Author, writer, marine artist, charter captain, lure manufacturer, ind. consultant
BALLYHOO? SOME THOUGHTS.
I am a longtime fan of ballyhoo and other natural baits. In fact, I have been rigging and using them for over fifty years now – literally over fifty years! I’d have to guess that there are damned few fishermen reading this who have been big game fishing, let alone rigging and using ballyhoo for anywhere near as long as that. There are entire chapters on prepping, rigging and running them in most of my books, as well as an extensive amount of that information on my website at www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com. And there’s no denying that I have caught an awful lot of fish on them over those years, both here in U.S. waters and around the world. I guess you could say, “Ballyhoo...they’ve been very good for me”, ala Laugh In T.V. of many years ago. So it should be clear to any who read the following and think that I am some kind of ballyhoo and other natural bait hater that I am not and instead am, or at least was, a long term fan.
But years ago I started wondering...after all of those years of fishing real baits and yes, catching fish on them, but putting up with all of the hassle, time, mess and what amounts to the outrageous cost per bait of using them and not even averaging a game fish apiece on them and winding up feeding far too many of them to birds or chopping them up for what amounts to mighty expensive chunks, was it time to consider a far easier to use, tremendously less expensive alternative? For me, yes, in fact, it was, and I made a big change more than a few years ago. I have never looked back since.
And you know what? I honestly believe that not only did I save what amounted to a helluva lot of money, time and hassle, I caught just as many fish on the fakes as I did the naturals. I believe that I actually caught more due to the simple expedient of having baits in the water for far longer periods of time than with the real ones because the hollow squids I replaced the ballies with were so much tougher and longer lasting. Unlike the ballyhoos, they simply didn’t need to be monitored and replaced during a day of fishing, except to clear weeds or change colors.
I proved the effectiveness of the ProSquids I substituted for the real baits to myself down in Mexico, where I fished nearly every day and was able to do such things as run the artificials on one side of the pattern and real ones on the other for many weeks in order to make a realistic comparison of the results of one versus the other. Short and sweet, the artificials won, and furthermore, they won hands down. It seems that when trolled for primarily sight feeding game fish, any scent or flavor factors – the only real difference that I can see between the two baits - seem to go right out the window (or the wake, in this case) and both the naturals and the “un-naturals” get bit for the same reason – the fish see them as fleeing or injured ballyhoo or other slender bait species.
Not only did our bait costs dramatically plummet when we made the switch to the ProSquids that we replaced the ballies with, we eliminated what in comparison amounts to the many hassles and wasted time involved in working with those pretty, real baits. And of course, we never had to chuck any of them or feed them to the birds, like we did too many times with the real deal. Man, as the guy paying for them, all that I could see at those times was handfuls of money going over the side when we had to do that. When you’re the one shelling out the bucks that was a painful sight to see at the time and is an even more painful one to have to view in these difficult economic times! I vastly prefer simply rinsing off those squids and putting them away for the next time to tossing money into the water and I suspect that some of you might too.
I prefer natural bait, espesially for smaller billfish(Under 100 pounds). As you have, i have used both extensively, but have had much better sucess for almost all species... espesially white marlin, sailfish, and bigger bluefin... all down the east coast(NC,OC,FL) the gulf of mexico (Isla/Cancun) and Costa Rica...
Also, where we are the run is usually 50 plus miles... so the extra $50-75 bucks in bait is not a decision maker either way when your blowing 400-800 bucks in fuel...
I am sorry Fred but no one is going to convince me that a plastic squid is more effective than a natural bait.
For me it is the lazy mans way of fishing, OK if you are in a Mahi massacre but the natural bait will still sort out the bigger fish.
Why won’t they catch the same fish that natural baits will(To keep this in context I believe he is speaking about the squids being trolled in conjunction with squid spreader bars as opposed to single lure spreads)? Imagine if what he is saying is true. I’ve read some of his books and his “theories” make good sense. I think it is worth the effort to find out because what if they will catch the same? Can you imagine how much time and money you would save not having to deal with natural bait?
