Blue Water Float System/Rig for large Pelagic fish (DIY)

  • Here is a blue water float system if you ever want to take down really big fish for very little money and very little effort.
    I now use it for wahoo in the blue, and if ever a prize marlin or tuna shows up this can handle it easily(hasn't happened yet but it will ;) ). I know this with 100% certainty because I found this one with a 300lb marlin attached to it 50 miles into the Atlantic East of Antigua so I KNOW for sure it does the job.

    The French islands fishermen around here use these when they get into it with the big Yellow Fin Tuna and other large pelagic's to allow them too hook then buoy, hook then buoy ect. the fish overboard and keep catching more and more without slowing down while the fish are biting...Afterwards they then go look for the floats and pick up the fish, I think my marlin just moved faster than they could...lol!!
    My buddy uses these rigs now for swordfish, and those critters don't play around! Meanest SOB I have ever come across actually. When I buy ANOTHER camera I may get in the water and shoot one coming up on the line.
    Here is my rig, almost no drag too tow around and easily you can add more floats for that insane monster fish I keep fantasising about, maybe the one Don that took your rig with it? :@
    I use polypropylene ski rope, why you ask? CHEAP I answer, lasts forever, 4k lb shock load, lite and easy to work with AND did I say very cheap? :D .


    Ends






    Amazon.com: Kwik Tek Airhead Bungee Tube Tow Rope 50 ft: Sports & Outdoors You can even pick up one like this with a shock cord built into it for between floats for a big fish! Yes awesome is the correct expression! OR you can do tons of research, go with the standard blue water rigs and traditional way(rife, Rob Allen, buy bungee rigs ect.) and spend hundreds and hundreds of your hard earned money(I assume hard earned as it said DIY in the title :laughing:) and way overcomplicate what I have found out to be a simple thing my fellow speros by watching how the commercial local fishermen do it day in day out!
    I found this out after doing tons of research and spending hundreds of $$$. Trust me don't fall into that commercial money pit.
    Disclaimer: Many Wahoo(not big enough) were harmed in the making of this guide but sadly no Tuna(yet)(of any size) :thumbsup2:


    Edit: I need to add the yellow floats that I found are deep water floats and not cheep, not break the bank, but not cheep... So for my second rig shown here I bought one of the pricy deep floats for the middle(yellow) and used the cheep bullet lobster floats as the ends(lobster floats I tested to 200ft depth on an anchor and although they did compress a bit they did not loose all buoyancy)

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

    Edited 3 times, last by Dude george ().

  • Thanks for sharing George:thumbsup2: Any idea how many lbs of lift on those cone shaped buoys?


    Anyone know where to find these buoys in Miami?

  • Trolling between FAD's looking for the FAD buoys and spotted these floats, chased it down and started to pull it up, but it was heavy! soon enough there was a marlin below the boat almost dead from exhaustion :thumbsup2: Pulled in the floats and kept the marlin for smoked fish, it is delicious cold smoked, better than smoked Salmon I think.
    Dan they use 5-10 150lb-200lb mono on hand spools hanging over the sides in a chum line, then when the fish bite they just snap the buoys lying close at hand onto a loped end of the spool and away it goes over the gunnal. They can hook up multiple fish this way.
    So all we did was pull in the fishing line, gaffed the marlin and Bob's ur uncle.

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

    Edited once, last by Dude george ().

  • Thanks for sharing George:thumbsup2: Any idea how many lbs of lift on those cone shaped buoys?


    Anyone know where to find these buoys in Miami?


    Marco said 11lb on your thread and that sounds about right to me.
    Bequia Blues uses one bullet like Marco suggested, but he does something clever to his fish stringer, he pushes the spike into a hole he drilled into the buoy keeping it out the way and effectively sheathing the pointy end. These dont get water saturated.

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

  • Interesting story.


    I'm no bluewater hunter. But I suspect there's not enough drag or buoyancy on that rig for a fish 150lb +. That may be why they couldn't recover the marlin. At least the buoys didn't implode.

  • Interesting story.


    I'm no bluewater hunter. But I suspect there's not enough drag or buoyancy on that rig for a fish 150lb +. That may be why they couldn't recover the marlin. At least the buoys didn't implode.


    Well having not shot anything in the blue that big(not even close) I cant say from my experience, but I can tell you that they catch 100-200lb+ fish with regular monotony on exactly those floats with line and hook. And sometimes the occasional monster I was told.

