![]() ![]() Rigged with a Mann’s Stretch 40, or Rapala X-RAP Magnum 30 deep-diving plug, the dredge can attain a depth well beyond sight. This not only takes the dredge into the depths, but it’s easier to handle, and easier on the gelcoat and deck than a heavy trolling sinker. An easier setup for small and midsize boats is to replace the trolling sinker with a large-lipped, hookless trolling plug. So when you factor in the dredges just behind and below that commotion, my surface teasers (i.e., spreader bars and/or daisy chains) in clean water to the outside of the prop wash and dredges, and a full spread of baits, it’s easy to understand how fish are coaxed in for a closer look.Ī trolling sinker typically escorts a dredge into the depths, its exact weight hinging on preferred depth placement and trolling speed. I believe that some prop wash helps attract fish, perhaps lending the illusion of a feeding frenzy. On my boat, I position the dredges 20 or so feet back, and five to 10 feet down they’re back and deep enough so they’re not in heavy prop wash. The technique, sans tower, is to position the dredges as far back as you can and still see them the objective is spotting fish coming up on them, and being able to quickly adjust a flat-line bait or pitch out another bait while the fish is on the dredge. Many small and midsize vessels lack that benefit. Large boats with towers have a great advantage, because their dredges can be deployed farther back and deeper, while still remaining in view from the bridge or tower. The same strategy applies with sailfish in close and when ballyhoo are schooling heavily, and marlin and even wahoo when bonito, skipjacks, and small tuna are abundant. If dolphin, tuna or sailfish are feeding on small flyingfish, you’ll likely raise more with dredges sporting small, plastic flyingfish, streamlined trolling lures in the size and colors of those flyingfish, and sardinelike holographic images. This is where sharp dredge trollers make critical adjustments, and deploy teasers that mimic the size and style of the abundant forage fish. Sometimes dredges become anemic, like when game fish go on selective feeds. A number of other companies also offer fine-tuning options such as plastic mullet, mackerel, squid and flyingfish. For example, it offers Mylar bullet/Mold Craft Tuff Hoo combos with a Split Tail Mackerel trailer, as well as straight Tuff Hoo dredges and Split Tail Mackerels. In addition, Strike Point offers streamlined trolling skirts and lures in various sizes, colors, and combinations to help “dial in the tease” when predators are selectively feeding on a specific bait, i.e., flyingfish, bullet bonito or chicken dolphin. The images come in blue, pink or silver, and in models ranging from 28 to 156 fish images. Strike Point ( ), another company in this market, offers double-laminated holographic fish strips (ballyhoo or sardine), along with high-grade-steel and -titanium collapsible dredge bars. When I’m seeking dolphin offshore, I tend towards sardine-like images, which I feel mimic flyingfish, a key forage of dolphin. ![]() When deployed about 20 feet back and several feet deep, they light up the water behind my boat, like two large schools of baitfish undulating in a tight ball. I’ve been pulling two StripTeaser 105 fish dredges - one from each transom corner - clear, durable strips with holographic baitfish images (choices include squid, ballyhoo or sardinelike baits) affixed to them. When selecting one, or a few, think in terms of colors and sizes of teasers that will best attract the fish you seek. ![]() Numerous manufacturers offer a range of styles and sizes of teasers. ![]() And despite what some newcomers to dredge trolling might think, there’s way more to the tactic than just picking a dredge and towing it behind your boat. Pulling dredges behind small or midsize boats with a one- or two-person crew is challenging, but well worth the effort. I’ve had fish come right to the teasers, where we’ve baited and hooked them either on a pitch bait or flat line. I’ve been pulling a pair of dredges behind my center console for several years. “Dredge” is the generic name for a spread of subsurface teasers pulled off the transom, clear-vinyl strips emblazoned with reflective fish decals, or a school of hookless artificials creating a virtual ball of bait. “Anglers who troll aboard small and midsize outboard-powered boats now realize what the big-boat guys have known for decades: Dredges raise fish!” Harry’s Fishing Supply in Miami, an ardent offshore angler. "They’re the hottest things in the fishing-tackle world right now,” says Harry Vernon III, of Capt. ![]()
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