Q: We fish the central Gulf of Mexico coast, often pulling dead bait behind an Ilander, small Mold Craft or various other lures. The debate has been over the drag setting when pulling dead bait in the spread at 6 to 8 knots. Should we lighten the drag setting from the normal lure strike position, treat the dead baits just like a lure, or allow the fish to eat it like a live bait?

-Pete Chabert
Houma, Louisiana

---

A: Actually, using dead-bait and lure combinations is — in my opinion only — one of the worst ways to fish for billfish. Having said that, the technique works quite well when fishing for a mixed bag of species, as any good Carolina or Gulf of Mexico charter-boat mate or skipper will tell you. Wahoo, dolphin, tuna and all kinds of billfish will eat (or at least try to eat) these baits.

At 8 to 9 knots, you will catch more billfish with just the lures and no meat than you will by mixing bait and lures. Leave the reels in gear with enough drag to set the hook on the bite when you are pulling lures.

At 5 to 7 knots, naked baits work better on billfish than they do when combined with a lure. When using baits with or without skirts or lures, you need to drop back into free-spool and let the fish eat the bait to have a decent hookup average. (Use a circle hook in this instance to avoid gut-hooking fish.) Raw amateurs do better with drag settings close to those used on lures for the first, unexpected strike on a bait or lure with bait. But they still must also be ready to get the bait back to the surface and ready to drop it back into free-spool for the second strike if the fish misses the first time. A bit of warning from the captain and keeping your eyes directly on the bait should help you avoid an unexpected strike and the resulting backlash.

Got that? It can be very confusing and is one of the hardest angling skills for our Marlin University students to master.