Author: Landshark (Alumni)
Go Big Or Go Home With Live Baits
You may be familiar with Pilchards, Sardines, Goggle eye and Ballyhoo if you fish offshore, but why neglect the big baits? I'm talking about bullet bonito, big blue runners and mackerel for the purposes of slow trolling. These big live baits undoubtedly entice a bite like no other and can be far more productive on days with little current.
Information on How to rig these baits and make the rig for these baits provided in this video.
Pictured below is the size of the "bullet Bonito"
On days with no current, your drift is going to be subpar as you are not covering much water and hence not finding the fish or having them come to you. By slow trolling live baits you are able to cover lots of water and find the fish!
Big live baits such as bullet bonito, mackerel and runners are often associated with only targeting King mackerel, but I can assure you almost any big pelagic fish whether it be Wahoo, Cobia, Dolphin or Sailfish will not shy away from a frisky bullet bonito.
Now let's move on how to actually catch these prized baits. I like to start by trolling two spinning reels with 20-30lb fluorocarbon leader and 1/4 oz white jigs. The jigs are pretty irrelevant in terms of brand and almost any small profile white (actually any color) will do. Remember you are targeting big baits, but still small enough to catch a bigger pelagic with. If you have ever seen a bunch of boils and glass minnows getting busted offshore chances are this was in fact a school of little bonito, mackerel or runners. I recommend trolling the white jigs around 6-8knots with one being a far bait and one short. Look for any activity and troll around it. Additionally trolling over wrecks and reefs is generally very productive in terms of finding these baits. The method is rather quite easy and just takes a little patience in terms of finding the school of bait. The Article listed below goes over how to rig these baits and making the rig to fish them.
The videos below show the baits being used and actually catching fish.
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