IN THE PRESSURE COOKER
Text by Capt. Jason Henderson
Nothing will get your hairs to stand up on the back of your neck like 345 big battle wagons charging off at the same time into the warm glow of a tropical morning. All the drama of everyone edging forward on the start line and the yelling back and forth to boats over the line. The helicopters beating overhead. The smell of saltwater and diesel mixed with spray from the exhausts while you wait in the cockpit and attempt to catch one last bait.Countdown 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1ÑBANG! Giant diesel engines come to life and roar while huge white capped wakes froth the water. The boat lurches over to one side almost hitting the tower of another boat next to you. Your yacht slams down into the trough on the other side of the wave. ÒHang on!Ó someone yells. The engines are out of sync and are throbbing as the captain wrestles with the wheel to stay on line. Someone cuts you off and a wave is given with one finger. The current course of the vessel is 300 degreesÑ 250 degrees is where the fish are and the captain dodges through traffic to bring her around.This is big game tournament fishingÕs Òshotgun start.Ó Fishing for fun can be just that, but if you really want to get your adrenaline pumping faster than a tide change through Oregon Inlet, try pitting your fishing skills against your peers in a tournament setting with lots of money on the line.In Part 1 of ÒIn the Pressure CookerÓ (March/April 2003) we discussed how to enter a tournament, set up a boat and team, and divide the winnings amongst your crew without having to see a judge. In this issue, weÕre going to focus on the time between arriving at the tournamentÕs location until that first fish is on the line. For now, letÕs backtrack from the shotgun start and look at the necessary pre-tournament preparation that will give you the confidence to compete with the big boys.
PREPARING FOR THE GAME
Most things that are done successfully in life require a good plan and lots of practice. Tournament fishing is no exception. Sticking to that plan every day of every tournament will be the key to your eventual success. Be consistent and save all the learning for practice fishing. By the time you and your crew are pre-fishing a tournament, your style must be firmly in place. This means using the same knots, the same brand of line and crimps, etc., that you used all year. Hell, even wear the same underwear if it makes you feel lucky.A Ògold rushÓ mentality can develop during tournament time and crews are prone to drastic changes in their fishing style because someone else caught a fish using a different method. DonÕt fall into this trap. If your team has been together all year and practicing lure trolling and dropback fishing, for example, then it is very important to stick with that style of fishing. Charging off to the fishing grounds on the second day to toss live baits over the side will put you at the bottom of the learning curve for that style of fishing and surely end in tears.Six years ago during the Bisbee Tournament in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, one team failed to stick with what they knew best and it probably cost them a trip to the winnerÕs circle. The very experienced tournament team began tying Australian braided knots on all their equipment for the first time during the tournament. A very large black marlin was hooked and after five minutes all they got back was a very long, curly piece of line where the hook had been.The best crews will have trained in all methods of fishing during the year and will be able to switch gears smoothly between methods. Not everyone has that much time to train, so settle on a style of fishing and stick with it.Before the tournament director calls ÒLines in!Ó over the VHF, make sure your tackle is up for the job at hand. Fill all the spools with new line before pre-fishing, tie all new knots, and add new leaders. Have the reels rebuilt and install new drags before tournament season. Check and re-check all systems on the boat before even pre-fishing.Develop a plan for each pre-fishing day, just as you would for a tournament day. Follow this plan and add some drills to keep everyone sharp. Hook a bucket to a rod, clear the remaining rods, and fight it as if it was a real fish. Even practice gaffing techniques. Next, attach a towel to a dock line and ease back into the lure pattern while underway. Drop baits back to it, stopping them a foot or so in front and off to the side. Marlin cannot see directly in front of them because of their bills or directly behind them, so you have a better chance at catching their eye by putting the bait beside them.Keep notes on everything as this will be your last chance to predict where the fish will be before money time starts. DonÕt tell anyone where you were or what you caught, or all that hard work will be for nothing. Unless you really need to, donÕt even hook fish if you can help it, just tease them up. Personally, I am a little superstitious about fishing the day before a tournament starts. If I have to go out, I will not kill a fish, ever! To me itÕs just bad Karma.THE FINAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE: FINDING FISH
