"Dredge Basics"
As sailfish season rolls back into South Florida, the term "dredge fishing" will begin to come up over and over. For anglers new to the offshore fishing world, "dredge fishing" is the perfected art of deadbait trolling for sails while pulling a large multiple arm teaser (or dredge) with numerous hookless baits on it to create a "school of baitfish". A hooked bait is fished just behind the dredge to give the look of a wounded bait that has fallen off from the school and is an easy target. Dredges come in numerous sizes, styles, and prices, with the three most common being: 1. "Strip Teaser" Style Dredge (Pictured)- Great for beginners; easy to rig, most economical, easiest to store. 2. Artificial Bait Dredge- Often built with plastic swimming shads, plastic ballyhoo, or other fake "swimming" baits. More swimming action than a strip style teaser, less time consuming than a natural teaser, and longer lasting. 3. Natural Dredge- Rigged with swimming mullet or ballyhoo (May or may not have lure or teaser over baits, and may also contain a few plastic swimming baits). very time consuming, most expensive, but also most effective! When a fish comes into a natural dredge it is going to stick around. When dredge fishing try to always do the following: 1. Keep the dredge a few feet below the surface. Add some lead or slow down, but be sure to keep the dredge swimming and not popping up and breaking the surface. 2. Keep an eye on the dredge. When a fish shows itself, be ready to have a bait in his face! 3. Secure it! Dredges are expensive (even less expensive options aren't cheap), make sure they are connected well! "Keeping It Old-School"
New lures are great, but don't be in a rush to throw out all of your old lures. Certain lures (like the "sidewinder" pictured, other jigs, and spoons...aka the oldest lures out there!) just continue to catch fish over and over again. Time tested lures should always have a place in your tackle box! "What can my 10-20lb rod catch?"
We get questions like this fairly often. The answer is pretty simple...any rod can catch just about any fish out there! When you see line (or pound) ratings on a rod it is a suggestion for the best line class to put on a rod for overall performance, not a pound range of the size fish that the rod can catch. (Too heavy of line will not cast very well and if too heavy could cause the rod to break under enough pressure. While, too light will not let you get the power out of a rod you may be looking for and could also limit your casting distance) The size of the fish does not play into this line rating much at all (more important factors would be the reel being used, drag settings, and line capacity), as small fish can easily break heavy line and big fish can be caught on light line. Avoid buying rods based on "how big of fish" you can catch with them, but more on action and uses. "No Power, No Problem"
If a electric reel isn't in your budget, don't worry; deep dropping isn't out of the question. A high speed high capacity reel, lighter braided line(less than 50lb), and a good size deep jig(8-16oz) allow you to fish depths of over 300 feet. It takes a little longer to crank them up...but they are catchable! |
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