Bahamas trolling - What would you pull? Best all purpose lures?

[Lured Away]

So we are headed to the Abacos later this month on a bare boat charter. Limited on space so trying to put together a selection of inshore and offshore tackle to take. Let's hear suggestions - main targets will be Wahoo, Tuna, Mahi maybe find a marlin. Not sure what type of baits will be readily available, so based on the above let's hear some recommendations.

What is your favorite all purpose artificial?

What is your favorite skirt for a ballyhoo or other bait?

With limited space is it worth taking a teaser and what would suggest? Maybe a large Widerange could do double duty?

What would prefered leader weight be? 150-200?

Hook size? 8/0 & 9/0 sufficient?

Any other tips or suggestions?

[Hucklebuck]

Dark contrasting lures work best over there. purple/black, green/black, red/black you get the picture. Lures work and so does bait. The species your targeting (wahoo and tuna and the possible billfish) will all bite both but your best bet is to just lure fish. Wide range is a good idea as well as any other tear drop and bullet head lure in the above color combos. 150 to 200# leader is fine. Just make sure you crank those tuna up in a hurry. The sharks are smart over there and taking your motors out of gear is like ringing the dinner bell. Take or break em cause there gonna get eaten

[Current Affair]

If you don't mind spending the cash, pick up one of these packs. They are rigged and ready and they come with a lure placement diagram. I would also take a bunch of wire and wahoo lures over because this is wahoo territory this time of year. Good Luck,

Robert

Link:

http://www.blackbartlures.com/xcart/...cat=263&page=1

[aprilfool]

i spend qiute a bit of time there in the winter and next month you will be targeting wahoo, wahoo and wahoo maybe a dolphin troll fast lures on cigar weights in 150 to 400 ft you will catch a few it has been pretty good already outgoing tide works best if you have any questions pm me

[thums up]

Not sure where your fishing in the Abacos. We fish Green Turtle a lot. I would troll bait and moldcraft widerangers black and purple and blue and white or pink. If you want tuna your better off looking for the birds and doing spot chucking. Get in front of the birds get chunk rigs like up here in NJ with 3/8 oz. egg sinker. chunk with bally or any decent bait and put out yours with the hooks. It is a run and gun thing. It make take you several shots to get the trick down. Marlin I would run all baits with a single lure down the center and to flat line teasers you should be fine!

[JDLM]

Blue and White Islander.

[saltshaker30]

I second the Mold Craft Wide Range!
I have fished th Abacos since I was a boy.

Caught just about everyhting on the wide range.
Very consistant for Marlin.

[wauwinet]

Moldcraft Wide Range in Purple and Silver

Black Bart made a skirtless lure kind of like a cup faced cedar plug a few years back that is my best marlin raiser. I can't find them anywhere anymore, but I have a half dozen that I will not part with. They make a great bubble trail and have that seductive wobble that lures with a pull point in the back have. anyonwe know where I can get more? I originally got them from Melton.

A friend who catches serious numbers of billfish told me that his major criteria is the quality of construction and that the best lures to pull are Bob Schneider lures. He makes a good point about the real cost of every hour you have your baits in the water and what a false economy it is to run anything but the best lures.

Obviously, the Blue/White Ilander also needs to be here.

[Over Under]

This time of year, you are going to be finding lots of wahoo hopefully, probably some tuna and dolphin also...so first off, everthing you drag, should pretty much be rigged on wire. We prefer light stranded cable, as opposed to single strand, as it seems to hold up better. If i could only take 3 things theyd' be cedar plugs, billybaits, and yozuri plugs. largest yozuri's seem to work best on wahoo. billybaits over med. bally. keep your speed up this time of year...8-10 knots and you can catch everthing. if you have a couple of small/medium feathers, keep them handy incase the tuna are around then put them out (WFB) rigged on 130# mono (maybe even 100# mono). Put 48 ounce trolling sinkers in front of your flight lines (yozuri plugs and maybe a billybait/bally). billfish....wouldn't spend too much time worrying about them this time of year. keep a pitch bait (naked bally) to drop to dolphin or billfish if they show...but this is meat fishin season. If you want to take 1 marlin plug along, our favorite is the "Ricks Fancy" made by Blue Water Lures, which can be purchsed at Ray's Offshore in Boca. if you stick with black/purple on everything you'll be doing just fine. I'd rig that Rick's fancy with a small piece of cable underneath the skirt also...wahoo will tear it up too. I'd highly recommend picking up some cable wind-on leaders from Tournament Cable...they really cut down on the amount of tackle you will/can loose when fishing over in the Islands this time of year.

let me know if you have any other questions: trey@overunderadventures.com

[WahooKing]

Winter time = Wahoo in the Bahamas

Speed troll w/ trolling sinkers...shock cord...straight running lures...you can run all outfits off the tip...no outriggers needed.

zig-zag the ledge between 120-500'...Your hot bites will occur 1 1/2 hr. before and after the tide change.

If you follow this article to a tee, you will catch em up.

http://www.wahooking.com/articles.html