Casting around for fun beats trolling any day

I MUST admit I don’t really have the stomach for long periods of trolling.

PDG There are still good numbers of spanish mackerel on the outer reefs. pic supplied by Linton heffer

I MUST admit I don’t really have the stomach for long periods of trolling.

Maybe the word should be temperament rather than stomach, as I find fishing without actually having the rod in hand to be a little dreary.

That is not to say dragging lures behind a boat doesn’t work – clearly it does and that’s why so many people do it – but I just prefer to take a slightly different approach to this method of fishing.

There is no doubt trolling is a great way to find fish, especially the sort of hard-hitting pelagics you tend to be targeting with this style of fishing.

With these highly mobile species such as spanish mackerel, various types of tuna, and even salmon, you will often know roughly where they should be, but not exactly where they are.

So the best approach is to put some suitable lures out the back and cover some ground, hoping that the paths of the lures and the fish will eventually intersect.

When it does happen, often it will lead to multiple hook-ups as schools of fish are encountered.

This is when I tend to get motivated.

Rarely are tuna, spaniards or salmon on their own, so I keep a casting rod rigged up and ready to go.

Sometimes I have a minnow lure on it, sometimes a large metal, and other times something like a Halco Max.

If I’m really confident of finding fish, it might be a stickbait or Roosta popper.

As soon as a fish is hooked and the motor is cut, I’ll start pinging lures around the boat.

More often than not it leads to some great fishing action, in fact this approach rarely seems to fail.

One of the things I love about casting lures, rather than trolling, is feeling the crunching initial strike of a big fish.

If the fish aren’t fired up enough to be hitting minnows, poppers or stickbaits, then sinking lures such as big Raiders or the Maxs can be a great way of firing them up.

I just cast the lure out, let it sink to the bottom and then reef it back up as quick as possible, which can be deadly on tuna and mackerel.

So remember to keep a casting rod at the ready whenever you’re trolling, you might be surprised at just how much fun it could lead to.