WAY different...and better?

[Captain Fred Archer]

Most Internet discussions and information on dredges are based on the traditional, heavy, conventional metal ones with natural baits, or the molded plastic squids and ballyhoo imitations that are a lot heavier than the hollow squids that our new Spider Dredges are rigged with. Spiders are very, very different than conventional dredges. Many of you aren’t familiar with them and have been asking us about them, so here are some comparisons that you might want to consider.



Many of those other types of teasers found on traditional dredges do both weigh a lot more than the hollow ones on Spiders and for many reasons, create a lot more pulling pressure than the much lighter weight, hollow versions found on Spiders when trolled and retrieved, especially when they’re under water and trolled, when the pressure that they create is the greatest. The same thing applies to the metal bars themselves versus light, composite ones. That increased water pressure not only puts a lot of strain on the tackle, it also makes regular dredges want to plane up to the top, so heavy lead weights and heavy gear are usually required to keep them down while trolling. Naturally, this makes the typical dredge even harder to troll and more difficult to move around and handle, too.



Meanwhile, due to the light weight and flexibility of the composites used to make them and their rigging, Spiders can easily be trolled at different speeds and depths by using different sized, far lighter trolling sinkers than what it takes to keep a conventional dredge down. Plus, they troll very easily and well from both planers and downriggers. And, unlike any other dredge that we have ever heard of, they can be trolled with no weight at all on the surface, where they actually become excellent spreaderbars, something that even the thin, flat plastic teasers found on some metal dredges can’t do.



The Spider isn’t just a teaser-only dredge like the others. Sure, it makes for an easy handling and trolling teaser dredge that doesn’t require a heavy weight, heavy tackle, or an electric reel and a bunch of money to fish with or tease fish with or retrieve...but it can also be fished as an armed lure that will catch the fish that attack it, whether you see them or not, so you can fish it deeper and/or further back than a plain teaser-only bar. And of course, when armed with a hook it doesn’t require the constant watching needed that a pure teaser dredge does because it doesn’t just raise fish, it actually catches them too when armed.


When fighting a fish hooked on it, the Spider has no more effect on the tackle or the fish than a lightweight, composite spreaderbar does. Which is to say, it puts very little pressure on the fish or the gear.



Instead, when fished up top, it makes a great, lightweight surface spreaderbar that features our remarkable “ruckus raiser” action when fished with no weight, so it is both a lightweight dredge and a spreaderbar, each entirely capable of catching fish, not just teasing them.


That’s versatility and value that can’t even be approached by the typical dredge!




Another important difference between Spiders and conventional dredges is that Spiders can be used to fish for and catch many different species of fish, not just marlin and tuna. The smaller models in the 4” and 6” range are deadly on smaller saltwater species like fluke, stripers, mahi’s, bonito and many more, but just as importantly, the very same models are very popular for and work great on freshwater species like salmon, lake trout, largemouth, smallmouth, and striped bass, walleye, pike – you name it...if it eats other fish, it will really come for and hit a small pod of bait with a straggler trying to catch up to it that a Spider represents so well. The fact that the smaller Spiders can be trolled on light, freshwater tackle makes this whole side of them even better. See our website for pictures of the many species of freshwater fish and smaller saltwater ones that they are catching.



Spiders are different than the typical dredge in another important way, too. That’s cost. Most other dredges are very expensive. Not Spiders. Regular prices are only $75 for the 3 and 4 ¾” ones, $85 for the 6”, and $95 for the 9 inch models. Our Show Prices, which we will be offering to SFC members for a short time later this week, will be $64, $72, and $81 respectively. Hopefully, these prices and the fact that additional special, expensive, and heavy gear and tackle are not required to fish with them will open up dredge fishing, both for teasing and catching dredge fish for new folks, especially ones on small boats with limited room, budgets and tackle. And that’s saying nothing of the fact and additional value of Spiders doubling as very good surface spreaderbars too.



Whether you fish from an outboard, or an inboard powered boat, I hope that you try them...either as a dredge, or as a spreaderbar, and inshore or offshore...or better yet, all of those ways. I think that you’ll really like them. We already know that the fish will!



