Guys, what's your favourite trolling speed for Striped Marlin?

cheers - dustin

7.5 to 8 knots

Don't really have a "favourite" speed but however many knots are requied to get the lures working properly.....anywhere between 6-9knts depending on spread and condidtions.

I like to go at around or slightly over 8 knots, as I have kinda convinced myself that makos stop biting anything over the 8 knot mark (well, from my experience anyhow)

With makos getting a little thinner on the ground now (longliners) I may drop it back a little especially for trolling from my little boat.

cheers,

Stu.

maybe each boat, with it's individual noise, has an optimum speed

engine revs multiplied with exhaust noise divided by hull harmonics over the square root of the sine wave multiplied by the angle of defraction of the sea against the chine strakes (if you have them) then subtract the weight of the salt ice in the chillybins at the back of the cockpit from the altered angle of the hull because of such weight and as long as no one moves around all day I think we can establish that the optimum speed must be more or less around about pretty close to, if not exactly........................ummmmmm..........................oh bugger, let me work that out again... 

dustin....... one i have more concern about is what direction do you head in when you have say a 2mt swell running.......

do you head straight at it my thoughts from what ive learnt are never....... always angle across as Marlin tend to surf the waves.......

also never go directly with it ether as its hard to keep the lures in the water evertime you get picked up by the swell which in turns moves the boat along faster.....

what are your thoughts on this?????

Bender, I fish in Aussie and 2 metres swells is a good day, your gettig soft or those brownie points must be worth having if they are better than a screaming line.

We usually have the east Australian current running at 4 to 5 knots and working this is more important than the swell direction, we get more strikes running down and across current than running into it. As far as swells are concerned I will try try to run at any angle but not nose into it, however down current and the swell up the bum can be very exhilarating and you can cover a lot territory.

As far as speed is concerned it is at whatever speed you can get the lures working how you want them, given the prevailing conditions, we run the short and long corner very close to the boat, even using a roller troller from the base of these rods limits your speed somewhat, usually around 6 to 8 knots, particularly if you also like to run the short rigger quite close as we usually do as that is our strike zone. However I also have some lures that I bought in Hawaii that are designed to be run further back and can take speeds up 13knots, this is a fun thing to try as it should increase your changes of taking a yellow fin ( unfortunately almost extinct in Aussie thanks to the longliners), a bit like having a bob each way.  Peterw

Bender........ a swell and a chop mate are two different things a swell can be 50mts apart and when trolling you still should not head into it or directly down with it as you are limiting the marlins chances of seeing your lures when its traveling with the swell..... plus its harder to to keep those lures popping when climbing or surfing as the boat speeds up and slows down all the time.........

 peterw.... ive not seen a lot off current here around our coast..... well that is untill you get up to the Kings then ive seen it where the lure wont even work at all when traveling with it more so on the middlesex or around the king bank........

have you any advise on what to do on a calm sea peterw????

Peterw - you have caught me out. I'm soft, no doubt about it.

Lethal, if working into a sea I would make tacks into the sea rather than take it straight off the bow, the lures work better that way and you can potentially show the lures to more fish as they come down sea.  If working down sea it's possible to go straight down sea but unless you're chasing a fish or birds etc., I prefer to again make quite long tacks down sea as it covers more water and the lures can be made to work beautifully as they go down the waves at a quartering angle rather than straight down.  I definitely think I've had more success getting bites heading down sea rather than into the sea and the improved action of the lures probably explains it.  As for current, once you find out the direction and strength of current, it's better to work with a current rather than against it. 

cheers - dustin

Lethal. not sure I remember what a calm day is like, best we will get is a one metre sea on a one metre swell. Our boat is 40' so we can fish most conditions.

What we really focus on, irrespective of the conditions, is to try and get the lures tracking down the face of the stern wave we choose, for me that is usually the second wave on the short corner and the third wave on the long corner, I run a single teaser "skipping squid" under and just short of the long corner and level with the short corner. The short rigger is set as close as we can get it to run right, the long rigger and shotgun I am not so fussy about how far back they are I just try and get them running sweet.

Even though the marlin have been generally hitting small lures 7 to 10 " I have experimented with running a very big and aggressive action lure on the long corner and this seems to have worked well. This lure itself has not been hit but the short corner and short rigger have been getting killed. Peterw   

Kerren. not massive, 13 to 15", something that pushes the water and moves around heaps. I fish NSW so most of the marlin are small stripes and blacks, average size is less than NZ where particularly the stripes are bigger. Now if I was fishing Cairns for mega blacks then a big lure would be over 13 to 15".

Interesting though that when I recently ordered some new Boss lures from the Melbourne maker he sent me a free sample of what he called his "favourite Cairns Big Black lure" which was a green number and only 13". Which I found quite interesting as I expected it to be bigger given the mega Blacks they are targeting. Given I reckon the average size lure used over here recently in the NSW interclub event was probably no more than 10" I wonder if there is a trend starting towards smaller lures? Peterw   

You can have a lure that is not so long in length but because of design and diameter still be very aggressive.  For ex. something like a sharply cut tube bait will look out of all proportion to its actual size when run correctly.  Unfortunately tubes and most other slant face lures with sharp faces need quite calm conditions to fish properly.

