Selecting Your Best Offshore Lures

If you’ve spent any length of time pulling trolling lures in search of blue marlin, you probably have a few overflowing plastic bins full of them somewhere on the boat or in your garage. As fishermen, we’re naturally drawn to check out the new thing that’s catching, the flashy color or shape you’ve never seen before at the tackle shop, or the old classic that you came across at that garage sale last year. But with all those choices, the truth is you can only pull four or five lures at a time. So how do you go about making the call on picking your starting lineup for the day? I know if I’m freelancing on a boat I haven’t fished on often, my picks are usually the lures with the most scratches on the heads. I had the good fortune of spending time in Kona, Hawaii pulling lures almost exclusively and working around some of the most experienced lure fishermen and lure makers in the world. Watching, discussing, and scrutinizing these practical pieces of art are a daily occurrence on the Big Island. And while that particular fishery is a very unique one, the general principles and physics of lure fishing remain the same around the world. There are tons of choices out there, so the goal here is to give you a better idea of what to grab out of the tackle room when it comes time to pick the day’s offering.