“We typically pulled a lot of red or pink squids on our dredges in the Pacific. Tucker Colquhoun has recently made the transition back to Florida from Costa Rica and explained that his dredge setups are similar except for a higher reliance on natural baits when targeting sails in the Atlantic. “In the past, we have snapped some gimbal teeth on the bent-butt rod when pulling the dredges in, but now with the swivel rod holder the whole setup rotates toward the pulley, which also creates a straight path for the line from the reel to the pulley,” he says.Ĭapt. Cofer adds that he had Pipewelders craft a custom sleeve to beef up the outrigger’s support bar in order to handle the extra stress. The rod holder has a swivel base to allow the rod to move as needed. The Tranquilo system is simple: a short custom bent-butt rod with a single Winthrop swivel tip-top guide points directly at a heavy-duty pulley that is crimped to the outrigger at the first spreader. Now we can drop the dredges back 100 feet or more if we need to and still be able to clear them quickly.” By fishing the dredges in clear water, it’s easier to spot a marauding marlin or sail and still be able to rip the dredge out of the way to initiate the bait-and-switch process.

There are times when we want to fish the entire spread farther back, and the new reels have the speed to let us do that. “In the past, the slow rate of retrieve meant that we couldn’t fish the dredges too far back - we just couldn’t get them in fast enough. “We have switched back to a direct connection to take advantage of the faster retrieval speed.” Cofer also mentioned distance as another factor in the switch.

“These reels are so powerful that we no longer need to use a pulley system,” he says.

Ken Cofer, owner of the Quepos, Costa Rica-based charter boat Tranquilo, has been thoroughly impressed with the new high-speed Lindgren Pitman SV-2400 dredge reels.

What is dredge fishing