Big fish don't just eat big baits.. That's proven time and again in Hawaii where so many blues every year are caught on little things like 6 1/2", 7 3/4" and 9 1/2" jets and bullets and other small lures pulled for tuna and mahi.  Even in Madeira where a big lure is traditionally favoured for the big Atlantic blues, a smaller 10" size lure is always worth pulling around on the stinger bait.  The first blue I saw at Madeira, a 498#, came on a blue headed Ilander Black Hole; in early July 2001 a good friend of mine broke line on an 800+ fish on 80# that ate a Ron Akana Big Reidee (a slender headed plunger with 9 1/2" size skirts); I myself had 3 good fish, 750#, 800# and 875+ raised or hooked up on 10" lures, two were on an Evil coloured medium plunger with 9 1/2" skirts and one on a purple-gold Big T chugger lure.  Unfortunately the blues there can be so goddamn big it can be hard to get a small lure to swim with the heavy leader and big hooks you need to use.  But, if you pull it, they will come.  I guess once a big fish is attracted behind the boat, no lure is safe, even a small one.  That's why if you're targeting marlin, even if you put out a small lure like a jet head to pick up a tuna or mahi or what have you for dinner, put it out on a heavy enough leader and big enough hook to handle a marlin.  I guess in New Zealand I wouldn't want to go below about 250# leader and around an 8/0 or 9/0 hook. 

As for trolling smaller lures, maybe even a whole set of smaller lures, that can be a good idea if you're seeing a lot of small bait.  Marlin can be like tunas, if they're feeding on little 10" mackerels it can be hard to get them on a honking big 14" lure.  Besides, even quite a small lure running properly looks quite big in the water, with the splash, the smoke trail and all.   And the smaller the lure the better the hookups, by and large.  The fish finds it easier to swallow in one gulp and there's less risk of a bill wrap with the smaller hook(s).  If you're worried about not raising enough fish, put out one, or maybe two big aggressive teasers or hookless lures, and that'll do it. 

cheers - dustin

I thought running it on a 33 footer, it might have worked on the corner. May be if it were a bit rougher it would have. Still the boat was only 33', so not what you would call large.

Nope, it's real hard to run the Andromeda off a flat line unless you are running something like a straight butt 80# chair outfit and have the lure on the 2nd wave almost under the transom.  You need to have that second rigger clip on your outrigger to pin that lure up.  Obald has been doing that and I think he's had 3 strikes for 3 hookups on Andromeda this season, underestimate that lure at your peril.  The only problem, if it's a problem, is it maybe a little big for good hookups with stripes OK maybe not the 400# kind but the smaller ones.  But that's where the little brother the Merlin comes in.  It must be damn near the perfect size.  I'm thinking now if I went back to N.Z., with the problems guys are having hooking them up, I would run that on the short corner, pinned up in the rigger.  A weighted 10" medium plunger on the long corner.  Short outrigger would be another Merlin, or maybe a Pakula Cockroach.  Long rigger would be a slender 10" plunger or something like a Roddy Hays Enki.  Stinger would be a jet or some kind of smaller 7" to 8" lure behind an 8.5" Boone tuna bird.  All smaller lures with 250# leader, maybe 300# on the corners and 9/0 to 10/0 max hooks. For teasers I'd like to run a big swimming one like a fender, bowling pin or witchdoctor and on the other side a huge aggressive lure like that one Kevin Rigby makes, that monster kona head. 

Bushy were you fishing on the Farside???

cheers - dustin

Poor Kerren. All not this time on land is making you a sour, mean spirited little man.

No hang on you were like that before.

Hiya Bushy; How did you get on?  I checked the fishing section but there wasn't a report.  Hope you got some nice ones.  Farside is a nice boat and owned by some really decent folks.  Tell Ants I have some lures cooking on my radiator with his boat's name in them.  Will be sending them over to Kerren soon. 

cheers - dustin

We tagged one (Ants on the rod) and lost another 5 or 6 that wouldnt stay connected to the hook.

Ants is real happy with the boat and new motor. Its pulling the fish up, even if we wernt staying connected

We wewre wondering if the fish had to much feed around. They never really nailed a lure. It was more like that were having a play with it. The fish we did get was very fat and in good condition.

Wow, Ants is doing good, I wish I had known it was Ants 40th, I'd have put a Happy 40th into one of those lures rather than Farside. 

If you pulled 7 bites that's pretty damn good if the fish are stuffed with food. You know guys I saw those striped marlin brought in at Tutukaka during the Nautigals and couldn't but notice how skinny they all seemed to be, and with so many sea lice, even the 300 pounder (140-something kilos).  Bill Hall says in that book of his (a cracking read) that striped marlin really put on condition the longer they stay in New Zealand waters, I would really have liked to been out there with y'all and seen those fish. 

But back to trolling speed, Bill Hall stated that one season he trolled at 10 knots and not only got more bites but less messing around when the fish hit, has anyone here (John? Adam?) ever fished a lot at this speed and did you find similar results? 

cheers - dustin

Kerren, I'm convinced and just have to have one of those Andromeda lures. Question is where do I get one? Haven't seen legend lures in Aussie.

We are fishing a comp out of Port Stephens ( NSW) over Easter and my son is coming home from NZ where he is doing a Marine Technology course at Unitech ( he's the guy that can't spell) and could bring one over with him if you can point us in the right direction. Peterw

Will gee something up for you PeterW....watch this space.

I am not sure what stocks Obald has at the moment, but regardless I will sort it out on your behalf.

What would you consider a "common" bait species or colour combo that works in your waters??