Trolling High Speed Artificials for Marlin: Drop Back to Missed Strikes???

[MikeAK]

My buddy and I are having a disagreement. Any comments are welcome...

I have seen and successfully used a 10 second drop back after a missed strike, followed by a super fast retrieve to entice a second strike from marlin. In fact I have enticed up to 6 strikes from the same fish this way, prior to hookup.

My good friend says that you should never drop back to a fish that strikes a trolled artificial and that a drop back is only used on natural baits, never artificials. After a missed strike he uses a jigging technique to entice a second strike.

I've never seen his technique before but no doubt everyone has their own ideas on a subject such as this.

Thanks for the input!!!
Tight Lines,
Captain Mikey

[gustoIV]

both will work but I think 10 seconds is too long. I personally feel any movement in the spread will entice a strike. After a tuna hook up we work a few of the other rods with a jigging motion and often get bit. Grab the line and pull it to the side a few feet over and over being careful to not allow the line to wrap around the tip of the rod. Some do this by grabbing the line between the reel and first guide and pulling it. I prefer doing it from the tip and always with the palm of your hand don't take a wrap.

[Deep C]

Dropping back pure plastic as such at least on board the boats i run or have worked on is pretty much a no no. That being said we will try all kinds of tricks to get the fish heated back up. "Jigging" and "popping" the lure is one way that works well for us.
Another one we do is sort of a drop back but far from a long one. If the fish is shagging the lure but wont commit we may drop slowly back and let her see the rest of the spread then wind her back right in tight.
Yet another is again a drop if you want to be technical about it... Here we get the rod tip up high and let her get close. Then we either drop it down her throat and right back up if her mouth is open or often we will drop it right past her eye. This I think imparts a sense of "urgency" as the bait is "getting away" and often results in an explosive strike...

[scattered_grass]

Dropping back pure plastic as such at least on board the boats i run or have worked on is pretty much a no no. That being said we will try all kinds of tricks to get the fish heated back up. "Jigging" and "popping" the lure is one way that works well for us.
Another one we do is sort of a drop back but far from a long one. If the fish is shagging the lure but wont commit we may drop slowly back and let her see the rest of the spread then wind her back right in tight.
Yet another is again a drop if you want to be technical about it... Here we get the rod tip up high and let her get close. Then we either drop it down her throat and right back up if her mouth is open or often we will drop it right past her eye. This I think imparts a sense of "urgency" as the bait is "getting away" and often results in an explosive strike...

nice response Paul

[Captain Fred Archer]

If you're talking true high speed trolling (10-18 knots or more), a ten second drop would put the lure mighty far behind the boat when it came time to try to hook the fish. Even at slower trolling speeds, ten seconds would put the lure pretty far back. At least it seems that way to me. I'm no expert on that. From back when I was a young man I did the "lift the rod, take a step back, then point the rod at the fish and step toward it with the drag engaged and hook him" thing. In later years we rarely did that, except maybe to show off a little. We stayed in gear when we raised marlin on the lures and if the fish seemed reluctant or hesitant, I usually hit the hammers and sped up, mimicing what a real baitfish does when he has a billfish on his tail. Nothing's perfect, of course, so we didn't always get the bite, but we usually did. The only standard dropping back we did was with ballyhoo and other meat.

One thing when it comes to lure fishing and dropbacks. Captain Red Bailey down in St Thomas was famous (among the relatively small number of marlin lure fishermen of the early days) for fishing his lures exactly like dead bait. When he switched from meat to artificials he dropped them back and had a very high hookup rate. The lures? Moldcraft Softheads. I fished them a lot too and found that you had to set up on a fish pretty quick on them because if you didn't, some of them would actually swallow the lure!

Bait and switch fishing, which I love and we did a lot of, will show you how determined a fish can get when he's after an artificial - even a hard one...do enough of this kind of fishing and you'll eventually get into some real tug-o-wars over a teaser.

I hesitate to write about this because it's too much for here, but we developed a kind of "double dropback" for lure fishing that, with the way we rigged the lures, resulted in tremendously high hookup and landing ratios on marlin. It was based on how marlin actually attack a lure. Like some other "different" things, I prefer to remain mum about it than fight the battle of trying to convince others to try or do it. No bitterness there. I completely understand the reluctance to change by many and I've gotten too danged old and sick to campaign for anything new anymore...said with a smile!

However you choose to go about it, I hope you hook 'em up, dance with 'em, and let 'em go!

[Pakula]

Fred can I have permission to use your quote of course with your name attatched. At times I certainly feel the same way. I guess it's a years thing

" I prefer to remain mum about it than fight the battle of trying to convince others to try or do it. No bitterness there. I completely understand the reluctance to change by many and I've gotten too danged old and sick to campaign for anything new anymore...said with a smile!

However you choose to go about it, I hope you hook 'em up, dance with 'em, and let 'em go! "

[Captain Fred Archer]

Sure enough, Peter. It's an honor to be quoted by you no matter what the subject...

...

..

. Just be sure to say it with a smile and a wink!

[bigfishhooker]

Peter P, Fred A, and Roddy H:

I have and will continue to absorb from your vast amounts of knowledge on topics like this one. If I ask a stupid question, please just tell me it is dumb. But please, please, please if the mood strikes you, please feel free to educate some of us still willing to get better. As for the rest, there are some of those you can't teach new tricks. I'll see them in my boat wake and from the leaderboard.

[Pakula]

Thanks Fred greatly appreaciated because it sums up the way I often feel, but as like you you get over it pretty quick and get back in there.

I think that many guys don't understand our phycosis (no I don't know how to spell it) and I think the following not only applies to me but to Fred as well:

- we never think we got it right enough

- if if we got 5 marlin or whatever in a fishing session and no other boat got one we still wonder how we could have got one or two more

- we appreacite comments such as bigfishhooker just made, thank you, and know that there are many like him, but rarely post. That the guys that do post are likely to dissagree for whatever reason

- we know:

- It's a good idea for a business to give consumers what they want.


- It's a good idea to tell the consumers that whatever they want is right and fantastic.


However, I'm / we're not very good at that.

- that Fred and I will be around as long as we're able mainly because we enjoy the whole thing and if we find anything new that's better than what we did before so excitingt we just have to spill the beans and share it.

There's no question that guys with experience will differ, but will always respect the others opinions and put it in the bank.