More on spreaderbars

[Captain Fred Archer]

I decided to start a new thread on the subject and since I'm getting into new territory for many, I figured it would be best to give it its own spot. Besides, it is probably the single most significant thing that I have ever offered up here and is, in fact, something that I have reserved for those who read my books up until now. That said, here goes...

This is about a great way to raise and catch marlin and tuna with spreaderbars. First, let's talk about how marlin that The Guy Harvey video that I am going to try to post here confirms what I have seen many times from my tuna tower...marlin and tuna don't just swim blindly into a bait pod, hoping to grab a meal out of the confusing "wall of bait" the pod represents. Being in a school and staying with it is a baitfish's first, and probably just about only line of defense. They stick together like glue, because to be flushed from their school is usually an instant death sentence, delivered by a fish, bird, porpoise, or whatever. This is the case whether it happens in the sound or bay, along the beach, or offshore. It is an immutable law of nature and the predator/prey relationship. And it can be taken advantage of!

In the case of marlin, they rush at and try to "bluff" a bait pod into breaking up into individual members that they can target and eat. That is the basis behind the way that I prefer to bait and switch fish for marlin - with spreaderbars - and, surprisingly to some, for tuna too. Now, before anyone jumps up and down and yells, "Of course you prefer them, because you make them", let me explain and show why.

Before that, to those who have read my new book, as it says and what Guy Harvey confirms in words and video that shows blues and whitey grabbing, crushing and then gulping down the baits that they attack applies to all marlin species; they are all "Grab, Crush, and Gulp" feeders. That should mean a ton to those who have read the book and little to those who haven't. Guy Harvey has seen it too and like my friend Carlos down in Cabo, has gone down and watched striped marlin, blues, blacks and sailfish do the same thing...I call it The Squish Factor and it is important to understand it in order to rig and use both J and circle hooks for optimum hooksets on marlin.

Is bait and switch fishing some fancy, hi-tech, pro's only technique that requires a PHD in "trollology" to do? Most people think so, but the truth is, heck no! Anybody, even small crews on little boats can do it successfully right off the bat. And man, once you start you will kick yourself in the butt for not trying this before. It is a super effective way of zeroing in on billfish only, or tuna only and as soon as you get the hang of it - and as I am saying, it is easy, easy, easy, it will be a rare day when you don't hook every single fish that you target and hook each of them in such a way that damned few, if any, get off on you. Wow! Sounds good, doesn't it? It is. Okay, let's talk about it and you can see for yourself how simple it is.

So why do I prefer bars over lures when it comes to bait and switching marlin and, in fact, tuna - especially tournament tuna? Bear in mind that not only is bait and switching a lot of fun, it is deadly effective for those who know how to play the game that you have a chance to learn right here and now, and it has accounted for far more line class billfish world records over the past twenty years than any and all other lures and techniques put together and multiplied by 5. Trolling armed lures or baits can't even remotely approach those numbers! So naturally, if you want to increase your chances at a marlin or two, tune in. The best thing there is you can up your odds of hooking catching marlin while fishing for everything else, if you so choose.

Here are some tuna facts that aren't common knowledge because the scoundrels (ahem) who have done it haven't said a thing about it. That is because it is an incredible way to win a lot of money in tuna tournaments. One of the very biggest, the WON Tuna Tournament in Cabo was won and on another occasion placed highly in by the one boat out of over 150 that was using the technique that follows. That team didn't compete last year and the year before they gave up fishing in the tournament to spend day and night searching for a lost boat with a very sick person aboard (a tip of the hat to the captain and crew of Chris Badsy's "Reelax"), or there is no doubt in my mind that they would have taken or placed high in another WON again. My boat swept all three tuna positions in a Stars and Stripes tournament, the last such tournament that I fished and a long way from the first time we won a tuna tournament. Those fish were caught the same exact way as the WON tunas. The other guy who does this is a sharp, young west coast fisherman by the name of David Brackmann, who has game boats in both Southern Cal and a 41 Cabo down in Cabo. That kid can fish!

