[ArielM]

Can someone please explain what a teaser reel on a sport fish is used for? I have a hatteras sport fish with a real nice teaser reel and i dont know how to use it (all i know is that it's used for fishing . Any input on this would be great.

[Capt Fred]

Teasers reels come into play when fishing for marlin. Typically a large hookless lure (teaser) is trolled in the pattern. When a marlin come up to look at the teaser. The teaser is reeled in and typically a live bait is dropped back as the teaser is pulled in so the fish will take the bait. This method of fishing reguires someone to constantly watch the pattern and be ready to jump into action. It allows the boat to cover more area by trolling at faster speeds and conserving live baits. I typically do not use teasers, I just runs 6 or 7 marlin lures and have good success without the use of teasers.

[Bamboo]

Fred's got it right but teasers are used for most any billfish except swordfish when trolling. They can also pull spreader bars/strips if wanted. Using a teaser is standard when using flyfishing gear for sailfish.

[ArielM]

OK so i understand what it is used for but my questoon is why use it? Why cant u just attract the fish with your fishing pole? What does the teaser reel offer any advantage?

[Capt J]

Originally Posted by ArielMiller

OK so i understand what it is used for but my questoon is why use it? Why cant u just attract the fish with your fishing pole? What does the teaser reel offer any advantage?

When Marlin fishing I sometimes drag one depending on what I'm doing. Sometimes you use a larger teaser, something that is more visible to the fish but not exactly the size they would eat (too large), just to get their attention. '

Sailfishing, you'll use a spread bar with say 30 ballyhoo all rigged on it which the spreader bar might be 2' wide and 3' long and it emulates a school of ballyhoo swimming, gets their attention and then they eat one of your normal rigged ballyhoo's behind it that they think is a "straggler" or easier pickings.

If you're doing a bait and switch, you're dragging a teaser to attract the fish to the boat, once a fish is sighted chasing the teaser you'll toss either a live bait or rigged dead bait to them. The teaser allows you to troll at a higher speed and cover much more area trolling around at 8.5 knots, than if you were slow trolling live baits at 1-3 knots, or even dead rigged baits at 6 knots. Also if you're fishing for a light tackle record, if you're normally trolling you already have a 100 yards of line off of the reel when the fish hits, whereas if you pitch a bait to them, you usually hook them within 15 yards of the boat.

[Bamboo]

Originally Posted by ArielMiller

OK so i understand what it is used for but my questoon is why use it? Why cant u just attract the fish with your fishing pole? What does the teaser reel offer any advantage?

The more stuff in the water that looks like a school of bait fish gets the predatory fish excited. Teasers generally are the largest lure which is used to attract the fish- and then the predatory fish attacks the teaser- and his attention will stay focused on it until you remove it from the "spread". After removal he will find another victim to eat- hopefully the one you plop right in front of him after you remove the teaser. Many different things are used to get the fish to bite the right lure or bait- and a teaser is one part of the whole system to trick the fish into biting the right hooked bait or lure. Many boats will have mylar strips with holgraphic/shiny bait fish printed on them pulled underwater behind the boat with as many as 40 fish on the strips. Others actually use real fish on stiff wire weighted rigs. I've used big lures and shiny metal hookless lures to attract billfish, and then then you can put white rattling lures in the white wash to sound like scared bait fish. I've pulled the giant hard japanese beer cans -Sapporo- in a chain behind the boat and had marlin eat them unless I removed them quickly.

[ArielM]

Ok thanks for everyones input. I get it now.

The question i have now is are teaser reels ONLY used for marlin, sword fish and such? Couldn't i use it to attract schools of tuna and yellow tail as well? The reason i say this is i live in Souther california and fishing for marlin isn't something im going to do all the time.

[Capt Fred]

I guess you could. I do a lot of tuna fishing in So Ca and never use a teaser/teaser reel for tuna. I think it would be too much trouble trying to get a teaser out of the way with a double, triple or quad hook up. What I find to be effective is to troll a spreader bar with a tuna feather or a string of squid or cedar plugs in front of a tuna lure. This makes the presentation larger and it gets bit very well. Another technique is to use a small bird or splasher in front of the tuna lure. All of these methods increase the visibility of the lure to attract the fish without the need for a separate teaser. I also troll straight tuna feathers in a spread of 4, 6 or 7 lures in a spread or pattern of lures. Another trick is to keep trolling after the hookup for 4 seconds to see if other tuna will bite before stopping the boat. Tuna on the west coast travel in schools and the trick is to get the trolled fish to the boat rather quickly as hooked fin baits are being tossed into the water to catch other fish in the school that follow the hooked fish to the boat. Tossing chum shortly after the hook up increases the chance of the tuna staying with the boat. I hope this helps.

[kapoc]

Over here on the east coast we use them for most types of trolling. For marlin we use large teasers like a giant chugger or kona head. For white marlin and sails we drag dredges full of mullet or ballyhoo, for tuna we drag squid chains followed with a hookless ballyhoo.

[ArielM]

Ya i would think they are perfect to attract schools of Tuna so im surprised to hear more dont use it for that. I would say leave you fishing poles on the outriggers AND in addition get your teaser real out there so ure dragging both. Once you attract the tuna real up the teaser reels and the tuna are left with your fishing rods to bite. (no need to throw in the poles AFTER you attract the fish.)

[kapoc]

Sorry thought that part was already established we tipically run 10-14 lines for yellowfins plus the teasers there have been times when i have fought a tuna to get our teasers back but usally does a great job of bringing them into the spread. As far as White marlin we normall get thm up in the dredge and toss pitch baits at them same with blue marlin just a diffrent teaser and bigger pitch bait.