Spreader Bars and Daisy Chains...Whoos Packin' em?

[OuterLimits]

I wanted to unbury this subject from last year to see if any Salty Dogs out there used Spreader Bars or Daisy Chains in there arsenal of WMD for tuna last year? How successful did they produce and what recommendations do you have for the ifish community about using them? I know that those who fish for Yellowtail, Blue Fin, and other species of Tuna use then on a regular basis with great results.

Go ahead,…make our day and show those pics!

[ron m]

Haven't used them yet nor have I seen them in action. But I'm thinking of making one to try this year. Maybe we will have a TA meeting before the season and somebody will bring one to show.
ron m

[tracker]

I made up what I guess you would call a daisy chain. In my first video you can see it in action. I had 4 or 5 2" red squids in front of a red and white feather. Caught there or four on a 18 fish day. I would say it worked.

[Onokai]

I have used and do pack several daisy chains always. The spreader Bars seem to be such a pain to operate I'll leave that to the likes of Tred Barta whoe seems to like to swear more than anyone I know. I will get some easy working ones from The shark Garu-Fred Archer some day.
The dasiy chains we run in a blue moon on bigger trolling gear. What we run on slower trolling days are false daiy chains with no hooks tied to bungees to attact fish into the rod spread. As meat line fishing is to our style ( we are rod and reel folks) the attractors bring fish to the spread and we hook them on other lures. This works great on slow trolling days. My crew hates these line's but tolorates the results. Mark

[Mr. Fisherman]

Yes, I do.
I cut my spreader bar apart asnd run chains.
Cheap and easy to make or just get the $18 special at Fishermans Marine.

[Billfisher]

Myles is all about Daisy Chains. He brought some out on my boat, and about every third fish was on one. That having been said, it was one of those WFO days when everyone produced.

[Seelicious]

We used the Archer bars on a full moon in Cabo and out fished all the boats around us...twice! The fish would take the bars and then the chains.

We mix in the cedar plug chains...we have had great luck with these the last 3 years.

Hoochie chains also produced well for us.

If you think about it, why run 5-6 baits when you can run 40? If the fish are on and you're getting covered with singles...great! It's when they're not on that these really help. Mix in the "toad" teaser and now your spread is alive.


If anyone is interested in the Archer catalog, email me bud@realnetinc.com I have the online version to share.

But don't use them in the tournaments...

[Mark Mc]

hehehe....already looking for "tricks" to win the tournament. Better have a pretty big bag of tricks, not just a few spreader bars.

[Seelicious]

While you're throwin' those little swim baits with light line...taking all kinds of time to land a fish...

We will have 4 Archer bars and 4 chains bringing 8 fish to the boat at a time...might even have to break out the handlines to speed things up!

Mark I love the smack talk early...and often!!

[Zodiac-Fisherman]

Another good one is a 40oz cannon ball with a downrigger cable, and immediatly drop that overboard with a fish trap after hooking up..still trolling at a few mph. This is a cali method.. Happy to devulge this info.. Bring it on Nor-Mid-So Cali brats.. Its time to get our game on.

Me thinks livebait is gonna riegn supremacy.

[Mark Mc]

:lurk:

[pijon]

How about somebody post some photos of "locally productive" daisy chains so some of us can make a few while we wait for our new boat to get finished?
Also when is this tournament? Seems kind of early for trash talkin!

[Seelicious]

Mark what happened?

I was working on a response...but I guess this is not the place seeing how it was focused on bars and chains.

It's never too early to talk smack...especially to the Jedi!

[Good News Tuna]

I made a couple of these last year after the topic came up. They worked as good as anything or better. Seemed like the morning was the best for the chains and then later things would equalize. I like em' and will always have one in the spread unless we try to run all plugs or something uniform. Here is the link (good read) http://www.eastcape.org/Articles/DaisyChain/article.html

[pijon]

Thanks for the drawing. I thought they were tied on a single line. Shows how much I know about tuna. The link doesn't work for me. I will search the forum for daisy chains.

[pijon]

http://www.eastcape.org/Articles/Dai...n/article.html
I did the search and found the article. Now I may have a use for all those salmon hoochies that I never use.

