Daisy Chain

[Little Miss Magic]

How would you build a daisy chain? How big of squids would you use? How many? What color? What do you like at the end of the thing? This is for white marlin by the way.

Thanks

[Bert Rodgers]

5 9" squids I prefer pink Squidnations or the Natural Squidnations with orange floats inserted. Last squid has a snap swivel so you can attach a chaser such as an Islander/bally combo or a Moldcract Longrange Sr.

It will also raise them without the chaser(maybe just as well)

Bert

[aquaboy]

I like to run six 6" to 8" octopus or squid skirts spaced about 8" apart. Like mentioned above, make sure you run a chase bait a few feet behind your daisy chain. I like a medium ballyhoo with Ilander.... As far as building them - it's pretty simple. I just sting my octopus skirts with a small bead in the head and then use a crimp to hold it in place. With squid skirts you'll want to add a float in the head. Some like to attach a swivel after the last bait, and then attach bait/lure (with leader) to that, but I prefer to run a short line with my "chase" bait....

[BTH284]

I like 6" or 9" squids. The proven colors for where I fish out of mostly are green moldcraft or the amber red fleck moldcraft. I am also trying out the the syka fleck and clear mylar moldcrafts. These have that purple light blue glow to them when they get wet just like the crystal sea witch hair. With reds beads inside them they look great!

I space them 18" to 24" apart with a little more gap than that between the last one on the end. I use to use ten 6" squids but found that when I let the entire chain out of the back of the boat I could not keep a close enough eye on them.

I like to rig a chase bait which has a good size coast lock swivel on the end up in the last squid. The bigger coast lock is overkill as far as tackle size, but it is easier to manipulate in a hurry.

For the chase bait I like a moldcraft standard chugger in purple silver, blue white or black. Recently I have been using a standard wide range in the same colors. The widerange will shed grass easier than the chugger.The moldcraft lures are soft and when bridled to a horse or select ballyhoo will keep the fish coming back for more vs. a hard bait IMO.

I have since gone down to six squids either 6" or 9" depending on how finicky the fish are. I like to keep the teaser chain far enough out in the clean water to draw fish in but be able to pull it close enough to draw those fish in and switch them to a pitch bait.

I use 200 lb mono to build my chains. I put some sort of bead and egg weight stoppers in the head of each squid to keep them from sliding back and forth on the leader. Some folks like the floats. This will keep you from losing them if you should drop overboard. I have just had better luck with the eggs and beads. I think this setup makes a "clicking" sounds as the beads clack against the sinkers. I make my first squid in line a "dangler". This is reverse crimped in the off the main chain. When it is strung out behind the boat this bait skips in and out of the water.

[Yantjew]

Hi i was reading the thread, and see that most of you guys use a islander/ballyhoo combo as a chaser. Now my Question was what type of islander would you guys use (if any in particular)

And my second Question was about the daisy chain, i've tried to make several chains myself and after a few hauls the squids get "cut" by the mono, any advise or tips on this?

regards

[Squidnation]

I have seen many ways of rigging daisy chains and numbers of squids. Some use only a few squids while some want a rigger full. Some of the top pros that i have fished with measure the length of distance between where the first squid would touch the rigger and the chase bait would barely dangle in the water. Every boats distance is a bit different. The biggest reason for this is so you don't have to pull the chain out of the water when backing down on a fish. just reel your chain to the rigger and let it dangle. These same guys prefer to pack as many squids distanced about a squid apart to get your biggest teaser preferance.

Some prefer dangling squid and some prefer inline while some go for a combination of the two. I personally prefer a combination of 3 danglers and two inlines. Just what i prefer no real reason why. danglers or reverse droppers are made by crimping a piece of mono out the front of the crimp as opposed to the back of the crimp to create a small arch and crimping the squid to that dangling piece of string. The reason for the is greater action in the squid and adding a little jumping action in your teaser. This will emulate a big fish (chase Bait) chasing the squids into a frenzy and making them jump out of the way.

As for color its really just a matter of preference except for in certain situations. One of the top captains in the world says any color chain is fine so long as one color is pink and the other is green. I like fooling around with colors. I rarely fish with out our tuna candy color which is a clear squid with a pink/purple skirt inside of it. The other side I constantly change throughout the day. Black is really becoming a fish raiser for us since I started using it last year, Especially blue marlin. Dolphin green and rasta have also been big producers for us as well as the standard pink and even an all clear. I have quite a few tournament winning crews as customers that won't leave without an electric blue chain.

The one except to the "any color" theory is when the yellowfins are busting on the flyers. We change to a all electric blue set of chains. It is absolutely deadly. Fishing on the Matador one day at the 280 Rock of NC was a day I will never forget. One lonely wahoo was our catch for the morning. Capt Jake suggested sea bassing since the bite sucked. We reluctantly agreed and caught a few bass and tiles when we heard a couple boats calling about busting yellowfins but only one or two hooked. We quickly went back to trolling and put out an all Electric Blue teaser spread. It an hour we had a limit of fat yellowfins and two destroyed teasers.

9 inch Electric Blue Dangler Chain



Rasta



9 inch Tuna Candy Dangler Chain







9 inch natural with orange float



9 inch Killer Pink



9 inch electric blue



R& D New Duck Teaser

[WillW]

the 9 inch blue squids were hot for whites and blues this year, with an express on the end. They are from squidnation.

[XpatBubba]

Can someone please post a pic of the type of float you use inside of the squid. And why not just tie dropper loops for the dangler chains?

[canyongear]

You don't need a float..you need floating squids..take the rocket out of scientist..it's easier that way.

ZMAN squids float, or if your a traditionalist and like the floatie inserts.. use Moldcraft or Squidnation or the flea market specials from the east. They work too and well..

ZMAN's come in nice bright colors and they are pretty tough..oh and Roddy Hayes endorses them as well as Hubris ......

All kidding aside...these ZMAN Squids work and are tough and strech so they don't chip and break with the first Wahoo blitzkrieg...

seeeeeeeeee here:

[XpatBubba]

very nice