Develop a network of friends who are fishing within the tournament circuit regularly and compile a list of areas that are producing well and mark them on a chart. Next, subscribe to a good sea surface temperature chart provider. Download these maps every day for a week to 10 days before the tournament and note where the temperature breaks are. Big differences in temperatures will provide the best fishing, they amass baitfish. Cold water holds more oxygen and nutrients, while warm water can support more life. Each day, look to see if temperature breaks are increasing or if they are dispersing. Increasing breaks will have new fish arriving daily, while old and decreasing breaks will have fish leaving the area in search of new feeding opportunities. Also watch for the direction of the drift each day and practice predicting where the break will be the next day. Fish will always move to find food and if you can predict where that food will be, the fish will be there for you to catch.Sea mounts and banks cause upwellings of cold water, producing the same effects as temperature breaks. These will be localized and available every day as long as a current is running. The only thing that will ruin fishing banks and sea mounts is cold, green water running over them.Keep your eye open every day for signs of baitfish, and mark these on the chart also. If there is sign in the same place every day, do not overlook fishing there. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge, note any changes more than one degree and cross reference this with the temperature charts upon returning to the dock.All too often, IÕve seen people Òradio fish.Ó As soon as they hear of a fish hooked, they haul in the lines and charge off to the lucky boatÕs position. Just because someone else finds a pod of fish doesnÕt mean theyÕve found the ONLY fish. The areas between hot spots can also be productive, after all, they have to swim there and IÕm sure they are just as hungry when theyÕre on the move. More important is to be somewhere good when the tide changes. I cannot stress this enough as when the current stops or changes, baitfish become disoriented and are easy prey for predators.Lastly, spotter planes, secret spots, radio direction finders and radio scramblers are all part of the tournament scene these days. Get used to it! There is a lot of money on the lineÑsometimes millions of dollarsÑand any way your competition can bend the rules they surely will. Once, I even heard of a wealthy boat owner buying out all the live bait in town to get an edge over everyone else!Back at the dock, compile the dayÕs hook-ups and overlay this on your temperature chart and see how you did with your predictions for the day. Maybe a new pattern is developing that you overlooked. I have kept records of most blue and black marlin captures I have been involved with in Cabo San Lucas. Over the years, I have noticed a trend that blue marlin are caught more in open water and in canyons, while black marlin are concentrated over steep sea mounts and close to the edge of a sharp drop-off.Preparing during the months and days leading up to a tournament is more important than all the hype surrounding what someone is saying on a scrambled message. When a crew does their homework, itÕs like starting from the pole position in a NASCAR raceÑeveryone else is playing catch up.THE CAPTAINÕS MEETING & THE NIGHT BEFORE
After doing all this homework, it is possible to attend all the tournament functions and enjoy them to their fullest and not be back at the boat feverishly tying knots and fixing engine problems. The sign up party and captains meeting are a real blast. Everyone is on the same footing, confidence is high, egos are bursting at the seams, and there is a strong smell of big money in the air. The sign up party is the last opportunity to enter all the jackpots and side bets, and usually we all spend a little more than we can afford! Most parties also have tackle reps selling the latest and greatest products.Keep the big drinking nights to the other 360 days of the year. A hangover during tournament time will ruin a lot of your hard work and you just wonÕt be able to fish properly. Assign someone to organize all the food and drinks for the tournament before it starts. Find out what everyone wants to eat each day; all three meals should be accounted for. Choose lots of foods that can be eaten with one hand and donÕt require a plate in case it gets rough out there. It is not acceptable to heave-to and turn down swell for lunch or a cocktail during a tournament! Keep an eye on everyone to ensure plenty of water is being consumed and all are hydrated. Lots of beer is not good, but a few are just fine. Carry a full belly of fuel on board, a long fast run may be required to get back in time for weigh-in, and to run out would be devastating.DonÕt get up too early before the first day, even if you canÕt sleep. All the preparation should have been finished long agoÑonly the coffee should need making. If bait is needed to be caught, where and how should have been mastered long ago. Locating and catching them should be second nature by now. DonÕt be worried if you are the only boat headed in a particular direction. A friend of mine was the only one to head for the Golden Gate Bank in Cabo San Lucas a few years ago during the Bisbee Tournament and caught a 997-pound blue marlin for $1,000,000 in cash and prizes..LINES IN!