[ron m]

The link didn't work for me either, but you can get there by cutting the address and putting it in your browser.

Now, one of us should get a roll of 300 lb. mono and share at a TA meeting!

ron m

[Onokai]

Pm sent Ron m. Mark

[OuterLimits]

pijon, nice article and very informative...thanks for sharing!!

[pijon]

Thanks but Hardwood gets the credit. He posted the original link. I am still trying to learn this tuna game. I will finally have a boat capable of getting there this year so I am learning all I can from this board and others. Making up daisy chains seems pretty simple. I already have some of the stuff lying around.

[Paddler]

Good article. That trolling diagram shows nicely how to keep good separation between your inside and outside lines, using releases off the transom. I was wondering how to achieve that on my boat with four rods sticking straight out from the sides.

[Threemuch]

They should call that jumping bait predator rig "the tanglemeister" or the "tanglenator". I wouldn't run anything like that in any kind of wind. And in flat clam, less is more IMHO.

Gimme some direct tied TCF100s run with 40 pound mono in the flat stuff.

Teasers, birds, chain, daisy chains are all cool in the rough stuff.

Largest recorded rod and reel albacore (Don Giberson's fish) was taken trolling, not live bait. Disqualified from IGFA because of tandem hooks, it's still the biggest one been caught by the likes of us.

[Paddler]

How big was it?

[ron m]

Jeez, I need some time on the ocean. I'm dreaming of tuna again and thinking about rigging some of these chains is making the tuna fever worse!

I think I'm gonna try some this next season. I spent many unproductive hours trolling last year and if this might increase the no. of hits, then it'll be worth trying. During the tuan tournament we trolled all day, saw jumpers, and nary a hit. yuck, that was frustrating. All three of us were unhappy about not catching fish even though it was an otherwise nice day on the ocean. For me, learnig means trying and in this case, I think trying something new is in order. If I get some nasty tangles, well then, I'll have learned something--the hard way too! But getting some fish instead of none will make some tangles worthwhile.
ron m

[Threemuch]

Ron-
In my experience, when you see jumpers and know you are in the fish, but they won't bite, more gear in the water isn't going to make it happen. In fact, quite the opposite. Finnesse is required. Long lines way back with small feathers, trolling fish traps and plugs at low speeds, drifting live or dead bait, casting traps and iron.

I haven't seen a day yet when you couldn't get fish to go with feathers and straight daisy chains and teasers, but a jumping daisy chain or spreader bar would make them go.

Of course, if you can't get em to bite, you might as well throw the kitchen sink at em.

[ron m]

Well, I'm still learning and hope to be more successful. I have the "swimbaits" now and will try trolling them slowly, but want to be more successful trolling when I don't see the tuna.

When I make these up, I'll probably only try one of the jumping type, but it does intrigue me, seems like the "baitfish" would look more natural. I'll make up at least one of all three types.
ron m

[Bait O' Eggs]

Ron, do like everybody else, get on the radio and beg for numbers and technique and color and ....... then whine and complain some more till you find some fish, it seemed to work for quite a few last year

[ron m]

Actually, on the one good day we had on my boat for tuna, I was called to a location. The caller went before I got there as the bite had slowed down, but we still got some and I called in other dogs. We were all getting them trolling. Not lots, but some and we hadn't caught any earlier.
ron m

[Onokai]

I agree with this quote
Ron-
In my experience, when you see jumpers and know you are in the fish, but they won't bite, more gear in the water isn't going to make it happen. In fact, quite the opposite. Finnesse is required. Long lines way back with small feathers, trolling fish traps and plugs at low speeds, drifting live or dead bait, casting traps and iron.
I haven't seen a day yet when you couldn't get fish to go with feathers and straight daisy chains and teasers, but a jumping daisy chain or spreader bar would make them go.
Of course, if you can't get em to bite, you might as well throw the kitchen sink at em.

I also have had great luck with the tuna roundup. Do a search on this topic on the offshoreanglers site. This has worked almost every time when the fish are deep and not intrested. You will need some dead bait to chop up . Mark

[5 Salt]

Ron, do like everybody else, get on the radio and beg for numbers and technique and color and ....... then whine and complain some more till you find some fish, it seemed to work for quite a few last year