Hey guys, I’m looking to add a dredge or possibly a stripteaser to the spread on my 230 WA. The stripteasers are more economical and a little easier to deploy/clear… I get that, but are they effective? Anyone have experience with both/ advice? thanks in advance
We have used both,the dredge is more of a pain but we have had bait fish actually swim with it…just got he stripteaser last yr and it is very easy to deploy and looks good but i honestly cant say 1 is better than the other…
Thanks Gut Wrench, any luck on the sails with the stripteaser?
I have run both and don’t run strip teasers anymore.
From the deck, strip teasers look good in the water, but I have never had a white or sail in the middle of one trying to eat the plastic strips. I have on many occasions seen a white or sail with his big snoot in the middle of one of our dredges swinging away at the rubber mullet, even while we are stopped fighting a fish. Our number of billfish raised increased dramatically when we started running dredges over strip teasers.
My experience with the strip teasers (Trophy Teasers) has been that the plastic strip starts to fall apart fairly quickly where the fish stickers are laminated to the plastic.
Dredges are a slight pain when you first start using them, but you get them figured out pretty quickly. That being said, a strip teaser is much better than no dredge type teaser at all.
Found the same thing as Lowcountryboy stated. We are moving over to only fishing dredges and mixing them with rubber mullet and frozen mullet. Fish stay behind it much longer than the strip teaser.
I have a dredge called a bucket dredge that is hard plastic fish that clip onto the arms so it is better than strip teaser and not as good as the full dredges these guys are talking about. For a boat under 30 feet a bigger dredge with arms and lots of baits is much more difficult to mess with. It works better but I caught several sails and lost 2 very nice blue marlins (line spooled on 30’s) last season right behind my bucket dredge. Got it from haddrells but i have not seen it ever again there. All the plastic fish have held up well.
Tournament cable makes a good looking bucket dredge. Planning on ordering one this week and giving it a try on my 26’ boat.
Looks like I am in the market for a dredge. The last sailfish I caught was one of a tripleheader, my dad and a long time friend were the others (their first). They were pulling a dredge on that boat. I am ready for some more of that
Check out Atlantic Game. Jeremy will hook you up.
Thanks Lowcountryboy, this is the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks to all for your responses… now lets go catch some fish!!!
Since you are fishing a CC, if you have a downrigger you can swing that out at 90 degrees which will get the budget dredge out of the whitewash of the props and then you can easily get it back when needed (gaffing fish, releasing all those billfish you are going to catch with it 
)
Stripteaser only good when wrapped around a pole.
also on your lap Rad! LOL…and what if you dont run a downrigger that you can turn to the side and pull your dregde what are other options? is it typical to pull them off the side of the boat to get out of prop wash or is that a ‘plan B’?
“Fish On”
The dredge really needs to be in clean water if at all possible. If it is in the white water, you will have a hell of a time trying to see fish on it. For small boat fishing, a downrigger is the way to go.
quote:
Originally posted by LowcountryboyThe dredge really needs to be in clean water if at all possible. If it is in the white water, you will have a hell of a time trying to see fish on it. For small boat fishing, a downrigger is the way to go.
and to add to Stumpnockers question about plan “b” without a downrigger…never been able to find one unfortunately when fishing on a CC. As he said if you pull it off the side of the boat off a cleat its not going to extend far enough out to get it out of the whitewash.
I pull a dredge on my cc with a cannon 4ft extendable downrigger(found it on craigslist for $150).the problem that i seem to have with the strip teaser is they always try to find the props when trying to clear them
25 seacraft
I have a rod holder that I can mount off the side of the boat… my thoughts were to use a heavy rod to extend outward from the propwash. I do have some concern of the drag on the reel and weeds on the dredge
Try a dredge weight heavy enough to pull dredge below prop wash.
That dredge is going to be heavy. I would check ebay and find a cheap a Penn or Cannon. Some boats do run dredge rods, but they are more for use with a block and tackle pulley system (which minimizes pressure on the rod/reel) off of the outriggers.
yea getting it in the prop wouldnt be any fun out there…especially if you’re pulling it with ss cable…
yet if you initially slowed down after hooking up long enough for it to sink then retrieve it straight up to the boat wouldnt that help? or would that give too many chances to lose the fish…
“Fish On”