Homemade Fishing Lures

[maxingout]

I read that Mahi Mahi can grow 2 cm a day when they are in a growth phase.

[Splash Gordon]

And I've mugged a couple of 'em with my Killer© lures!
Out of desperation after losing my favourite red Halco to what could only have been a submarine, I discovered that they (dorado, or whatever, FFS!!!) as well as Yellowfin found my rudely-constructed killer lure irresistable. I drilled the top of a PET coke bottle like the 5-spots on a dice, and strung a treble-hook with a 1/2oz sinker through the hole. The top of the bottle I cut off just below the cap, and then I screwed the cap closed with a skirt of shredded chip-packet, and some frayed sail-tie for colour. For a few cents of odds and ends, I made a lure that worked as well as a hundred-rand ($12-odd) Halco, and had two 6kg Dorado for the pot!
Dorado are fish which pair for life- if you catch one, its mate is close by, so often it's a 50%-off sale if you can get a line into the mate! I have ethical issues with the guys who fish them artificially with FAD's, which are basically curtains of shadecloth which they set up in deep water so the Dorado shelter beneath them, so that they can be hauled out wholesale, but that's an off-topic rant!

[Sailndive345]

Originally Posted by Splash Gordon

...Dorado are fish which pair for life- if you catch one, its mate is close by, so often it's a 50%-off sale if you can get a line into the mate! ...

Around here (SE USA), when one is hooked, you leave the fish in the water and hook the second dolphin (or more) with another fishing line... The sportfishing folks tend to get carried away, however - I have seen charters return to port with more than thirty mahis - mostly schoolies (=just a couple of pounds)

Hmmmm, I wonder if there is any fish in the freezer

Sailndive

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by anjou

ok so its a fish not a mammal. Thats good but go easy on poor fish even though they may seem to be plentiful. As tuna stocks crash, other species will be next for over fishing and eradication.

If you have to eat it, make sure you respect it and dont waste any.

Easier said than done.

The legal size for mackerel (common catch on spoon in QLD) is larger than can be consumed in a day or even 2.
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/28_3042.htm

OK for those that have freezers or who are fishing for the day, but I believe cruisers, on passage, should be able to have one day sized fish.

Many has been the time where unfortunately, fish has been wasted when a smaller one would have been better.

[Canibul]

I think it's ten pounds of fish per fisherman on board per day here.

Of course, they don't enforce it. Kinda hard when you pull in a 70 lb. yellowfin tuna and there are only two of you on board.

[cameron forsyth]

To enjoy both a good whiskey plus provide an excuse to increase consumption, the plastic pourer top on the bottle that supposedly stops adulteration. Johnny Walker black label. Make hole though the centre. I do it with a hot ice pick. Using 150 to 300 lb mono leader passed through the centre put on plastic beads as spacer and then a single or double hook, spaced about 6 to 9 inches behind pourer top head. Use nylon hair, my preferred colours are red & white in clear blue water, yellow green in darker greener waters or late afternoon. Found lure leaves a good bubble trail, surface and dive. Great success in Pacific for Dorado, tuna and sailfish.
In the Caribbean in shallow waters a white handkerchief tied to a hook will nearly always get a barracuda

[barnakiel]

"Something is inherently wrong ..."

Yea - and at the other end of the Penn there ought to be at least a Morris or better yet a Wally. Further down the Wally then comes the Rolls, the Mac and the iPod Nano, the last one attached to a guy with a lot o cash and very little idea of how to catch a fish !

;-)