Archer SuperBars Pro Staffer Courtland Pang went trolling on a buddy's boat yesterday for a short half-day trip. The main purpose for the trip was to see how well a transducer they had recently installed for use when the deep bottomfish season re-opens would work. They decided to test the transducer out on the actual bottom fishing grounds and, of course, hoped to catch some fish while doing so. With a party planned for later this week, the pressure was on to get some fish in the short time they would be out trolling, with the alternative being a blow to their pride and a hit on their wallet trip to the fishmarket.
The weather forecasters were wrong as usual and the water was on the lumpy side, but good for trolling. The transducer worked great, clearly showing bottom and fish even in that ugly water and at fast trolling speeds. And the Archer MeatBalls came through again as the two buddies bagged two ono (wahoo) for the party! Not bad for a short half-day! They got the fresh fish for the pah-tee and the sashimi is going to be real ono (pun intended - the Hawaiian name for wahoo also meaning tasty!).
Not only did the MeatBall once again prove its catching ability, but it also showed its adaptability - check out the homemade chasebait in the photo below. Yes, it's just an old 35 mm film canister with an egg sinker holding a couple octopus skirts into it. It's almost as cheap as using a hollow squid chasebait but the ono did do more damage to those skirts than typically to a hollow squid. When you're done chuckling over the simplicity of that chasebait, note the important part of it. It's rigged using wire - that ono had no chance once it decided to whack that funny looking thing chasing that pod of bait! Meatballs will make any chasebait appealing to the predators - the ultimate in adaptability.
Used those same lures in Anguilla to great effect on the wahoo. Only difference was we stuck the lures to a piece of hose glued inside the canister. Added a bullet weight and we were good to go. Actually got our first marlin bite down there on one too....
And by a strange coincidence, that is where I first used Fred's bars,.....
Well, the party's over and a great time was had by all. Lots of fishing stories were swapped and the ono sashimi lived up to its name. The dogtooth tuna sashimi was pretty good too. That wasn't all the food we had by a long shot but the rest was just 'normal' food like octopus, shrimp, and other island delicacies, all washed down by your favorite beverage, burp!
Here's a photo of that canister lure, provided by my buddy:
The film canister just happed to be a white one; they also come in gray and black. The egg sinker inside the head of the skirts was 4 oz., only because that size fit snugly inside the heads of the skirts while still fitting into the canister. The color of the skirts is not significant, just what he had laying around. The skirts were 9" in size.
Interesting that Roddy used the same type of lure, and Archer bars too, half the world away. The canister lures are so simple that some version of them is probably used wherever fish are caught, and the Archer bars are so effective that their use is growing too.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