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

  • Could it be they lose big fish too? If the fish takes it down long enough I just can't see them finding the floats %50 of the time when they finally surface.


    Could be Dan, I have no info on the loss % ... But I did get a free float system and a big Marlin, so who knows...lol..
    If I shot something big I would handle exactly the same as a mainstream float system, I have 100 foot bungee to the yellow floats as my primary in the blue then the other set to easily clip on to the first with a 50 ft bungee and I cant see anything taking that down. But if it did it would be the biggest thrill of my life and the best story ever :D... Mans got to dream.


    Edit: Marco did say they shoot 80 lb wahoo on a single bullet float though so evidence seems to support the fishermen's method...

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

  • you can land big fish with that but you will also loose a lot , for a sure thing you need at least 2-3 times that boyancy in addition to you fighting the fish .last fall i saw a friend shoot 80# wahoo it pulled down 2 lobster floats20' and a riffe 2atm float half way under . with your set up it would have been lost
    phil

  • you can land big fish with that but you will also loose a lot , for a sure thing you need at least 2-3 times that boyancy in addition to you fighting the fish .last fall i saw a friend shoot 80# wahoo it pulled down 2 lobster floats20' and a riffe 2atm float half way under . with your set up it would have been lost
    phil


    Phil glad a blue water hunter of your experience chimed in... why would it have been lost? Not enough buoyancy(what bouncy do you think is needed) or crush depth? Each one of those bullets floats is 11lb of buoyancy and the middle one would be about 7-8lb I would think, for a total of about 29 lb of lift at the surface. The yellow floats have a working depth of over 500ft for the commercial applications they are used for, but the orange lobster floats wont have much lift beyond 200 ft based on my tests. Every fish behaves differently I know, but Marco in Venezuela says they use just one of those floats for big wahoo up to 80lb. I shoot 20-30 lb wahoo in Antigua which is wayyyy different than an 80lb monster so interested as to the physics or reasons in your experience this set up would fail.

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

    Edited once, last by Dude george ().

  • You're right, we use a large lobster float and 120' poly rope for wahoos. They take it down sometimes, but always come back after a short while.


    Have never shot a big marlin or tuna, but for wahoos, it has worked well so far.

    Marco Melis

    A bad day fishing is ALWAYS better than a good day at work.

    Edited once, last by Marco ().

  • Phil glad a blue water hunter of your experience chimed in... why would it have been lost? Not enough buoyancy(what bouncy do you think is needed) or crush depth? Each one of those bullets floats is 11lb of buoyancy and the middle one would be about 7-8lb I would think, for a total of about 29 lb of lift at the surface. The yellow floats have a working depth of over 500ft for the commercial applications they are used for, but the orange lobster floats wont have much lift beyond 200 ft based on my tests. Every fish behaves differently I know, but Marco in Venezuela says they use just one of those floats for big wahoo up to 80lb. I shoot 20-30 lb wahoo in Antigua which is wayyyy different than an 80lb monster so interested as to the physics or reasons in your experience this set up would fail.


    just the way i saw the the fish take the 2 lobster floats down , if you let go of the float line for any reason , the fish would be down and gone , if the boat could see and chase down the floats if and when they come up you could still land the fish . im just saying you set up isnt a sure thing , as your marlin is a good example of it got away from the fisherman that hooked it .


    i prefer to err on the safe side , on tuna /wahoo/billfish trips i use a 30# flotation hard float , and a riffe 2 atm float on the end of the line ,and sometimes if im really expecting big fish i will have another float behind that . to me it is not acceptable to loose fish , its one thing to use light gear flyfishing ,but for spearfishing if you shoot it it is dead , you need to have the gear to land it 100% of the time

  • Thanks Phil, I will keep this thread updated on blue water catches with this rig good and bad... I agree on not destroying a fish needlessly I hate wastage and pointless killing.

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

  • My buddies haul yesterday using this float system with hook and line, ZERO fish lost, I will keep updating it.

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

  • I have some 8mm film of a big Hoo taking down 2 life guard cans that were filled with 8lb foam in a flash never to be seen again. When a big pissed of fish wants to hit the sand they can do it, other big fish will just cover distance and not go deep before they bleed out. I will go for over kill if I ever seek a fish over 200# again.


    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

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