Trolling in the Atlantic With Homemade Fishing Lures Made From Cans

With our first trip out to the Atlantic, KJ and I decided we would go fishing …. specifically trolling. We made our own homemade lures to catch something big!

In the top photo, you can see KJ about 45 minutes into trolling. The faint white line behind her head is the trolling line. She would pull the line in every 2 minutes just to check to see if we got a fish. Alas, the Atlantic didn't have any fish with enough class and taste as evidenced by us not catching a single fish with our amazing fishing lures.

We were so ready to fillet them! KJ was really ready to go through the process of cutting them up … or at least, that is what she said. It would have been interesting to see how she would have really responded once a fish was pulled aboard. Maybe next time!

Below are pictures of the 2 homemade lures we made. MMMmmmmm they looks good! Interestingly, the Coors Light cans have that image that turns blue when cold so I wonder if it turned blue while in the water! Yeah, that is what we meant to do!

Mahi Mahi aka Dolphin aka Dorado Trawling Line and Lure Strategy

We continue our journey to learn more about fishing and defining our strategy for how we will catch free food. As shared before, we plan on trawling constantly .... dragging a line behind us to seduce fish. Lately I've been studying up on a fish that Val loves.

Val is really interested in catching Mahi Mahi, which is also known as Dolphin and Dorado. This fish looks stupendously ugly to me, but according to Val (and many others), it tastes wonderful. My proclivities around consuming Seafood are quite well known, and this fishes looks don't help.

We plan to use a homemade, DIY, type of line and lure system. Starting from the boat, the line system will be as follows:

1. We will attach a 2 foot bungee cord to the rear arch of our boat, and this will serve as a shock cord line.
2. Attached to the shock cord will be 50 yards of a medium weight monofilament line.
3. Attached to the monofilament line will be a 4 foot long wire leader.
4. Attached to the wire leader will be a 6/0 sized hook.
5. Surrounding this hook will be a shredded plastic bag, made to look like a squid body.

That's it!

We will troll at 4 knots or so, depending on the wind, and when we see the shock cord expand, we will know that we have a hit. We will then use a coffee can along with gloves to wind up the fishing line to fight the Dorado to land it!

This all works in theory ... it will be great fun to try this in real life.