here's the deal.
run the big bars back as far as they will go without diving under and "staying" under. even if they go under for a second there fine.
don't worry about the bar itself sitting in the water or the line in front of it or the swivel it doesn't matter. those big bars cause such a roccus anyway.
out of the side rodholders you can probably run them 40-50 feet back. stick them up in the t-top and you can get onother 15-20 feet back..
all we run are bars.... big ones.. 15-13"squid. we have probably 20 other bars of every size and color but no luck for us so they don't see any action in our spread.
we start out with 8 rods if were searching for fish. and we set them like this....
........................................"the boat"
.................................................. ....teaser
...................................... bar
.................................................. .........bar
.............................bar
.................................................. .................bar
.................bar
.................................................. ...........................bar
.......bar
.................................................. .......................................bar
on turns they don't tangle this way.. they run about five feet behind each other if you picture them in a strait line.
the teaser is a huge rubber soft head made bye mold craft thats about a foot long and 4" across, tied to the cleat about ten feet back.. does it work?? i think so..
when we find fish we go down to 4 rods.. basicly take all the close bars away and run the four way back..
if were really into them we go down to two rods,way back, or sometimes even one rod held in the hand.. a 60# tuna hit in the hand is intense!!
most of our action comes off the far back-black bars. we've got them on orange also and even one on a rainbow bar. but way back black "works for us" so we stick with that.
they make narrower 24" bars with the 13" squid on them so you don't have to run all 48" bars.. the main thing in my mind is 13" dark squid....
if i only had two bars and two birds i would run them like this
........................................"the boat"
...................................bird
.................................................. ....bar
..........................bar
.................................................. ........... bird
but still,,, my thoughts are running anything other than 13" squid is a waste of time/fuel. daisey chains and birds will catch.. but not for us.
we found something that WORKS so we stick with it!!
example:
Ronnie and i went out friday. four rods. four-13" bars
next to us was my bud Jon on Riff-Raff,,, four rods,, four-13" bars..
next to him was another friend on his grady..four rods.. birds/g-m's and mini squid bars
us=7 for 8
Jon= 6 for 6
the grady 0 for 0
same place same time.
this is a first light bite with maybe a two hour window so i want maximum action in a short time.
chatham: same thing. they love the big dark squid bars.
these fish are LOADED with 5" sand eels.
there's a million sand eels down 50-75 feet they can gorge on at there liesure.
so what the heck do they see in these bars? on the surace to boot???????
not sure but i know they like them..
is this the answer for everything? i doubt it.
but i bet i can bring four rods and four bars anywhear in new england, on any boat, and raise fish. and i will, and have, proven it..
you have to "raise" them into the "spread". not just troll random stuff here and there.
look at it this way
8x15-squid bars= 120 squid in the water.
four birds-g/m combos= 8 baits in the water.
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