We absolutely do not want to catch a marlin, mako, mahi's, wahoo, or even dink or medium size tunas in a tuna tournament where the biggest fish win the money. Those other wonderful fish are nothing but precious time wasters in tournaments and only a fool would want to hook and waste time fighting any of them if there was a great way not to mess with them, but catch potential money fish only and what follows is just that. Nor do we want to mess with those other fish when the winner's total weight within a given limit of fish wins. Here too, we want to pick and choose the fish that we bait. Of course, the same applies to marlin tournaments, where the tuna are added to the list of fish that can be serious time-wasters. But still, we can reserve the ability to bait and nail big ones - and big ones only - that come to the bars in tournaments that include tunas as well as marlin. You tournament guys think about that a bit.

Here is a basic discussion of how and why we B&S fish with the MarlinBars that catch 'em all. Here goes...

First, "MarlinBars" are spreaderbars that I have specifically designed and built for fishing for and catching marlin. They are very different than traditional bars. I developed them because traditional bars do not get the job done when it comes to this kind of fishing, or even marlin fishing with standard, armed patterns. So I am mentioning them because if some of you try this with regular bars, like me you will probably be very unhappy with the results and if I am going to try to teach you this, I am obligated to explain the importance of the tools that do the job best.

These different bars are narrow, lightweight (some weigh less than 4 ounces and a #8.7 model with seven 8.5" squids only weighs six ounces, bar and all, which is less than a lot of marlin lures and even some big feathers and jets.) The narrow, flexible bars that make the baitpods look alive run OUT of the water and so do not create any water pressure generated pull, and since the squids that do run in the water are both light and hydrodynamic, MarlinBars pull like feathers and do not require heavy trolling tackle, but will stand up to gear all the way up to 130#. They absolutely won't kink or break. They can be trolled both slow, 4-6 knots, at regular marlin lure trolling speeds of 7- 9 knots and at faster speeds of 10-14 knots, no sweat. One of the best things about these bars is that they attract all kinds of fish, not just marlin. Everything from albacore to blue ones jumps them like candy.

Something that I should point out here is that many kinds of lures represent many kinds of natural bait to marlin and other gamefish. If they didn't, the big numbers of gamefish, including marlin, caught on them every year wouldn't be. That could be a long discussion in and of itself, but the record speaks for itself, and I want to point out and remind people that gamefish find artificial lures of many kinds very attractive and obviously mistake them for squid, mullet, sauries, and yes, even ballyhoo. There is no reason why ballies should be in a special category of "baits that can't be immitated". Take a look at our Ballyhoo ProSquids and I think you'll agree that they are one of the best ballyhoo immitations around. Ditto on hollow squids that represent the real critters. Dead ringers that all gamefish will come after, especially natural looking "schools" of them.

The two bar, standard bait and switch drawing follows. It explains a lot. It is the one that I personally prefer for marlin or all-around pelagic fishing, as well as in marlin or tuna tournaments, regardless of the size of the boat and crew. Along with it is the bigger boat spread and the basics on bait and switching with that many bars. I wouldn't mess with that second one unless I had a good-sized, seasoned crew and at least a marlin tower to watch over the rear teasers and size up the incomers from. It is primarily for marlin fishing. The two bar spread is very easy for even just a couple of guys to employ efficiently and as I have already noted, it is the one that I use, big or small boat or crew, tournament or no tournament.

This is all heresy to some, I realize, but it is a twist to the already highly effective B&S game that I personally believe improves the heck out of it, some reasons being...

Replacing the single lures, or even daisy chains of them that the original bait and switchers employed with "schools of bait in natural, defensive formations" - spreaderbars - puts much more "visible chum" in the water that in and of itself is more visible, natural and attractive than single teasers or chains of them (and take up a lot less room than the daisies), and consequently are more likely to attract gamefish of all kinds to the teasers, the first and most critical requirement of bait and switching and really, any other kind of fishing.

