If you are just getting into trolling, the fastest way to start catching fish is to run smaller lures. Here is what I tell less experienced fishermen about lure size, leader, speed, and keeping the spread simple.
The exact lures I ran on our last ahi trips and why each one went out: how I match my line count to my crew, pick colors off the week's reports, and read the teeth marks an ahi leaves on a lure head.
These are the exact skirt combinations we run on our ahi lures, with the Yamashita and Yo-Zuri codes for each one. I also cover the two skirt shortcuts and the rigging catch you need to know before you run a flashabou skirt.
A wing gives the lure the wide flat profile of a flying fish, and that extra movement gets bit. Here are the exact sizes I cut for every lure we run, the relief cut most people skip, and how I tie wings on so the knot disappears.
Most guides pick leader by species. I pick it by lure size: 300 pound test on all the big lures, 130 or 200 on the small ones depending on the season, and every leader cut to three arm spans.
Every boat bites differently. Here is my baseline spread, 320 feet on the riggers and 200 on the corners, and how I compress or stretch it depending on where the ahi bites come.
Single or double hooks on your trolling lure? We run doubles in most of our lures to cover the whole bite, front and back, but a single is cleaner, simpler, and safer at the boat. Here is how we rig for meat fishing in Hawaii and how to pick the right setup.
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