FISHING TACKLE AND COMMENTS 



because they have it on board and like to hear themselves talk. 



I have no use for wooden teasers. Your bait should be your 

 teaser, so why have a wooden plug out there that, if hit by a 

 billfish before you can get it, will so alarm him that he prob- 

 ably will not be seen again? I doubt if you would hit your 

 head against a piece of wood a second time, and I believe 

 the average fish reacts the same way. He would be so fright- 

 ened that he would sound immediately. If you want to use a 

 teaser, put a whole dead fish out there but keep it short inside 

 the bait and have one man stationed on it all the time. 

 Don't let him take his eyes off it. I call teasers "despera- 

 tion divers," definitely to be used as a last resort late in the 

 afternoon or some time when you haven't been able to do 

 anything else. Actually they shouldn't be used even then. 



I'm always amused when some people say they would not 

 have outriggers on their boats because they make the hooking 

 of fish automatic. It is twice as hard to hook a fish from the 

 outrigger as it is in the wake, for you cannot feel him until 

 the line comes down and therefore cannot use the judgment 

 with him that you would if he hit the bait when you had 

 the rod in your hand. It is very difficult to determine how 

 much slack should be left flying in the air from an outrigger. 

 Since you almost always have to, and definitely should, 

 freespool the reel after the line has come out— what differ- 

 ence does it make? If you try to hook the average marlin 

 with the amount of dropback that is on the outrigger you 

 will usually find that you will miss him and will then have to 

 reel fast in order to get him back to the bait— the correct 

 procedure, by the way, when you fail to hook a fish. Race the 

 bait back and hold the reel on freespool with the bait about 



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