By Chris Jobes
“Right teaser!!!! Right teaser!!!!”
There is nothing like watching the spread and seeing that dorsal fin pop up behind a teaser or a bait like the periscope of a submarine surfacing at speed. The adrenaline rush is something that is one-of-a-kind. When any of our crew sees that, it is time for action and everyone has a role.
Teasers are manned, rods are in-hand with the drag and clicker off, ready for a super smooth drop-back. The crew works in unison to play the fish, feed the fish, hook up and start looking for a double. Sound fun? It sure is! But it didn’t always happen this way for us.
As I look back on my early years offshore in the 1990s, we pulled the classic 10- to 12-rod spread including Green Machines, a couple of jet heads and an Ilander or two with a ballyhoo behind it, evolving to spreader bars and Psycho 6s (the Jobes Custom Tackle 6-bird chain with stinger). We may pull the occasional teaser or drag a bowling pin (or even a beer can) from a cleat. That basic spread was behind the boat for the whole season. We didn’t target anything specifically and caught everything – tuna, mahi, the occasional wahoo and the infrequent marlin. (Not that we didn’t see marlin, we simply struggled to catch them.)