Okay, all of that said, stand by for the sale...it’ll be here shortly.

[Ace1st]

Fred.....is it feasible to pull the Spider from a planer rod or from a downrigger with a rubber band attached that breaks upon the strike. I wouldn think a clip would hold the presuure of the dredge but a rubber band should have no problem.

It looks great just below the surface but I would think if pulled down deep it would get smashed!

[austin ensor]

thats awesome....those look great

[Captain Fred Archer]

Thank you, Austin.

Ace,

Yes, no prob running Spiders off of planers or downriggers with either a rubber band, which I like best, or a downrigger release clip. Many of the guides and charter captains who are running Spiders do so off of downriggers much of the time. Some do what we're discussing here, but as you can see from the picts, most just run them as rigged and clip off and on different size and color chasebaits as needed.

That fishing deep thing is missed out on by way too many fishermen IMO. Virtually all species of pelagics spend a lot more time deep than they do up top. That's because the bait spends most of its time deep, especially in the daytime. It amazes me how many times fishermen will meter deep bait and then spend the rest of the day trying to lure the gamefish that are with and feeding on it down there, to come up to the surface, where there is no bait in the first place much of the time. In that case, why in the world would gamefish have reason to come up top to chase lures? Logic and the facts should tell us that if we put our lures right down where the gamefish and bait are - especially little pods of them with stragglers trying to catch up to them, we'll catch a bunch of those fish that will never come near the surface the whole day long.

And when the bait is squid, well, need I say that I think that just about everybody knows that they flat don't like being up top at any time during the daytime. So why wait for them to do something that they most likely won't? I'll tell ya what...nobody ever had to tell me what to do when that was the case and the results were astonishing, especially when nobody was getting bit up top. Getting down to the fish was one of the absolute keys to catching fish on "tough" days for me and my charter business.

Spiders also can be run with just a trolling sinker. I myself personally really like running armed ones on rough, very choppy days when bars and other lures don't run as well as they do during the calmer days. In that case we run a smallish trolling sinker in front of them, which causes them to stay under and troll a lot smoother and be a lot more visible to the fish than a surface bar or other lure. They are really good for those situations.

It should go without saying (but I will anyway - you know me ) that the Spiders make very good, lightweight, easy handling pure teasers. I really like them for bait & switch fishing, which I am a huge fan of for just about all species of pelagics, not just marlin. We only run two teasers when we're bait & switching most of the time, and the three dimensional aspect of Spiders and their school shaped pod lets us put a lot more teasers in a more realistic and natural looking way in the two holes that we fish them in than we ever could with daisy chains or even regular spreaderbars. (Gotta be careful here, or I'll wind up writing a book on this stuff and I already did and am not about to write another one here!

One final thing that you being a "'hoo guy too" might like is that both the Spiders and their big brothers, the RuckusRaisers, troll really fast AND long as spreaderbars. It's easy to see why when you see them run, or better yet, watch video or see pictures of them doing that. It may sound nuts, but seeing is believing and the picts and vids show it clearly. The secret is, crazy as it sounds, but there to be seen, that these bars actually run on the "tips of their feet" with nothing else but the teasers and chasebait in the water. This minimizes pulling pressure and keeps the vast majority of the bar up and out of the water AND a long way back, if that's where you want to run it.

Wahoos love bars, but of course, often the faster that you run them, the even better that they like them and this feature is what allows you to put the peddle to the metal if you like. How fast can you troll them? I ain't sayin', because nobody would believe me ! Just a reminder, I'm talking running them as surface bars here.

With no tongue in cheek, Anthony. You know that I regard you as one of the top wahoo experts around and if you'd like to try some "Spider webbing", just drop me a PM or EM and we'll get you a couple to play with, up top or down deep. And heck, you don't even have to admit that you've used them if you don't want! (Although I use your lures, love 'em and write about them - ha, ha! Good stuff is good stuff, no matter who makes it...especially originals!)

Okay, that's it for now.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Oops! Sorry "Ace's". I confused the wahoo lure one with the tournament runnin' one. The latter already has his Spiders and knows something about them. Anthony, I hope that you read this too.

