 3 to 4 [feet] off the rip but
6 to 8 right on the rip,” Leonard warns. “If the rip
goes from 45 feet to 20 feet, when it’s rough, stay
toward the edges of the structure, where it maybe
only goes from 45 feet to 30 feet.”
Leonard also uses engines to slow and
position the boat as he approaches a rip. “As
you get into the rip, be ready to go into forward
and drive through it, but let out line at the same
time, so as soon as you’re through the rip you can
slow the boat and [have the baits] in the right
position,” he says.
KITE-FISHING
Whether it’s for Miami sailfish or Cape Cod
stripers and tuna, Capt. Brett Wilson, who
runs Cape Cod’s Hindsight Sport Fishing and
winters at the helm for Miss Britt charters in
Coconut Grove, often flies kites, even as winds
top 30 knots. “Heavy-wind kites are smaller, so
they have less drag. That makes them easier to
get in and out, but when the wind drops out you
have to be ready to switch back to lighter-wind
kites,” he warns.
Kite lines change too. Wilson uses 80- or
60-pound braid to reduce weight and drag in
moderate wind, but increases to 100-pound
monofilament for heavy weather. Monofilament
is more resilient than braid, and it won’t cut skin
the way thin braid can.
“I prefer to nose-bridle my baits so I can move
around, but in heavy wind I’m more inclined to
shoulder-bridle [ahead of the dorsal fin] to help
keep baits in the water,” Wilson explains.
“If a kite hits the water, you don’t want to be
in a race to get it. Focus on bait presentation on
that other kite.” A small balloon tied where spars
cross keeps crashed kites afloat. Back the kite-
reel drag way off to keep from folding the kite in
the water, and let the wind ease you back to it.
The opposite — no wind — makes kite-fishing
particularly tricky. Helium balloons keep kites
aloft, but they require either a hint of breeze orSLICK TRICKS
When seas slacken and lie flat, “you want a lure with more action on the surface,” says
Bermuda captain Allen DeSilva. He prefers a light lure, such as those from Fathom,
instead of a heavier Black Bart lure he’d troll in normal to rough conditions.
“When it’s calm, marlin are more likely to check out a lure, then move to another, or
maybe give one a little tap,” he says.
When marlin won’t eat, DeSilva entices bites by turning the boat left and right so lures
cross the wake. “If you get a bite and not a hookup, wind the lure in fast until it pops on
the surface,” he says. If that doesn’t work, free-spool so the lure sinks back 20 feet and
quickly wind it in again.
When it is really calm, it’s hard to get tuna to bite, says DeSilva. He uses fluorocarbon
leaders and nearly double the trolling distance — at least 100 yards aft. Try different lures
and trolling lengths too.
“Here in Brazil, tuna are more common during calm seas,” says Tuba Amaral.
“I reduce lure size and increase speed.” For flat-sea marlin, increase speed or use a more
aggressive lure with a greater face angle to achieve more attractive action.
When it’s particularly calm, tournament and private captain Ronnie Fields switches to
small spreader-bar teasers instead of squid chains for both billfish and tuna, rigged with
three 6-inch squids on each side and six down the middle, plus a chasing mackerel.
“I’ll skip one bait when it’s calm,” Fields adds. “That makes a little ripple, just something
to attract attention, and it’s different from the other baits.”
Most often he runs the skipping bait fairly close to the boat from the center rigger, to
keep it on top, with little or no lead. “We’ll crank it away if a white comes up,” he says. “It
makes a good teaser, but we’ll put a hook in it for a blue marlin or wahoo.”
Louisiana captain Damon McKnight bump-trolls to keep baits away from the boat, but
he often can avoid that practice with bait selection. “Threadfin herring swim away from
the boat as fast as they can.”
New York’s Capt. Scott Leonard similarly uses spot or scup, which swim to the bottom
with little or no lead, instead of his typical bunker, which tend to stay on the surface.
“Cut a couple of inches off each fork of their tails so they can’t take off like a rocket,”
says Leonard.
“When the boat is not moving fast enough,” he adds, “reel in at a steady, slow pace, or
try 10 or 15 cranks on the reel, then put it in free-spool. Bam, you’ll get a fish on! On some
calm days, that’s half the fish we get.”When backing into big
swells, one miscalculation
can flood the cockpit — or
worse. Keep an eye on
the fish you’re chasing,
but time movements to
correspond to smaller
sets of waves, or chase
fish bow into the seas
until the very end of
the fight.