I fished outta Belmar and Point Pleasant from the early 80's to the late 90's we traveled an average of 80 miles to fish the Hudson It was a rare day to put out Ballyhoo. We caught double digit yft lft and a few bigeyes mixed in. We did chunk a lot of fish in those days but all our trolled fish were on feathers jets bars greenmachines ect. The tuna averaged 20-30 lbs larger then where I fish now Va Beach. It's certainly not lazy to run plastics and if its more effectve they why not do it. I've noticed when we do run plastics off Va the hook up ratio is higher and over the past few years we have caught our share of wahoo marlin blue and white's on plastics. Try different things you may be surprised Capt Fred thanks for your insight
Author, writer, marine artist, charter captain, lure manufacturer, ind. consultant
If you read what I wrote it should be clear that I am not knocking ballyhoo or saying that they don't work...they do and I have caught, bought, rigged and used them for at least as long, and possibly a lot longer than any who appear to be getting their feathers ruffled by what I have learned - something that I did not intend to do.
I am not giving a mere opinion based on what I think here. After all, opinions are well, you know what they say about them. I learned what I learned by actually comparing ballyhoo and the specific hollow squids that I mentioned and showed for long periods of time in a place where it was not and is not unusual to get a dozen or more billfish shots a day alone, many of them the smallish striped marlin, the whites' kissin' cousins, with lots of other pelagics mixed in.
I did that for long periods of time while keeping precise records of the results. No, I did not prove to myself that ballyhoo didn't catch fish, I just proved to me that the ProSquids caught as many, and according to my records, even more fish than the naturals at far lesser cost and with far less rigging, storing, and running hassles for me and my crew. Those things were very clear. And important for our charter business.
The comment made about me running bars with my baits was an accurate one. I did not run real ballyhoo on bars because dropping one back while still attached to a bar was an unnatural presentation. But I am a devout multiple lure person and the vast majority of my ballyhoo did have little birds in front of them. I did the same thing with the squids. And the results were the results. And it was the same with pitch baits when bait and switching, which we did a lot of.
As far as the art and joy of rigging and fishing with natural baits, I certainly don't disagree with those who love and admire that sort of thing. That is a matter of personal taste and that's fine with me. But my tests were pragmatic and had only one major goal - to find out through extensive side-by-side, fair and unbiased comparisons if I could reduce my operating costs and cut out some of the hassle and work that myself and my crew had to do using artificial, tough ballies versus real ones and catch the same number or even more fish.
The nitty gritty of what and how many fish we caught for our clients was the bottom line of many business factors, including how we stacked up against our competition and how many steady, repeat customers - the heart and soul of any successful charter operation - we could acquire based on what we caught - not how we did it. So naturally, we chose to follow the path that provided us the best way to do that...and I didn't care which way proved out to be the best, just that it be the best. I wasn't selling or publicizing what we used back then for what should be obvious reasons.
The only thing that counted as far as I was concerned was what was the best avenue to take...and we learned what it was and we took it. I am merely trying to pass that lesson on to those who don't have the opportunity or inclination to do the sort of testing that we were blessed with the opportunity of doing down in a great "lab" with a whacko, serious experimenter in charge. Buy into it if you like and don't if you don't like.
But I will tell you this. If you haven't done the sort of extensive testing that we did, kindly do not claim that you have and debunk what I am trying to pass on to those who actually have to pay for the bait and who do or don't make long, expensive canyon runs and who operate under the kinds of budget restraints that these results might help to a significant extent. They are the ones who I am aiming this at in an effort to help them catch plenty of fish and lower the costs that have become more problematic for all of us in this lousy economy.
Good intentioned discussions are more than fine with me, but I have a real problem with anyone who claims to have done something that they have not. I will leave that point as I have just made it, but I am more than ready to discuss exactly what someone else has done with the same lures and baits measured against one another with the results painstakingly recorded and analyzed.
And finally, I repeat; if you are a devout fan of the art and science of fishing with natural baits, more power to you and I certainly respect your disdain for artificial lures and your love for those wonderful ballies. As stated, me, I'm a results oriented fellow and more than that, I am not a fan of one way of fishing or another. I have always gone with what has worked best for me and I have also always kept an open mind, a thirst for new and better ways of fishing and have always been willing to actually use and compare them on a fair and even basis with my old ways. "Different strokes for different folks" says it all, I think.
I worked with captain linsday fuller on the june bug a while back and he used all gummy hoos.. He said he did a research trip or several a while back and i know as far as tuna, mahi, wahoo i have not found a different. I dont know his success with any marlin but if he sees this he will sure as heck jump in and throw out his input which is valid input!
i caught a small bluefin last year after trolling naturals for hours and threw a gummy hoo on a small islander tracker and that caught.. could have been the place and timing but i think captain linsday has a good grasp on it with his extensive fishing days!
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