It takes two to tangle with a billfish when fly fishing. That's Helen Robinson handling the teaser rig while husband Webster stands ready with flyrod.

As to the lure, if things turn out right and you tease a billfish into a striking mood near tour boat, he just might hit most any large salt-water streamer fly or popping bug you throw at him. But Robinson eventually worked out a lure which not only increased his number of strikes, but afforded a much higher percentage of positive hookups.

This was an oversized popper he built with the head of a foam popping cork, a dozen long white hackles, and a 7/0 hook with the point carefully triangulated and sharpened to a knife edge. He flattened the underside of the foam head so the hook would ride point-upright and thus tend to take hold in an exceptionally vulnerable spot in the upper jaw, right at the base of the bill.

The Fishing System

Basically, the system revolves around the use of a hookless teaser bait. This bait is trolled in normal fashion until a billfish is raised. The person handling the teaser must then manipulate the bait, bringing it ever closer to the boat, and all the while keeping the fish interested and following.

A Pacific sailfish often will keep charging the teaser recklessly, although never catching it, and sometimes can even be teased within range of the fly by using an artificial teaser, such as a big surface plug with hooks removed.

The Robinsons quickly found, how- ever, that a striped marlin was a much more level-headed customer. Not only was it necessary to use a teaser made from natural bait, but also to let the marlin get a good taste of it in order to keep him coming.

If a marlin takes the teaser bait, has it yanked away from him, and then charges again, it's a pretty good sign he will continue to follow to within casting range. And this is a key stage, for as soon as the teaser-handler feels the fish has committed himself to the chase, he or she must holier, “Out of Gear!" so the captain can slip the engine into neutral.

This is another point necessitated by rules. By the time the cast is made, the boat must be still in the water, so that boat motion cannot contribute to the action of the fly.

After the teaser-handler orders the boat out of gear, he continues to lure the fish closer by manual cranking on his reel while the boat is losing momentum. And if the fish shows the slightest sign of waning interest, he must be allowed to grab the bait again.

One more tricky and critical phase still awaits the operator of the teaser: getting the bait out of the water at the right time. With sailfish it usually is all right to crank the teaser to the transom and lift it out of the water. But if a mar- I in sees the boat, Isis usual reaction is to dive and get the heck out of there.

Therefore, when the marlin had come within a moderate cast of the stern, Helen would yank the bait out of the water-making a long sweep with her teaser rod in order to sail the bait far enough toward the bow so the fish could not see where it went.

This maneuver also should make the marlin all the more angry and confused, and all the more likely to attack the fly, which hits the water at just this time.

Now the burden of producing shifts from the shoulders of the teaser-handler to those of the fisherman.

The caster's impulse would be to throw his fly ahead of the fish, but trial and error proved to Robinson that this wasn't the thing to do. A billfish which follows the fly is less likely to hit it, and if he does take it, the straight-on strike seldom results in a good hookup.

Robinson would throw his fly behind the irritated fish and pop it noisily. His aim was to make the fish wheel suddenly and crash the fly at a right angle. Al- most invariably, when this was accomplished, the hook locked up tight.

Another way in which sailfish and marlin differ, Robinson discovered, was in preference for lure action. Sailfish generally would hit the bug when it was retrieved in normal fashion, with sharp and steady pulls of the line to make it pop. In order to interest a marlin, though, he had to move the fly much more actively, by sweeping his rod upward as he stripped in line fast, thus making the lure skitter across the top.

So now we have teased up the billfish and cast to him and hooked him (it's easy here on paper, isn't it?). We'll move on to the fight after some details about making the proper teaser.

As mentioned, a sailfish might well respond to an artificial teaser. And, of course, a live bait or a ballyhoo rigged without hooks would be likely to raise either a marlin or a sailfish. But neither makes a satisfactory teaser bait, for the simple reason of fragility.

Since it is absolutely necessary for marlin, and very helpful for sailfish, to actually grab and taste the teaser, a strong and durable teaser bait should be used. The answer is a venerable rig which many veteran bluewater anglers know as the "Panama belly bait". It is a long, teardrop-shaped strip cut from the belly of a baitfish--preferably a bonito, though others can be used-then folded over a wire or cable leader, and sewn to shape. When finished it roughly resembles a slender baitfish and has great swimming action when trolled.

Naturally, this bait is rigged with a hook for regular fishing, without one for use as a teaser-some of the stitches being sewn through loops in the leader to hold the bait in place.

Fighting a Billfish

It would take a dedicated engineer many long days at the drawing board to design a set of tackle less well suited to battling billfish than a fly outfit. The reef, small diameter to start with, is stuck way down on the butt end of the rod where its most difficult to reach and to crank. Besides that, the crank must be turned four or five times for every yard of line regained, meaning four or five hundred turns to pick up100 yards. It makes your wrist and elbow tired just to think about it. But that's part of the game.

When the fish hits you strike hard two or three times to set the hook. Then, as in all fly fishing, you keep slight tension on the excess line with your left hand until the running fish takes out all loose line and your reel drag can take over. The drag should be pre-set at no more than three pounds.

On the first run there's not much you can do except keep a good bend in the rod and hang on, But there's a lot the boat operator must do! It doesn't take long for a racing, greyhounding sail or marlin to cover 200 yards and more, and so threaten your entire line capacity very quickly. The boat must start in chase almost at once--forward, not backing down, and at a pretty fast clip.

Throughout the fight, the skipper must stand ever ready to pursue, and it's during these chases that the angler is compelled to under go the abominable chore of cranking the reel a couple of hundred times or more to retrieve his precious line

On the other hand, the boat should not give chase any more than is necessary to keep a working supply of line on the spool. Whenever possible, the angler must fight his fish directly and fight hard pumping and pressuring just as much as he would do with light trolling tackle. Excess boat movement only helps relieve pressure on the fish

Robinson decided that best odds of victory are achieved by applying as much pressure as possible, as early as possible, while the light tippet is in good shape and has little wear on it.

Sometimes perhaps several times during a fight, a sailfish or marlin is bound to go deep. There is little percentage in staying directly over a sounding fish and attempting to pump him up with the flyrod. Instead, have the boat move away. You yield some line in the process, but the wider angle almost always coaxes the fish back to the surface.

Another important point in boat maneuvering is to keep the fish off to the side of the boat as much as possible. And when pursuing, to travel on a parallel course with that of the fish, but off to the side of him. The primary purpose of these efforts is to keep the leader and line from falling back over the body of the fish. In other words, you try to keep the leader at right angles to the fish as much as you can. It's a challenge that can never be achieved to perfection throughout the fight, but you keep trying.

Every thing about fly-fishing for billfish is more difficult than with other tackle and techniques, and the final step--landing the fish--is no exception.

You don't have a long and sturdy leader that can be grabbed and handled. So you must eventually fight your prize all the way to the boat and prod him within reach of the gaff. A flying gaff is by far the best landing device, but a regular gaff with eight-foot handle (the longest permitted under angling rules), can be successfully used.

So there's the Robinson system, fully detailed. Easy it isn't. But any able flyrodder, in the right waters, can hook sailfish or marlin by practicing the sys- tem with dedication.

And with a bit of luck and a lot of chances, he can add his name to one of the most exclusive clubs in all sports fishing.

FS