SportFishing and Charters Forum - Skipjack beside the boat

Fished yesterday. Marlin fishing all day. Not a strike, it happens. But we saw 3 or 4 fish swimming beside the boat, in the wake. Couldn't identify so we caught one and it was small skippys. These swam with us, beside the boat for over 3 hours that we know of. I have never heard of this.

Tried to get some pics of the spread, just can't see it. You can see my rocket launcher station I build. The white box on the front is what I call the trough. The purpose is to have a place to store lures that we have used or will us without them laying all over the boat.

I like the work station over your motors. :thumbsup:

1. Damn thing looks like a frigging purple widerange.

2. Makes you wonder whether lures really need to smoke...

Thank you Auguste!

Patudo, we had plenty of time to think about this while watching him and the 2-4 others with him. We finally decided this was our personal live dredge. Unfortunately on this day, it didn't help but we couldn't see anything negative about him being there.

A couple of other thoughts:

3. How often does this happen without us seeing it?

4. If skippies will swim beside the boat, why don't we run a lure there? Just imagine the sort of bite you'd get from a blue crashing a lure right beside the boat!

It's really neat that you had them swimming along for 3 hours. I've seen some recent trolling cam footage from the Canary Islands that recorded a skipjack school following the boat, but the school didn't hang around for long. Mind you, I found it interesting that the school was willing to follow the boat, even for 10-15 seconds. Maybe they were using the boat's slipstream or pressure wave for a free ride, like dolphins?

Aliens looking for the mothership.

Unfortunately on this day, it didn't help but we couldn't see anything negative about him being there.

Not Unfortunate at all. Have had many days without a look just part of the game. The other side is the days you have multiple attempts and score on those attempts. I love those days but the other days give use a chance to fine tune other things we need to work on. Mark

Why didn't I think of live bait teasers????? That's wild!!

Not Unfortunate at all. Have had many days without a look just part of the game. The other side is the days you have multiple attempts and score on those attempts. I love those days but the other days give use a chance to fine tune other things we need to work on. Mark

Oh we know but that doesn't make it sting less. We are doing what we have to do, putting in the time and I feel a 2 marlin day coming soon. :) We enjoyed the day for sure but as you know, catching the target bill makes it a better day!

If no marlin came up to those and your spread, Nobody home, keep pluggin away!

If no marlin came up to those and your spread, Nobody home, keep pluggin away!

100% right. You know, still disappointing but we will definitely keep looking. We have a goal of 5 blues this year and have 2 so far.

Maybe you should have bridled one up and slow trolled.

You changed the way you have the trough mounted, looks great. My project is evolving, slowly, but moving forward. Like the sticker....

Should have caught a few threw a big circle in it and let them flop around the boat for a while!! :grin:

I would have done just as Tim did, I have had fish that came up on natural bait teasers, then hammer a lure, now if things looked really fishy, flyers, window shoppers etc, then I would live bait in a heartbeat.

Maybe you should have bridled one up and slow trolled.

Trust me, we discussed it.

You changed the way you have the trough mounted, looks great. My project is evolving, slowly, but moving forward. Like the sticker....

When it was built, I had slots cut into it to allow me to use velcro straps to secure it. That way, no metal to corrode, easy to get on and off. Well, turns out, that wasn't the case. Easy to get off, difficult to secure and always crooked.

I had the original fabricator weld a small plate on the front of the launcher then secured the trough with 3 screws. They are secured with wing nuts because I can take those off with my hands, no tools. And, you cannot see the wing nuts so no big deal there. We love that thing.

Fished yesterday. Marlin fishing all day. Not a strike, it happens. But we saw 3 or 4 fish swimming beside the boat, in the wake. Couldn't identify so we caught one and it was small skippys. These swam with us, beside the boat for over 3 hours that we know of. I have never heard of this.

Tried to get some pics of the spread, just can't see it. You can see my rocket launcher station I build. The white box on the front is what I call the trough. The purpose is to have a place to store lures that we have used or will us without them laying all over the boat.

Awesome looking workstation/rocket launcher, really cool.

Thank you. We really believe it makes the boat easier to fish.