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Fooled
by a Bowling Pin Teaser
by Capt. Sean Bloomfield I've used a wide variety of teasers during my trips offshore for trolling: daisy-chains of squid, naked ballyhoo dredges and even a fake wooden dolphin. I've watched these teasers serve their purposes by fooling fish into thinking they were real, but when I saw the PlayAction Bowling Pin Teaser in action I realized that nothing could compare. In fact, this teaser not only fooled the fish that day, it also fooled me. We were trolling for blue marlin off Walker's Cay in the Bahamas. I had just emerged from the galley with a turkey sandwich in hand, and I plopped down in the fighting chair to eat it. As I took my first bite, I peered at the spread: five marlin lures smoked through the wake. I prepared to take another bite, but then suddenly a brilliant flash caught my eye. The sandwich tumbled from my hand as I jumped up and looked intently into the water behind the transom. I could see a colorful fish zigzagging erratically just behind the transom. "Fish following!" I yelled. "And he's all lit up!" But instead of excitement from behind I heard laughter. I turned to see my friends cackling at me. I would soon come to find that the lit-up fish was actually a PlayAction Bowling Pin teaser they had added to the spread while I was in the galley. The joke, however, would soon be on them. Within minutes an enormous splash exploded from behind the transom as a 400-pound blue leaped into the air. The starboard flat-line rod doubled over and drag screamed out as the marlin greyhounded across an otherwise calm ocean surface. After a forty minute fight, the marlin was tagged and released. As would be the case with a 42-pound yellowfin tuna, a 35-pound dolphin and a 30-pound wahoo later in the day, the marlin had hit the lure closest to the Bowling Pin teaser. The only other line ever hit was the shotgun, the product of a grisly old barracuda. And so, I rarely venture offshore now without a PlayAction Bowling Pin teaser in my arsenal. I discovered that they're not only great for marlin, or any offshore fish for that matter-but they can also really do a number on the fisherman. |
