One of the most underrated and underused baits, belly strips are versatile and effective for catching game fish of all kinds. You can load your dredges with them, pitch them to a lit-up blue marlin or simply rig them with a circle hook and catch one sailfish after another on the same bait. Also, when you rig a Panama strip with a circle hook, it's almost impossible for a neophyte angler to miss the fish — even when you jerk the rig out of the fish's mouth, it doesn't hurt the fish and he just keeps coming back for more. You can also run them behind your favorite lure head where the slim design and low profile probably give you a better hookup ratio than a lure/ballyhoo combo.
So why aren't these great baits used more often? I think most mates don't like to take the time to make them. I say, if you are already filleting a dolphin, why not make two more cuts and come away with great baits?
Here are a few rules I follow when making, preparing and curing my favorite baits:
• Treat, bleed and ice the fish you are going to cut for the strips like you were planning on eating it. This helps to retain the color.
• When making a skin strip, scrape the meat off the skin (going with the grain is easiest) removing
as much as possible.
• Salt the skins or belly rigs, put them in plastic bags and freeze.
You can take the strips out of the freezer and fish them just as they are, or you can push the curing process up a notch. I like to take the strips out of the freezer and let them cure in the sun on my back porch for a day or two until they are shriveled up and unrecognizable — watch out for stray cats and sea gulls!
I then saturate them in a brine solution until they come back to their original state. I put them back in the freezer and repeat the entire process at least one more time. The more times you do this, the tougher they get.
If you really don't have the time for all this curing, pick up a food dehydrator to speed up the process. (Just make sure that you make all the beef jerky you want before you end up drying your tuna strips!)
A big fluttering strip makes a perfect pitch since it drops down the fish's throat like a cold beer on a hot summer's day. Also, since it's as tough as nails, you can leave it laying in the gutter next to the pitch rod and just give it a shot of water every time you rinse down the deck.
Walker Holcomb
Maitland, Florida
