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Cedar plugs have proven themselves as awesome tuna
takers in recent seasons. This year has been no exception and many of the fish
featured in the prize list at the recent Whakatane One Base and Gisborne
Marlin-tuna Tournaments were caught on cedar plugs.
The latest from Sea
Striker is a cedar plug daisy chain. It's an obvious evolution, which should
prove to be at least as deadly as the 'straight' cedar plug. I tried one of the
four-inch models at the recent Gisborne marlin-tuna tournament. It proved to be
extremely effective - almost too effective, as it caught one albacore after
another. Since we were targeting yellowfin, I finally took it out of the water
in favour of a larger lure in the hope that we would avoid strikes from smaller
fish.
This particular lure is painted in 'dorado' colours, which looks
smart and certainly did the trick on the alberts. It's also available in plain,
the unpainted wood finish the cedar plug is best known for, and in a six-inch
size, which may prove a better bet for yellowfin.
The lure consists of
three hookless plugs sliding down onto crimps positioned on 130-pound
monofilament trace, with a final plug (fitted with a hook) on the end. Each plug
is about half a metre apart and the whole rig measures around three
metres.
Like all cedar plugs, the end lure is hollow and a long-shank
hook slots right up into it. Because they're hand-made, cedar plugs have a
unique, erratic action with no two lures being exactly the same. Surprisingly,
the end lure darts around far more than the other plugs on the chain. The rig
runs straight (not always the case with single cedar plugs!), the first three
plugs cancelling each other out, with the last lure ducking and diving on a
short line. The whole effect is very attractive (to fish), drawing strikes from
a variety of positions in the wake. In the end I settled on a fairly close-in
position on the third wave as being the optimum for our boat.
The daisy
chain can be trolled to lie flat in the water with minimum splash or else run
shorter with a bit of elevations so that the leading plugs push a bit of water.
Each individual plug is weighted, just like a standard cedar plug, so they
naturally run just under the surface. As the results prove, this is no
disadvantage as far as tuna lures are concerned.
This smallest model is
probably best run on 15kg tackle or lighter, but the bigger version (with a
bigger, stronger hook) should be suitable for 24kg.
Sea Striker Cedar
Plugs are available from selected tackle retailers nation-wide.
For
information or more details, contact Neil Cook, 021 432 053, email: neilcook@paradise.net.nz
