You can’t beat having your own private school of baitfish following you around.

In recent seasons Editor Grant Dixon has been introduced to some relatively new techniques – for mainstream Kiwi marlin anglers anyway – that have been game changers for him…

Towing or pitching baits in conjunction with teasers has done for my game fishing what soft-baiting and slow-jigs did for my snapper trips – it has added a whole new dimension.

Nearly 20 years ago Far North-based skipper Dave Arrell introduced me to the traditional way to fish baits during a Houhora One Base Contest aboard Lady Clare. We went four from four marlin on skipped kahawai dead baits, catching just one other on lures.

In more recent times a more refined bait experience came at the hands of John Batterton who was running the Bay of Islands boat Harlequin, where baits were the norm in places like the Three Kings grounds. Then came trips with Geoff Lamond on Arenui, where the bait-fishing process was refined even further and a ‘dredge’ introduced to the writer for the first time. For these serious bait-fishing exponents, lures only get a swim when travelling to and from the grounds.

About the same time I met Tony Orton, and joined him, his wife Bea and another Kiwi, Josh Worthington, fishing in Mexico. Tony was running a 25-metre Viking Sportfisher which had all the bells and whistles, including purpose-built dredge reels. Think XOS electric reels attached to a ‘rod’ of around a metre in length deploying a 15kg torpedo weight with a dredge attached.

Tony and his crew of Josh and Javier Sanchez made the most of this system. Two teasers were run off the ‘riggers, controlled from hand reels set into the tuna tower and staggered to run long and short – pretty much how you would set a conventional spread.

The real ‘killers’ were the two dredges, also staggered approximately where the short- and long-corner lures are typically run. From up in the tower, these dredges look like small schools of baitfish weaving along in tight formation.

I have seen two types of dredges: the first sees one or two ‘decks’ of artificial or natural baits tied onto the arms; the second has strips of clear, thin plastic with fish shapes printed or fixed to them.

The Americans take their dredge fishing seriously. Sometimes 50 or 60 ballyhoo (a thickset piper-shaped baitfish) are chin weighted and attached to the dredge. In a tournament scenario, especially for sailfish, one or two crewmen will do nothing but rig dredges and baits all day – and halfway into the night as well I suspect.

The effect is worth it, though: billfish cannot resist them and Tony tells stories of marlin and multiple sailfish attacking and destroying their handiwork, such is the ferocity of the feeding frenzy.

On a recent trip to Cabo san Lucas to fish with Tony and Javier, along with four other Kiwi anglers, the effectiveness of fishing baits to teasers and above dredges was reinforced.

We were on Tony’s former boss’ 12.8m Viking Forby, a boat set up specifically with light-tackle fishing in mind. All the fishing was done using stand-up gear and techniques. The weapons of choice for this trip were Shimano Talica 20 BFC LD reels on 15kg Black Fin rods, the spools top-shotted with 15kg mono over a Power Pro Hollow Ace braid backing. (See the July 2014 issue for Tony’s ‘how-to’ on splicing hollow-core line.)

There was not a single hook in any of the G-Force lures, which were all run as teasers, so it was a whole new ball game for most of us. However, by the end of our trip (see the August 2014 edition for the report) we had released 18 billfish – 17 striped marlin and one sailfish – and came away much more confident in tease-and-switch techniques.

The beauty of fishing baits is that it involves the whole crew, with the angler in particular having to be on the ball. If it was your turn in the (imaginary!) chair you had to be ready, poised like a coiled spring, when the skipper or crew called a fish in the gear.

There were three ways of fishing baits. The first involved a rigged ballyhoo skipped along the surface a metre or so behind the dredge. This bite was always spectacular, as it was close to the transom. The reel was left with just enough drag to hold the bait in place, and when grabbed, the angler’s job was to free-spool back, giving the fish time to eat the bait, before the drag’s resistance was slowly increased so the circle hook rolled into the corner of the marlin’s mouth. Game on!

A second method was used when a fish came up on a teaser lure, which would be wound in and a bait dropped back – either a rigged ballyhoo or a small goggle-eye live bait (think jack mackerel with XOS eyeballs). Then, with the rod tip held high, the bait was tantalisingly skipped in front of the fish, and upon being bit, the rod was flat-lined and the line free-spooled back, before the angler slowly increased the drag to roll the circle hook into the corner of the jaw.

Quite often a fish would drop the offering, so the angler would once again hold the rod up high to get the bait skipping again, and more often than not the fish would come in for a second shot.

The third method was to use a spinning reel and a pitch-bait rod to cast a live bait in front of a tailing marlin (in the calm Cabo waters we saw plenty of them). The locals love this method of fishing; upon sighting a fish, the angler is rushed to the bow to effect a cast in the general direction of the ‘tailer,’ which more often than not responds appropriately.

These three methods were often combined. For example, on hooking up in the spread and chasing down a fish backwards, the boats would often have another angler running a live bait from the bow to seek out any other fish loitering in the vicinity.

Better still, as an added advantage in this day of high fuel prices, we only needed to troll at 6-7 knots, which is far more economical than the eight or nine knots needed when pulling plastic.

Few boats are set up for dredge fishing in New Zealand, but it is not hard to do. Bonze Lures offers a dredge system suitable for trailer boats and launches, and they are also available via the internet. Dredges can be deployed off a teaser pole and reel or simply from a line tied off to a stern cleat. (To appreciate the extent of dredge products and accessories, check out
www.tournamentcable.com.)

There is nothing hard about running teaser lures and then pitching a skip-bait or livie to a fish, although you may have to get your head around pulling ‘unarmed’ plastic first!

The most important aspects to dredging involve having a crew that knows what they’re doing and are on the ball. This means paying constant attention to the teaser spread and quickly reacting to any fish raised.

The scenario we enjoyed in Cabo saw plenty of fish raised, with our best day seeing us go six marlin from eight bites. However, just when we thought we’d nailed it, the following day resulted in no fish landed from five bites. Fortunately, this was no big deal, as there was always another fish just around the corner to ‘practice’ on. The trick in our own waters will be to trust ourselves and the crew not to stuff up that one bite of the day!