Franky,
No need to bite tongues, I'm just from the old school of innuendo and a wee bit of sarcasm. It always amazes me when a thread discusses marlin baits - people suggest what they use, someone else says they're wrong, a manufacturer then chimes in with "mine is best", someone says they're just a copier, someone else says their grandmother's best friend's sister used to make the first ever lures out of the family's wine goblets or something and then it all dissolves into farce.
Fact is, a lure is nothing more than something towed through water (think George Parker and a piece of chrome rail). Anything you tow with a hook in it will catch a marlin eventually - rather like a car with four wheels will get you there in the end. However, there are better cars out there than some, some better made, and some with radical ideas incorporated. They'll all still get you there in the end, even if one manufacturer has copied or slightly "improved' someone else's idea. But when you really want to sit up and notice is when someone makes a car which uses a different fuel and solves the emissions problem in a completely different way.
Same thing with lures. Argue all you like about whose resin is the shiniest and whose insert has the biggest eyes and whose skirts wiggle most. Fact is that I know hundreds of boats in far flung corners of the world who use completely different lures and baits from each other - but all catch fish. But those who catch
more usually have more water knowledge, better crew and meticulously maintain tackle and line.
But, if you want to think the difference might just be in a "magic" lure, then the thinking fisherman should search out the radically different lures, the ones that truly offer a completely different angle to an age-old problem (or two). Such as hook-up ratio. Imagine if you could translate your season's 21 for 45 into 36 for 45. Or 2 for 9 into 5 for 9. Would that get your interest ?
There is no way you can quantify a better lure than another really, since only the ones you run will raise fish. Rather, look more closely at those lures that raise and HOOK fish, which should theoretically mean more fish at the boat.
Look around your harbour. Pick the top boat. Is he running different lures to you ? Nope. So why is he top dog ? Think on it. Imagine if you could maybe catch twice as many fish as you do now - would you be close to Mr top dog's numbers ? Okay, so you don't have his resources or know-how, but what could you do with some lures that gave you that double edge..... hmm.
There's nothing wrong with Moldcrafts - there are hundreds of thousands out there and they catch fish. There's enough of them out there that a world record is caught on one now and again. Fred's FATBOYS are the best softherad i know.... ever run one ? You want wiggle ? The FATBOY has more wiggle than a skippie on steroids. There's nowt wrong with Illanders either. There's zilch wrong with Deep's
Masher as well (which before it was the Big T KWAGGA was actually the Tinker DINGO - both lures catching more of our 1000lb fish in Madeira than any other), but where's the edge in all of them ? How come Stewart Campbell's teaser spread in Madeira has no Moldcrafts in it ?
There's a fella fishing in central america, well known, highly regarded, wins awards every year, who's found something different enough to his Moldcraft teasers to start catching a whole lot more blue marlin than he did last year. He's found a lure with an edge - he read between the lines of the manufacturer's blurb and saw something the average big-game angler missed.
Seek and ye shall find. That's all I'm saying.
Roddy
PS: Deep, did you know I named all the original Big T heads ? The Out Of Africa theme was all my invention and the Kwagga was one of my favourites. I must admit I never knew they'd all be going strong still, 15 years later. Betcha didn't know that !!!
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Originally Posted by Roddy Hays
