Slow Trolling Soft Baits: Ultimate Tuna Lures

 

Have you ever been in a situation where tuna where busting everywhere but behind your boat???

Often breaking fish that are hard to catch are eating small sand eels, tinkers or spearing. (To name a few!) All these baits have narrow silhouettes.  Thats where soft-baits come into play! It may be time to start swapping out big green machines, squid rigs other lures 5 times the size of what your quarry is eating and put on soft baits.

 

A simple “Naked” approach.

By naked, I’m referring to unweighted. This is trolling soft baits in their most simple form. While soft baits may not be exact replicas out of the package their action is unbeatable. In other words, it’s all about the wiggle. Un-weighted soft baits are sexy and they catch big fish! “Naked” Soft baits can be fished on outriggers, down riggers or behind trolling weights. When properly rigged big soft-baits can easily save the day and is easily incorporated into your spread to better match the hatch with smaller forage.

Single Rigged : The ultimate easy…

Three words: Easy. Simple. Deadly. There’s a lot to be said for the KISS approach. A big long soft-bait slithering  its way through the water is hard for any game fish to pass up. The ultimate sand-eel imitation! Unlike daisy chains and spreader bars, where you have teasers to hide the leader, we strongly recommend using fluorocarbon leader for single rigged softbaits.

  • Pros: The ultimate easy.
  • Cons: The least amount of commotion.
  • Important Tip: Flank a spreader bar with a single rigged bait.

 

Daisy Chain: Managed commotion…

Daisy Chains are great at creating commotion without adding all the drag of the spreader bar. Not only are they a little bit easier to deal with, they can be used on lighter outfits. Always use an off colored stinger.

    • Pros: Easy to plug and play. Daisy chain require lighter rods than spreader bars. Fsh far back, in close, behind bird or solo. Can be trolled a little faster than a spreader bar.
    • Cons: Does not draw the same commotion as a spreader bar.
    • Important Tip: It’s hard to refute the effectiveness of a slow troll daisy chain WAY WAY WAY BACK behind a bird.

Spreader Bars: The bait ball effect:

The simplest description of a spreader bar is a collection of a few daisy chains attached to one bar that collectively simulates a small school of bait. A “stinger,” often a different color and larger than the teasers is attached and set back, behind the “school” to simulate a slightly larger predator in pursuit of the school. The idea is that game fish will instinctively go for the easy target, offering more bang for the buck so to speak. Adding a spreader bar to the mix is an easy way to add some beef to your spread. While it will often be the singles and the daisy chains get hit first, the spreader bars will definitely call them in.



  • Pros: Bring fish into your spread. Great in calm water.
  • Cons: Can be a hassle if there are a lot of bluefish or toothy by catch in the area. Also tends to tumble in rough seas ore at high speeds.
  • Important Tip: Fish soft-bait spreader bars HIGH and off an outrigger or T-Top. Do not let the bar tumble.