A MILLION DOLLAR FISHING TIP, FOR FREE!

[gradywhite273]

how you going to do that admin, between running this first class site, going to miami with box,couple of side trips here and there, and bam it spring. maybe daisy can come and help out.

tim

[POON MAN]

we used a store bought one last season,

not sure who made it

and it FO-SHO raised some fish

[shoefish]

Captain Fred, thanks for the early christmas present. I can't wait to get to work on one of these bad boys. I do have a question, and I'm sorry if I missed it in your write-up. How far back do you run this in the spread? I know you said below the spreader bar, but how far is that on your boat? Also, do you change that up or find that bringing it in closer or letting it out further attracts different species?
Thanks again for the tip,
Shoe

[Squidnation]

We use to use one of those things in the early 90's worked like a charm. Don't know exactly why we stopped. But we never painted it. The guy that taught us told us to paint it but we didn't have the paint so we just went out and trolled it white. Had a pod of yellowfins crush it. Decided to not paint it after that.

[JD5652]

I have a set of four that I troll off of stern cleats installed last season........oh yea!....they work like a charm...

[Captain Rich Adler]

Captain Fred- 2 questions--how about those cigar shaped trolling sinkers we use for wahoo trolling instead of the egg sinkers, and how far back are you dragging the toad, inshore and offshore?? Thanks ---Capt. Rich

[Captain Fred Archer]

Glad to see that some of you put together and fished Toads (and at least one of you fished one about 15 years ago - hmmm, how old were you back then Anthony?) and they did their thing for you. Since the only thing that I have to gain from whether you use them or not is the satisfaction that I get when I read that some have used them and realized what powerful fish attractors and exciters they are, your comments are music to me ears. There are some out there who cannot imagine things like that making another person happy (just words?) and see ulterior motives behind everything that anyone does, but that's the way it goes and that kind of person means absolutely nothing to me. In other words, a couple you of just made this old barnacle's day...thanks!

One of the good things about Toads is that you can get as fancy or as simple as you want with them. In the New Secrets of Modern Trolling book I comment, and may have done so here too, that you can rig up an old, gnarly, dog poop colored fender out of the bottom of your dock box or out of the marina trash (a real future Toad hotspot), rig it up and it will get stomped silly by every kind of game fish that see's it. Or, you can do what some here did and make real pieces of art out of your Toads. They, too will get chawed, but I sure hate to see some or those beauties get worked over by wahoos, makos, big, toothy dorados and marlin. So, do what you like with your own personal Toads, come up with whatever designs and color schemes you like, or drag them behind your truck on the way down to the marina, then rig them.

As far as the weights at the front of Toads, the way that we do it with the big egg sinkers seems to be the best. Rigged right, they run right under the "lip" of the Toad, which helps create that great wiggle. I don't know how you would bring that off with cigars. And I do not run them in front of my wahoo lures for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that they get bit, instead of the lure, way too many times for my taste. I like catching wahoo so much that I can't stand the thought of getting bit and knocking a wahoo's teeth down his throat with zero chance of catching him. No thanks!

When it comes to where to run your Toad/Toads, it is important to remember that its purpose is different than with most other teasers. While most others are meant to be a large prey target, Toads are meant to represent a small game fish attacking your lure spread. When schools of gamefish feel, hear and see this frantic smaller predator "feeding" on your spread, many cannot help themselves; their natural, competitive, aggressive instincts trigger and they try to beat the Toad to the food. And the poor Toad never wins, but you sure do!

I am probably one of the biggest (and longest term) "BarHeads" around. I consider six bars out and a couple of ballyhoo on the long riggers "a mixed spread". It is one of my Cabo or anywhere else favorites. Those six bars are all exactly the same color and size because I believe in "monochromatic spreads" - ones with bars or lures, whichever I am fishing at the time, being the same size and color. The object is to troll spreads that represent what actually happens in nature and what the fish are used to seeing - all the same size and color baitfish in a school. One of the real benefits of monochromatic spreads is that they do what you'd think they would do - cause more multiple hookups. The reason is obvious, so I won't beat that horse.

Considering the Toad's purpose, it should be run down the middle and in and under the meat of the action. In my case, that is between the first two short bars (both on the same wave) and the next two, which are one wave back and also on the same wave. This way schools of fish that come up on the Toad have four bars in close proximity to attack, with two more one more only one more wave back. If you are watching when a school of tuna comes in on the Toad and explodes all over those bars in what seems to be unison, it will blow your mind!

I don't find that fishing the Toad further back or closer to the boat affects what kind of fish we catch, except that if you run it in the more normal short corner marlin teaser position you won't raise as many school fish, but really big blacks and blues go nuts trying to kill it.

And you silly people who want to try that worthless shark trolling thing, learn how to booby trap your Toads and run an octopus or squid skirt behind it with a nice, long, narrow (two inches wide at most) bluefish fillet on it. Troll it regularly and you will do number on the makos and threshers.

I hope I've answered any questions you new ToadHeads have.

Here is Ripper again, plus a new lure that will is dynamite behind a Toad, off a downrigger, or a planer.

Rrribbit!

[fishskipper]

I've been called a lot of names but TOADHEAD is a first. I've towed around a lot of things before including bowling pins. It also has a good action. Tried the pakula teaser with good sucess...... Seems now I'm gonna be a TOADHEAD....... Thanks for the tip!
Capt. Ron
www.littlejeanniesportfishing.com
www.tunatool.com

[pellicot]

How are you getting the TOAD in the middle of the spread with twin outboards. I see the upriggers on the corners of your boat and understood how you could attach one to the flat running rod vs a corner cleat. The issue with trying to run one in the center on the uprigger it seems the outboards would be in the way. Will the toad run ok from a rod tip in a center holder or is there to much pressure pulling up? Thanks for the info as we have ran one but not how you describe so now it appears we can test it out on tuna as well.

[Squidnation]

Capt Fred - 15 yrs ago I was 25 so I guess it was actually more like 18 yrs ago. We saw them on the back of a charter boat one afternoon and asked about it. he called them bumper teasers (pretty orginal huh?) He taught us how to make em and told us to paint them either green/yellow or purple/black. Hell back then we barely had enough money for fuel. The only reason we made them was because we already had all the parts on the boat. Anyway, we were fishing off OC on our bayliner trophy and had only caught 1 wahoo for the day. My brother and I started fiddling with the bumper teaser thing. We tied it to a rope and cleater off the port side. I remember like it was yesterday. We were coming in from the 40 towards the Hotdog right around the 30 fathom skewer when a 50lb class yellowfin smashed the teaser. I didn't see it but my brother started jumping up and down yelling ON THE BUMPER, ON THE BUMPER. I looked back and their were no less then 5 of these guys taking turns crushing it. I pulled it out of the water and the two flat lines imediatley went down. then 1 of the short riggers. It was great. Just like anything else that worked - we trolled it religously for the rest of the year and when it fizzled we put it away. I think we may have to bring it back early next yr.