Pulling Dredges on a 330

[kirk a]

Looking at adding dredges to my offshore arsenal. I know that on larger boats, they are often pulled from outrigger bases. Would this be ok with the Lee Outriggers? Mine are the ones which attach to the side of the helm/cabin, and not the top mounts. I'd like to avoid pulling dredges from the corner or midship cleat, to get them just wider than the noisy water. Any experiences with them run this way? Also open to recommendations on dredges.

 

[brdawg2001]

Looking at adding dredges to my offshore arsenal. I know that on larger boats, they are often pulled from outrigger bases. Would this be ok with the Lee Outriggers? Mine are the ones which attach to the side of the helm/cabin, and not the top mounts. I'd like to avoid pulling dredges from the corner or midship cleat, to get them just wider than the noisy water. Any experiences with them run this way? Also open to recommendations on dredges.

I probably would not..not heavy enough. I run squid teasers off my outrigger and run dredge off cleats. Not an inboard but still raise fish...caught lots of fish off those dredges.

 

[brdawg2001]

Looking at adding dredges to my offshore arsenal. I know that on larger boats, they are often pulled from outrigger bases. Would this be ok with the Lee Outriggers? Mine are the ones which attach to the side of the helm/cabin, and not the top mounts. I'd like to avoid pulling dredges from the corner or midship cleat, to get them just wider than the noisy water. Any experiences with them run this way? Also open to recommendations on dredges.

Also, tournament cable makes a dredge boom but that is too much stuff on the boat.

 

[Deep Blue]

Why & when do you pull a dredge? Is this something common to the East Coast?

 

[SkunkBoat]

Why & when do you pull a dredge? Is this something common to the East Coast?

White marlin & sailfish guys do that. Raises fish into the spread or in close to pitch a bait or a fly.
You need a wide boat & a crew that knows what they are doing. Lee's with spreaders can handle some lighter dredges, in tight

Not my cup of tea but I get it.

 

[Hookup1]

I ran the cockpit on a friends boat for all the big tournaments in Midatlantic region. MA 500 and WMO for the last 15 years. Custom 56' F&S Sportfish "Nasty Habit" with unlimited budget. Competing against the top boats in the region if not in the world. This is an unlimited heavyweight competition. The Super Bowl of fishing. Money is no object. Millions of dollars at stake. It's all about money and teamwork. You have to put the boat in the right place and execute flawlessly. Relationships with the other captains is critical. Relationships with the the SST services is an important too. Give a little...get a little. This is WAR not fishing.

Dredges are critical. Over the years we spent dozens of hours and tens of thousands of dollars to refine the dredge strategy. Last year we switched from 12 volt Daiwa MP3000 dredge reels to the 24 volt LP dredge reels. We were able to compete before but the switch was the right choice. You need the power and speed to pull heavy 3-tier mullet dredges and hang them off the riggers - unattended while clearing cockpit. Captain needs to clear teasers by hand and with electric reels when the marlin come in. It really is a bait-and-switch like fly fishing. Critical to convert single fish to multiple fish.

For non-tournament fishing dredges are an important tool for you too. On the F&S we pull two big dredges, two long squid chains tipped with horse ballyhoo. Usually one squid chain is swapped out for a large squid spreader bar tipped with horse ballyhoo.

My point is that generally more is better. I run my 27' Islander in Florida Key's in the Winter each year and teasers are not that effective. It's hard to spread all this stuff out on a small boat and hard to do with limited crew. Every year I try to "tweak" my teasers but so far the results haven't been there.

LP-SV2400 Electric Reel with Nylon Spool

The Ultimate Dredge ReelThe new SV-2400 24 volt electric reel is 50% faster and pulls 75% harder than our ever-popular 12 volt S-1200.By operating on 24v instead of 12v the performance loss from voltage drop is minimized on even the largest of sportfishing boats.Variable Speed (100-750...

www.tournamentcable.com

 

[Deep Blue]

Holy cow I had no idea; thanks for the great explanation!