February 20, 2017
By Florida Sportsman
During this FS Seminar, Rick Ryals ventures 60 miles offshore of Jacksonville Beach in search of fast-moving pelagics. Bruiser blackfin tuna, wahoo, and dolphin gobbled hard-plastic lipped diving plugs, in favor of natural presentations.
A great rule of thumb when putting together a trolling spread is to stagger your lures and baits both vertically and horizontally.
On top of the water, make sure your spread has a variety of long baits and short baits, maybe even one that is very close, or very far, as opposed to the others. Below the water, make sure you have baits that skip, swim just below the surface, and those that disappear into the watery depths. This will help prevent tangles and find where the fish are "liking" your presentations the best.
On top of that, varying your baits in the spread is crucial as well.
Beyond trolling variations of ballyhoo, trolling hard plastic lures that dive and wobble below the surface offers anglers an opportunity to both vary their baits in the spread and offer baits at varying depths. The ideal trolling spread would place a lure or two of this nature, into the mix. In this case, offering the lipped-divers produced by Yo-Zuri made for an action-packed day.