So, youÕve kept your cool during the shotgun start and have reached your predetermined fishing destination. Pull back the throttles to a good lure trolling speed and start fishing, and this doesnÕt mean drop off of plane and chuck Ôem in. Your base speed should be 8 knots and adjust this up or down to allow for the following factors.Firstly, consider the weather conditions. Troll faster in flat water for more lure action. Slow down in rough weather to keep the lures or baits in the water. When there is any wave action present, I have had the best results trolling down-swell. I feel this is because marlin run with the swells to feed and will swim quickly back up swell over an area and start again. To get the most out of down-swell trolling, run at 45 degrees to the waves down-swell and straight back up when working an area. When going back up troll faster, even if the lures jump out of the water occasionally, as this will give you more time going back down again. If there is a long temperature break, start by running fast to the upwind end and trolling down-swell all the way along it.Put the plastic in the water by gently swinging the lure to the side of the boat. Stroke the lure before doing this to ensure there no kinks in the leader, the hook is positioned straight up, and the skirt is not all bunched. I favor the big ÒWÓ trolling pattern, with the center lure dropped way back and others staggered on the waves. This pattern works well for tight aggressive turns as the lures cross under and over each other and will almost always straighten out tangle-free. To do this, I put the short corner lure on the third wave, the other flat line on the forth or fifth wave and so on.PERFECTING THE PATTERN
One trick IÕve used is to position a large Kona head lure down the center of my spread. These lures have a long head angled about 45 degrees with a scooped-out face, and produce a tremendous amount of action, spending half their time splashing vigorously upside down on the surface, and the other half swimming wildly side-to-side underwater. The secret to this lureÕs effectiveness lies in the fact that after a marlin strikes one of the closer lures it generally stops and looks around for the injured baitfish it just hit. All of a sudden, this crazy Kona lure comes swimming by and the marlin thinks, ÒThere it is!Ó This time sheÕll bite a little harder.Lure selection is another important topic. Each lure has been designed to swim differently and is better suited for certain positions in the pattern. Concave head lures swim with a fast wiggle and produce lots of bubbles and are best close in to the boat. Slant head lures are the all-around lures as they swim more aggressively than concave lures, but are more forgiving. Tube lures have a tubular head with very little or no taper and are great for rough water and as outrigger lures. Jet heads, which have made a comeback in recent years, run straight and produce a lot of bubbles.Lures should have some weight to them to troll effectively in a variety of sea conditions, and this weight should be in the bottom of the head. So-called ÒbalancedÓ lures with the weight in the middle will spin like a propeller, which will only serve to chew up the leader and look unnatural to game fish!I try to imitate nature, so my lures are lighter in color on the belly and darker on the top, just like a real fish. Darker skirts on the inside and lighter on the outside will give your lure a three dimensional look which I feel is an advantage when trying to fool picky fish. I like big lures and believe small lures will catch small fish, and usually the wrong kind such as tuna and dorado when the target is big marlin. These non-target species take up valuable time that could be used to hook or fight a large money winner.Placing lures on the face of waves is critical. For one, lures are more easily spotted by the captain and crew if theyÕre on the front instead of the back of waves. Game fish also have a better chance at seeing lures running in the clean water on the faces of waves. On windy days, it may be necessary to position lures lower on the face so the line and leader are close to or even in the water to prevent them from blowing out. On most days, IÕd rather position lures higher on the face of the wave as that allows them to work to their maximum potential, with the best swimming action and line and leader completely out of the water and thus invisible to fish.This takes a little studying of where the face is and keeping the boat speed consistent on a pass over an area. When the speed increases, so does the distance between waves and their shape. Continual tinkering is needed to get the best out of your lures. Also watch out for weeds and trash. Constant attention to the lures also keeps everyone interested and looking for possible dropback targets, i.e., hungry marlin.LOOKING FOR AN OASIS IN THE DESSERT
With all that research done before fishing starts, a successful captain must still know what signs to look for. ItÕs a desert out there, so small things around the boat and clues off in the distance are what will lead you to fish. Start by watching the sonar/fishfinder. Balls of bait in less than 100 feet of water have predators herding them together. Anything deeper is probably not worth looking at. Circle around the meter mark and not directly over it. Work in tight circles as this mimics a school of bait being balled on the surface with all the bubbles and prop wash. Striped marlin can be caught by stopping the boat and dropping down live baits to the depth of the bait ball with the aid of a breakaway sinker.Here in California, gulls and pelicans are the primary fish-finding birds we look for. In Mexico, pelicans and frigate birds are the best signs on the horizon. Frigates circle bait being balled up, and turn their wing tips downward before diving and feeding. Visible dark patches on the water can indicate bait schools. Dorado jump when being pursued by marlin so watch out for grey-hounding dodoÕs. Anything floating will hold bait and usually a larger fish waiting to eat them is not far away. There are small clues everywhere at sea. Keep your eyes open, crew alert, and maximize every small clue found. Time is defiantly money so donÕt drive aimlessly around the ocean.And if youÕve done everything right up until this point, a dark shape should soon appear under the right rigger, slashing the water with its large bill and leaving nothing but a patch of foam where your lure used to be ...