INTRODUCTION

The crew of the CANYON RUNNER® has long been using spreader bars - years before they became popular. First developed to troll for Giant Bluefin Tuna, the original spreader bars were heavy duty, oversized, stiff bars that could only be trolled at very slow speeds on very heavy tackle. They were deadly on Giants but useless in the canyons on smaller tuna. In 1991, Captain Phil Dulanie began field testing lighter and lighter bars and was one of the first to deploy light-weight, high-speed spreader bars while trolling the edge. Years later they became common place in the canyons. Fast forward to today and I can't think of a boat that goes offshore without them or a tackle shop that does not sell their own brand.

In the 15 or so years that we have been deploying light-weight, high-speed spreader bars into our trolling pattern we've made significant modifications to those you might find in your local tackle shop, mail order catalog, or on the internet. In fact, we have not used a store bought spreader bar in 8 years. You see, while the local tackle shop boys are hanging out in theirs shops thinking about what spreader bars might work best in canyons - we were there. We are there 100 days a year for the past 10-years, over 5000-days combined amongst the CANYON RUNNER® crew and over 50,000+ tuna to our credit. We have hands on experience as to what looks best in the pattern, produces best on a day-to-day basis, and holds up best to the beatings we gave them. In 1000+ trips to the canyon in the last 15 years, the CANYON RUNNER® crew has pretty much experienced it all. Drawing on these experiences we've modify our bars into the most productive on the water. We firmly believe these modifications are the reason CANYON RUNNER® Custom Spreader Bars out produce any other bar we have put in the pattern - and we have tried them all. And so now we decided to bring them to the market and share our wealth of experience and knowledge with everyone.

MODIFICATIONS

What makes CANYON RUNNER® Custom Spreader Bars so unique is not only the type of lures we rig them with, nor the bars we make them out of, but more importantly, how we rig them. If you've had the opportunity to read any of the dozens of articles penned by the CANYON RUNNER® crew you would know that we firmly believe in presenting the smallest lures, baits, leaders and hooks you can get away with. We scale down everything to present the most natural pattern possible. We start with our bars. Any of the spreader bars you might buy off the shelf of your local tackle shop or out of a catalog will be rigged with 300-400 pound test leader. We have never put a bar in the water with that heavy leader. Our larger squid bars and green machine bars are rigged with only 200-pound test. Our mini-mamba bars and smaller squid bars are rigged with 150-pound test. The lures rigged off the ends of each bar are on even lighter leader material of 80 to 100-pounds. The bars themselves are very light and flexible, the crimps we use to put them together are as small as possible, and we use the smallest stainless steel hooks practicable. Yes, stainless costs a little more, but any other material quickly corrodes and begins to rusts - ruining your bar and any other lures packed away with it.

This lighter construction of our bars comes with dozens of benefits. Most importantly, they catch the heck out of tuna and are outstanding marlin teasers. In fact, we used them to bait-and-switch a winning white marlin in the Mid-Atlantic $500,000. Another benefit of CANYON RUNNER® Custom Spreader Bars is that you can troll them up to 9 knots in the right conditions and as slow as you want. We have trolled them in anything from a flat calm to 10-15 footers. We have trolled them off Penn International 30s and they don't interfere with the fight, and, we have trolled them off Penn International 80Ws and winched in monster big-eyes, bluefins, and yellowfins. One of the reasons we can troll them as fast as we want and in as rough of conditions as we are comfortable fishing in is that we do not overload our bars with 12 to 15 to 20 squids or lures. As you know many manufactures rig their bars this way professing that more is better. We have not seen any benefit whatsoever in going with this many lures. It fact, to us this is more of a detriment then anything else. For one, with 15 or 20 lures on the bars you have to use heavy tackle and slow down the boat - interfering with your trolling presentation and the fight once you do hook something. The other detriment of course is the more lures or squid you add to the bar the more it costs. On a charter boat with inexperienced anglers being the rule rather than the exception we lose a ton bars during the course of a season. We can't afford to lose $150 to $200 bars at the clip we go through them, so, in seeing no additional benefit to large numbers of squid or lures we cut back to what works best.