While tunas will sometimes pile onto the teasers themselves, which doesn't spook them, but that instead frustrates the hell out of and makes them nuts and turns them into insane, competitive eating machines, marlin are far more likely to chase behind and make "bluffing runs" and flash colors at the schools of bait that the teaser pods represent in what looks like and probably is an effort to spook and get the individuals in the pod to scatter so that they can zero in on and pick off individual targets, just as you see them do in underwater videos that aren't opinion, but fact, or, if you have been on the water long enough, you have seen yourself many times, especially if you see the action from that great "classroom" up high in a tower.

Contrary to what some of those who have no experience along these lines will assume (bad word, but the "make an ASS out of U and Me thing is appropriate in this case, but leave "Me" out of it), the marlin instantly (and I mean RIGHT NOW) jump on a pitch bait the moment it passes behind and appears to have "popped out of the bait pod" that it is harrassing. This makes complete sense because separating individual targets from the pod is exactly what a marlin is trying to do. That is how they feed, day-in and day-out. In the cases of both tuna and marlin, the pitch bait line rarely gets to even straighten out behind the teaser pods before it is nabbed...the pitchers have to be ready for that instant bite or backlashes will happen and some fish will be missed.

Bear in mind here that the bite happens up close and personal, right in front of you and behind the bars. A billfish bite anywhere in your pattern is a moment of opportunity to hook that fish. That moment can and usually does happen somewhere back in the conventional pattern, where mono stretch and a lot of other negative factors, including not being able to see if the fish has the bait or lure and hook fully in its mouth and a lot of others can and do cost you hookups. The way we are discussing here puts those bites in sight (worth doing for just that alone) and tight, where you have 100% control over when you set the hook and things like mono stretch don't matter at all. Once again, you are stacking the odds in your favor.

The "tug-o-war" that often happens when an aggressive marlin grabs a lure teaser (naturally he does, because it is a single target for him to zero in on and try to eat because it is separate from a school) that accompanies B&Sing with regular lures and that can sometimes cost you fish and requires that most of the time the lure/lures be taken away from the marlin, then cleared and replaced with a bait that the fish hopefully is still there to take - which is not always the case - is eliminated and no longer a concern because of the far different way that marlin go after bar teasers versus how they react to single lures.

Instead of having to take the bar teaser away from a hungry marlin like is often the case with single lure teasers, usually getting them out of the water and then hoping that you can interest the raised fish in a pitch bait, when B&Sing with bar teasers the first viable, individual target that a school of tuna or a marlin sees and get or gets to zero in on and go after is that one "falling out of the bait school". This is much different than the way that it usually goes with lure teasers and as far as someone who has done a lot of both the older style and this newer kind of bait and switching and has loved that kind of fishing for many years - me - is concerned, bars beat the bejabbers out of lures in this great, fun, effective game.

A smaller advantage, but still a good one is the weight of the bars themselves and the fact that only the teasers and not the bars are in the water. This minimizes water pressure greatly because as mentioned earlier, the hollow squids are both light and hydrodynamic, especially the ballyhoo-shaped ProSquids that I prefer, which makes moving them to clear them to fight fish or for whatever other reason you may have easy and fast, which is not the case with many lures used as marlin teasers, especially the big ones that both weigh more and pull much harder than the bars that we use, plus bars are far kinder to boat surfaces and fisherman faces and teeth than the typical hard lure when chucked into a hyperactive cockpit.

Finally, the enhanced ability to match the hatch with a myriad of sizes and squid teaser colors while maintaining those "schools of bait" images is mighty hard, if not impossible to equal with conventional lures. And especially when the fish are on big baits, the fact that, unlike a regular lure or even a pretty big natural bait, even a huge, fat, 20" hollow squid as big as all but the very biggest lures/teasers and the same size as many big, dead or live natural baits COLLAPSES when a marlin goes to crush it, and in turn becomes literally nothing but sharp hook and thin plastic (maybe. If a big squid is rigged right, even that thin plastic is taken out of the equation) for the most devastating hook sets imaginable. Hookup and landing ratios absolutely skyrocket over those achieved with the big baits and lures that are hard to hook and keep fish on with, whether you are bait and switching with them, or worse yet, if they are somewhere back in a pattern.

