Inshore Trolling
(for Dolphin fish - mahai mahai; Mackerel; Tuna and Kingfish)

1. Use the smaller lures (up to 8 inch). For example, Xmas tree's, Small Cona (6 inch) or the Medium Osy.
   
   
2. Set an alternate "zigzag pattern" of up to 6 lures i.e. one forward one back, one forward, etc. Set them no further than 10 to 12 metres behind the boat running at 5-6 knots. This will ensure that the prop wash is minimal and the small lures are readily visible to fish and not hidden by the bubbles in the prop wash. In twin motor vessels, trolling with only one motor will increase your catch rate.
   
   
3. On hookup, most people tend to stop to pull in the fish and may catch one to three fish at a time. Most of these game fish will shoal in numbers of three to perhaps hundreds of fish therefore, on hook up, continue trolling as the hooked fish will attract others to the remaining lures and maximize your hookups. The key is to NOT STOP. When you stop, fish are lost, lines crossed and frustration builds. Instead, drop to half speed, to prevent crossing lines. By maintaining forward speed, the other lures remain working and less tangles will be caused by the tension on all the lines. This is easier to do with 2-4 people on board to man the lines.
   
   
4. Using this technique, eventually, you should be able to hook up more and more fish until all the trolled lures have a fish. A similar technique can also be applied for surf fishing for Tailor. By keeping the fish in the water until someone else has placed a bait/ lure behind the fighting fish, will keep the school interested and increase hookups.
   
   

Offshore Trolling (for larger game fish)

An average spread consists of 4 - 5 lures at an average speed of 7-9 knots. There are always different variants/methods/opinions throughout different areas of Australia however, this trend I have found successful in many regions of Australia as well as overseas. Basically the trend goes as follows:

Setting the lures for shade and size

• Larger lures in darker colours should be set closer to the boat. This generates large bubble trails and/or splashes for the smaller lures to trail in. As you head further back and out to clearer water on the outriggers, use lighter colours.
  

Why the colour matters?

Fish don't see colour but rather monochromatic shades of colours from black down to grey. Within the colour spectrum, certain colours become less visual with depth (eg. Red is the first colour within the visible light spectrum to become invisible with depth. This is why many reef fish living in deep areas such as Emperor, Nannygai are red.

Blue and green are the last colours to become invisible in low light, so darker baitfish are better represented with lures of darker colours like black and purple to throw a clearer visual silhouette.

But what's it all mean to you? We know that baitfish don't change colour daily. But weather, low light situations and large prop-washes and wake make it difficult for fish down deep to see our lures. This is why we design them to make bubbles, have a high silhouette, rattle, splash and shine to get the fish's attention.

Furthermore we can also use big shiny and noisy teasers/birds with trailing squid teasers to draw inquisitive fish up to our lures. By using dark colours in big lures close to the boat make them more visual to fish among the wake and the prop-wash of the boat. The smaller and lighter colour lures set further back in the clearer water where they will be more visual and gain more light for their reflection.

Why we use lures and why we all have different favourites?

Some people still use bait, or switch bait techniques, so why use lures?

• Bait is not always available, and can be messy resulting in more work cleaning the boat,
• Bait does not make bubble trails,
• Bait is harder to get to troll without spinning/skipping,
• Bait do not have highly reflective holographic shine built into it,
• Bait must be trolled slower,
• Bait takes a longer time to rig, and
• Bait often pulls and breaks apart especially if it has been hit requiring re-rigging

The only thing bait has that a lure does not, is smell and taste. However, when a lure has caught a fish, the unnatural smell of resin, glues and vinyls, are replaced with the natural smell of fish and possibly any hormones release by the stressed/hooked fish. Essentially your lure will begin to smell and taste like a threatened and injured baitfish rather than just a dead one. This is why when you eventually loose your favourite lure and replace it with a replica it does not work as well as your old lure. To increase it's effectiveness, leave your new lures in the bucket with freshly caught fish.

Everybody has a favourite lure and surprisingly they can be different colours and styles to someone else's favourite. If you like pink lures, and somebody gave you a blue one, you would tend to try it once and if it didn't work, you would be less likely to use it again instead of one that looks more like your favourite. In this way, your favourite colours are usually in the water more often than your less preferred so you tend to refine the speed and set up of those lures to make them even more effective thus even more favourite than those you are less more experienced with.

Basically, everyone buys a lure either because they like it visually, they have a similar one that works or that they have been told it works. Remember, if you limit your choices to only those that you like, eventually all lures in your tackle box end up the same colour or shape and you will have less options open to you in a changing situation or a different location.

What's so special about KLF lures?

1. KLF LURES are Australian made and are a handmade quality item developed specifically to maximize the fishermen's chances via testing and feedback to increase catches of targeted species.
   
   
2. These products are designed by a "Mad Keen" commercial fisherman with extensive fishing knowledge built up from both here and overseas.
   
   
3. The Lure colours are carefully matched to baitfish colours and sizes, not matched to attract fisherman.
   
   
4. Luminous beads are incorporated in the body as spacer beads to increase lure glow similar to some baitfish which light up on the run.
   
   
5. The lure heads incorporate a solid nylon insert running the full length of the lure's head, protruding slightly at the rear to prevent nylon damage against the sometimes sharp resins. This is an advantage for use with light tackle.
   
   
6. On big fish, all crimps pull tight into lures preventing it sliding up the line when a fish strikes.
   
   
7. The 4mm hole also allows anglers to be able to pull the leader out of the rear of lure, without cutting crimps off to change hooks, or change leaders or from mono to wire if toothy critters appear.
   
   
8. We have larger visual holographic tape size in the heads than most commercial models.
   
   
9. Most other lures have only approximately 2mm holes through the head. We have much larger stepped holes to initiate cavitation which increases the bubble trail. This is immediately evident once you begin trolling our lures. As our lure head size increases so do the hole sizes up to 15mm step for the larger lure heads.
   
   
10. Cavitations through the heads not only makes more bubbles but also makes more noise and causes the lures to wobble more thus more effective at getting the fish's attention.
    
    
11. Larger cavity holes allow more water to jet through the heads as bubbles. The combination of the more stable pressure on the lure face, and the drag of the cavitation at the rear results in our lures able to stay on the water at faster speeds.
    
    
12. Our last tip to anglers is when you buy our lures, catch a small tuna, open it up and rub the lures in it to destroy the unnatural glue smell. This makes our lures more effective than bait, leaving more room in the fridge for beer.