The biggest problem I see in folks not catching fish is that they suffer from an inability to know what they want to catch. For instance, a cruising sailor will often just pick a lure at random, attach it to their line, and drag it behind the boat where they ignore it till they bring it in and almost always without a fish. Now, there’s a lot wrong with that whole scenario but we’ll start with something really basic.
What do you want to catch?
In my case, I’m almost always looking to catch a ten to twelve pound Mahi or Tuna. There are several reasons for this. The first, is we’re a couple and a twelve pound fish is about a weeks worth of protein. We don’t have a huge fridge or freezer, so anything too big is going to be wasteful. Secondly, the bigger the pelagic fish, the more mercury it’s going to have and mercury is not something I care to ingest on a regular basis. Lastly, a ten or twelve pound catch is more sustainable in the overall scheme food chain of things.
OK, so how do we target that ten to twelve pound Mahi/Tuna?
Well, for starters, the size of the lure is the first thing I’m going to consider. A twelve-inch lure might bring in that twelve pounder but it is more than likely to bring in something a lot bigger. For my money a five-inch lure is more attractive to a smaller fish. They also have the advantage of being less expensive and work better at slower speeds (remember we’re on a sailboat).
Being that I’m fishing for a twelve pound fish, using 300-pound test line is some serious overkill. Because I use a handline, I’ll use 100-pound test for the leader as its profile is smaller and less obvious to the fish. I’ll be going deeper on line choice in another post but for now just keep your line choice more size appropriate.
Running one line/lure and expecting to catch fish, you should be aware that the odds are not on your side. Running a couple of lines with a teaser of some sort can up your odds greatly. More so if you set up your lines using a predator/prey configuration which triple your odds all by itself. There are a lot more ways to up your game but those can wait till later.
Another point in choosing your lures is color. Personally I’m not all that invested in color as much as I think dark/light is more the thing. If it’s a bright day I’ll pull out a bright red or green lure, while if it’s overcast a darker blue or purple lure just might be the flavor of the day.
If you have no bites in an hour, change up your lures to something else because doing the same old same without any action is not going to put fish on the table.
A last point worth repeating is if you don’t fish you won’t catch anything. The more you fish the better your chances.