Anglers fishing in Moreton Bay waters will begin to see an increase in the number of school mackerel during September. Often found in the main channels, around structure such as beacons and on the outer margins of the bay islands, school mackerel offer anglers some tasty table fare.
One of the historically productive ways of targeting these silver streaks – a method which is still used nowadays by commercial line fishermen – is trolling spoons. Because spoons are not a diving lure and the mackerel are often fairly deep in the water column, a paravane or trolling board is required to get them into the depths. Let’s look a little closer at these two diving apparatus and ways to rig them for targeting school mackerel.
My first introduction to spoon lures was for securing some mackerel in the Bowen area. As a boy, with my father in our Quintrex Fish Nipper, we would troll from Grays Bay up to Innamincka Rocks and back if the mackerel were running during our holidays. These school and small Spanish mackerel were close to the surface, so all that was required to get the lure down a bit was a large barrel sinker a few metres in front of the lure. However, because you need to get down in excess of 5m when targeting mackerel in Moreton Bay, a paravane or diving board is needed when trolling spoons.
Paravanes and trolling boards are an economical way of getting spoons and low resistance lures down deep. Spoons, such as the No.3 Halco Barra Drone are ideal for targeting Moreton Bay school mackerel, which can be common in the main channels during the warmer months. Whilst not really a sporting method of fishing, trolling spoons is an easy way to harvest a few mackerel for a feed and will often work when many other methods fail to produce. Additionally, the paravane/trolling board and spoon combo allows you to cover a broad area of water in your search for a feed of tasty school mackerel. Get set up for some schoolie success soon.
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The yellow apparatus on the left has a keel so is therefore a paravane. The blue one in the middle is a bit of a hybrid and the white one on the right (which looks similar to a small surfboard) is a trolling board. All these will do a similar job however
I generally attach my trolling board with a simple loop knot. Do not use a tight knot as this can affect the board’s ability to tow true. Again, this loop should be re-tied periodically in case the main line becomes chafed at this connection. Due to the r
Spoon style lures spin constantly so you need a ball bearing swivel to avoid massive twist in the leader and also to allow the spoon to spin freely. I generally use a small 40lb ball-bearing snap swivel to conveniently attach my lures to the leader. My le
Many anglers (including the commercial sector) run their paravanes on a handline as these are easy to use and the hooked fish is retrieved simply with a hand-over-hand motion and swung into the boat. If using a rod and reel outfit, the rod would need to b
Spoons are the main type of lure trolled for Moreton Bay school mackerel and there are several different brands on the market, including Luhr Jensen Ripple Spoons, Macka Spoons and Halco Barra Drones. The Halco product is the easiest to find, with the mos
Your paravane will have several towing eyelets at the front. The front eyelet will give the shallowest depth out of the paravane, with the diving depth progressively increasing as you move the attachment point further back. If you keep hitting the bottom,
The trolling board has a lesser degree of variation in its trolling depth, but in general it will troll deeper than the paravane due to having a larger surface area and therefore more resistance in the water. However, you can alter the depth a bit by slid
Paravanes can be made to swim out to the side behind the boat, which is handy if you want to troll a couple of spoons and want some spread between them. When the paravane is sitting with the keel facing upwards, attaching the line to the left side hole wi
The trolling board only has three towing points: left, right and centre. Again, the left tow hole will have the board tracking to the port side etc. Personally, I have found these a little pedantic when trying to troll a lure to either side of the boat in
As the attachment holes are well in from the rear edge of the trolling board you will not be able to attach a snap to it. If you want to be able to use all three rear eyelets and change the one in use readily, a simple method to rig it is as follows: form
Alternatively, you can simply tie a loop knot through the desired hole. If you want to change the towing position, cut the loop and re-tie in the new position. Regardless, you are wise to re-tie the loop every so often in either system to avoid the leader
Using a snap swivel to attach your main line to the front metal eyelet of the trolling board may seem like a good idea, but it’s not. Most snaps are offset to one side and will therefore affect the equal flow of water onto the front of the trolling board.