Of course, with such light construction comes the downside of having to re-rig our bars more often after using them to beat up on the tuna. Obviously with the heavier bars if you are using 300-400 pound test leader material you can catch a dozen longfin or yellowfin and not worry about re-rigging. However, our philosophy has always been that we would rather catch 20 or 30 yellowfin or longfin to every dozen that the heavier bars catch even if we have to re-rig them 2 or 3 times in order to do it. The key point is since our bars are rigged so light you have to constantly look over the leader for any nicks, cuts, or abrasion. Do not put the bar back in water if the leader is not in perfect condition. When you are using 150-pound test leaders there is not much room for error. The extra effort in rigging will be well worth it when you start out catching the fleet.

There is one more trick we added to our squid bars that have far and away helped us catch more tuna on the troll then anything else. In every squid on the bar we insert a torpedo float. These floats prevent the squid from loosing their shape as they are dragged through the water. The added buoyancy allows the bars to track better on the troll at both faster and slower trolling speeds - including while at neutral. Perhaps the most useful benefit to the floats is that when these bars are out in the pattern and you hook up on other lures you do not have to clear these bars from your pattern. Instead, go ahead and leave them out. The tuna you hooked will be fought underneath these bars and will not get tangled with them. It will save you valuable time getting on with the fight without worrying about clearing these bars. Most importantly, even at a dead stop these bars will get eaten when left out as you are fighting other fish. Virtually every trip offshore we will have our floating squid bars hit while left drifting out behind the boat. Even if they don't get hit while you are fighting other fish, once you boat whatever you hooked you will already have these bars out in the pattern as you get back up on the troll. With the school close by your chances of hooking up again are markedly improved if you've already got your bars out and in position as soon as you put the boat back in gear.

TROLLING PATTERNS

There are many different productive trolling patterns that work with our bars. It all depends on what you are fishing for and the wake your boat throws. We've seen boats catch well with our bars used on the flat lines, short riggers, long riggers and deep down the middle. The key is you have to troll at least two of these bars at a time, preferable two of the exact same bar, and on most occasions you should be trolling a minimum of three. The best pattern on the CANYON RUNNER®, a 48' Viking Yacht, has always been two bars off each long rigger and one down the middle just beyond where the long rigger bars are tracking. The one down the middle is usually a little different in size or color from the bars on the riggers but never a different brand. That is, if we are trolling squid bars off the riggers the one down the middle will be a squid bar and nothing else. Other boats seem to produce on our bars much better when trolled off the short riggers with a third again long down the middle. We have many times trolled five at once off the long and short riggers and down the middle with excellent success. The long and short of it is, no matter what your trolling pattern is for the day, always have a minimum of two bars in the water. In fact, even if we have not caught a fish all day on one of ours bars we will not take them out of the water. We may switch colors of the lures or size of the squid but we will always leave a couple of bars out. Because even if they are not catching they are most likely the reason we are. You see, on many occasions the hot lure for the day is positioned just in front of or just behind the bars. This gives the appearance of a baitfish separated from the bait ball is an easy target for a hungry predator. Attached below are diagrams and descriptions of our most successful patterns for you review.

SUMMARY

At the end of the day, what ever trolling pattern you go with and what ever bars you put in the water you will be significantly better off when your pattern includes CANYON RUNNER® Custom Spreader Bars. When you purchase our bars you will always have access to our crew through a click of a button on email or by picking up the phone and giving us a call at 732-842-6825. We look forward to hearing from you with respect to any questions or comments you may have and any assistance you may need when the time comes to re-rig them. And the time will come quickly for you to re-rig them as they will not stay in the water very long before being engulfed by the first tuna you troll over.