"Hoo's Rule", but them other fishies are all good too!

[Dave Sikorski]

Do you ever run wire on the chase bait?

Thanks for sharing Fred.

-D

[Agitated88]

Wow...so much information. Thanks for sharing this information with this "wannabe".

[Ace1st]

Do you ever run wire on the chase bait?

Thanks for sharing Fred.

-D

I can answer this one for FRED, yes he does rig them with wire. When wahoos are thick or prevalent just put a wire rigged chasebait in the place of mono chasebait.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Good question, Dave. And good answer, Tourament Ace.

We ran wire chasebaits 100% of the time on our Spiders down south. That was because of the good numbers of wahoos, including some real monsters, that we used to catch on them. And it didn't hurt to have wire when a big, cow tuna ate one, which they did a lot of and the same applied to the really big mahi's down there. And no, the single strand didn't seem to have any negative effect on the fish, be they up top or deep.

Many anglers in those parts consider wahoo to be "crack of dawn, grey light biters". While that is true, especially on the full moon, when there is a always a great tide change at that time, it is also true that wahoo feed, mostly on tide changes, during the daytime. As I pointed out earlier, I believe that since most bait species, and especially squid but not limited to them, shun the surface water during the daytime and go deep, that makes sense. That's pretty clear when you think about the fact that the bait is very vulnerable to both fish and birds when it's up top. Nature pretty much has to have programmed it to go deep at that time. Sure, they still have to contend with the fish, but they don't have to have birds dive bombing the hell out of them too.

One thing is for sure...the wahoos and other gamefish surely do go deep with the bait much of the time and we proved that by having terrific success downrigging them on many, many days. And when it came to the tunas and dorados, we ran heavy gear on the Spiders and had our anglers crank like hell on them, then started to chunk the rest of the school that often followed that hooked fish up to the top and then finished our limits and had as much fun as our clients wanted without ever moving the boat until they decided that they wanted to try for some marlin, or whatever. At that point we almost always switched over to bait & switch fishing with the very same Spiders, only with no armed chasebaits so that we could actually avoid any more tuna or dorado's.

When it comes to wahoo, the hardest thing for most fishermen to get passed is the speed that we trolled for them at. Most believe that a lure has to be going like a bat out of hell to interest wahoo. That's true part of the time, but when it comes to fishing deep, downrigger speeds catch the bejabbers out of them.

I was lucky when it came to that downrigger speed thing. So many years ago that I don't remember exactly when it was, but it was at least forty, I experienced my first time with a downrigger and wahoo. The short version is, I was commercial fishing a weed line off of Key West with a buddy. We were moving along the weed line, sight casting to the bigger dorado that were mixed in with lots of dinks, when we started seeing some wahoos down pretty deep. We tried the "tried and true" method of the day (that all of a sudden has been making a comeback) of casting out Upperman Bucktail jigs as far as we could, letting them sink forever, then cranking them back as fast as we could on our big spinning reels.

Didn't work that day. So my partner Roger pulled out a downrigger ("what the hell is that thing??"), we dropped a ballyhoo down, and we caught something like five wahoo that way over the next hour and a half or so. It was pure revelation for me at the time and I never forgot what I learned about deep water wahoos that day. So, two things resulted. The first was that I always rigged with wire when there might be wahoo around. The second was, I started using the downrigger for them as soon as I had my boat in Cabo. And I never looked back.

Those things are GREAT fishing tools!

And wahoo follow the bait.

And if you fish where they and the bait are, you will catch the hell out of the 'hoo's.

Yes, planers work too, both with and without Spiders, but I prefer the downrigger, using my sonar, getting on the right marks, and working them over thoroughly with multiple lures, saving fuel, and giving our anglers a nice, smooth ride..

Over..

[zar2754]

the spider pro bar you sent me in pink looks absolutely deadly for yellowfins, school bluefins and bigeye here in the NE. i can not wait to run it deep, and plan to use our planner/downrigger setup and the standard #64 rubberband.

wont be long now

Josh
mate hookedupII, cavemansportfishing