Another advantage that I like is that unlike too many fish that big baits have to be blindly dropped back to, there are no "chokers and croakers" to deal with or have die on you. The moment a fish has a big squid in its mouth and has crushed it (and it acts just like a real squid in that regard), no dropback is required or even reccommended. Instead, just lock 'em up and rock and roll! And a very good part of that, I remind you, is that you are staring that fish right in the eye (and mouth) when you do stick 'em if you are doing it the way that we are discussing.

Like I noted, this is heresy to some, but most assuredly not others, especially those who don't happen to believe that the sun rises and sets on marlin or any other kind of fishing the way that it was done in the past and is done now with older tools not designed for new ways of fishing and who are interested in anything that will raise their batting averages when it comes to raising, fooling, hooking and landing marlin. And tuna tournaments? I have already said my piece on those and I will say no more.

I hope that some of you give this a try. Believe me, if you do give it a good, fair shot when the fish are around, you are going to love the results and maybe even thank me.

I'll be back with drawings and hopefully the Guy Harvey tape. For some reason pictures won't post again for me.

There's lots to chew on here anyway. Be back later.

[OffTheHookB&T]

Capt Fred, thanks for giving us some valuable insight into your fishing techniques. I'll agree it's far away from the billfishing techniques that I prefer. But I apreciate the theory behind and may experiment with alittle with your method. One question, dredge fishing has become the standard on the East coast how does that differ from your bar fishing??
Also, are your products retail only or do you wholesale, and if so I'd be interested in discussing carrying your line.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Chuck,

Thank you for the response. I sure wish that you and others would give this a shot. I know that it is radically new and far out there for many, but if you read and analyze the text thoroughly you might come to the realization that it isn't, in fact, way out there, but that it's a perfect fit for how marlin and other gamefish actually hunt and feed. Hopefully, the video and diagrams that I am about to post will make the simple beauty of the whole thing clear. I don't know how long it will take, but this works so well that I am certain that it will eventually become a standard way of fishing for many...and take it to the bank, it is going to win some tournaments for some who do it. Of course, kind of like the guys who are trolling for sharks and winning tournaments that way, the first ones won't admit it and it is, in fact, kind of hard to see that someone is fishing that way from another boat. I know, because my buddy David and I did it for years without saying a word about what we were doing and nobody noticed.

We make those lightweight Spider Dredges that troll nice and easy and at all but the very top end of their speed ranges (over 12 knots) only require an eight ounce cigar to keep in the water. I am pretty prejudiced toward the MarlinBar teasers when it comes to teasing or even hooking fish, but some of the guys do like the Spiders for that. I love 'em on downriggers or planers.

For those who might be concerned about it, these patterns and techniques are 100% IGFA legal, including that last drawing, which is an "automatic" system that hooks anything and everything that teases up. Another concern that someone had, would a spreaderbar impair the fight of a hooked marlin, a conventional bar might. A six inch wide 8.7 MB with seven, 8.5" teasers on it is narrow and creates very little drag on its own and weighs less than 7 ounces, so it has no more negative pressure than the typical marlin lure and probably even less than many. And as far as a bar-hooked fish jumping, I love seeing the squids fly as the fish jumps, especially if they are hot pink ones! Those squids weigh next to nothing in the air or the water and create very little drag.

As far as us wholesaling, no, we do not do that yet. We are just little guys and it would be hard for us to keep up with dealer-type demand right now, but we are working on that and when we start, we plan on only selling to select dealers and giving them a generous exclusive in their area. You didn't know this, of course, but you happen to be high on that list. I'll advise more when we are ready to perform.

Okay, let's see if this tape copies and if the diagrams come through.

http://www.marlinmag.com/video.jsp?l...autoStart=true

I hope that works. It's one great video.

Now, the drawings....