Buffalo Head

Cool 👍
Cheers Steve R !!!

Looks like an easy to use trolling head compared to other garfish trolling heads.

Sorry for the late reply

Okay for starters the main feature of this head is to tow a gar upside ' to mimic an a injured gar ' and to make the gar more visible

Current tests are being conducted commercially ' they don't stop to haul lines ' they haul and tow and if a fish hits multiple line they simple keep the lines tight and loaded up ... never do they stop to retrieve. Keep in mind they are also using 200 to 300 pound main line and using high speed electric winches .

So under these conditions the Buffalo Heads are working well ' the gar is staying put on the wog line and staying put on the head during slow speed tight turns to get the bait to drop deep over structure .


Where is has never been tested yet is during Stop ' Drop and Go runs .... this is when you stop your boat over deep sitting fish and let the bait dead drop and then before hitting the bottom you apply the power and shoot the bait to the surface .

Again this is a head desiged to turn gar belly up '

But i can't see why the inserted gar head can't be pinned into the head for other types of applications .

** Update **


Sea trials of the Buffalo Head has just been completed .


For this two commercial mackerel boats participated .

Both boats worked in the same area together over a 12 days .

The first Boat used standard type trolling heads '' 50 gram bullet heads '' and the second boat used only the 100 gram Buffalo Heads .

198 Spanish Mackerel where caught on the 50 gram bullets heads .
281 Spanish Mackerel where caught on the 100 grams Buffalo Heads .

A couple of things here to concider with this sea trial >
1. The Buffalo Head was 50 grams heavier than the 50 gram bullet heads .
2. The Buffalo Head does tow deeper than the 50 gram bullet heads .
3. The Buffalo Head does tow upside down .

This is one of those things where the Makerel where deeper so the Buffalo Head was able to take the top spot over the 12 days .

A 100 gram bullet shape possibly could have done the same job ' however the Bufalo Head still tows upside down which does make the gar a stand out to Macks.

The Buffalo Head was slightly slower to deploy than a standard bullet shape head ... only for the reasons of making sure the head of the gar was engaged properly into the Buffalo Head and making sure the eye of the hook was set properly to the eye of the gar .

For the operator is was more of a trying to forget using the standard style of the bullet shape heads and thinking more about what the Buffalo Head is designed to do ..tow upside down .

Yes this is true ' one of the fisherman was a 35 year vetran and he also had a deckhand ( his wife ) helping him haul the fish in . This bloke is also conciderd to be one of the top catching commercial operators in North Queensland and very well known in the Industry .

The other bloke well what can i say 'not that well known' he is a full time employed drill rig operator . but to give him some credit he did have maybe 10 or so years experiance trolling commerially but he left the game to go drilling . He does when the chance presents itself do a little bit of moon lighting and on this occasion he poured the Buffalo Heads and was the operator using them who caught the most fish .

He did hand some of the heads to the 35 years vetran but he refused to use them ' Sulking he was ... outdone and out gunned hahaha ' this they don't like lol


Anyway i don't look at it like this ' i have two thoughts about the catch rates

1. the fish where simply running deeper .

2. the upside down gar triggers a better bite response .

Instantly you would assume i would choose thought number two 'right ? ....no wrong ... again 50 grams of weight versus 100 grams ' huge differences there so until i make the 100 upright head and trialing them side by side i wont actually know what's going on .


I also have 30 years experiance under my belt '
I have had plenty of time to think about many things.
Jumping to conclusion is something i do not do easily '


I want that golden formula so i can have that Eureka moment

Applause to you for thinking out of the box and trying something new. That is the only way fishing evolves and all of the spin offs that comes with it. The smarter the fisherman the more he is willing to try new things.

One night many years ago in Townsvillle ' we where parked at the old 5th avenue trawler wharf ... i reckon i would have been all of 17 at that time.

I walked right down to the end of the wharf and saw Barra all milling around under the lights , never caught a barra before and i raced back to the boat to grab a line .

I never had no flash gear just a handline and a box of mustad 7/0 Kirby which i used to hand line trout in the mornings after trawling all night .


There wasn't any bait on the boat as we had unloaded so not even a prawn ' but i did find some bacon rashers in the fridge .


So with bacon and hand line in hand i raced back down to where the fish where and loosely thread on a rashers on bacon to the 7/0 kirby ... yep smokey bacon .


I had done plenty of wogging for trout so i just did the same with the smokey bacon and 7/0 hook ... like i said my first barra 117cm ' i had t jump dowm onto a trawler to grab him


Didn't have a photo lol but i did find a bacon lure of the net

Love the bacon lure

The lads just completed another run.

140 Macks using the a standard bullet head .

210 Macks uisng the Buffalo Head .

I still don't have a 100grams standard bullet shape head so on this sea trial they added a little extra weight to the line ' which is a normal common pratice among them to get the lines a little deeper .

And given that the Buffalo Head is around that 100gram mark no extra weight was added to the lines .

Also in this sea trial the Buffalo Heads where used side by side with the standard bullet shape heads from the same boat...but as soon as it was evident that the Buffalo Heads had the mojo the standard head where quickly removed from the other lines ' this annoys me a bit as i would have liked a more side by side conclusive testing . Nether the less i can understand that the lads are out there to make a living and put the meat on the boat.


The fisherman using the standard head did this time attempt to use the Buffalo Heads .... he had one Buffalo Head and lost it on the first go ' he was given another and also lost it straight away by this time he had had enough and didn't try again .


So far the numbers peak season are looking good for the Buffalo Head ' but im not going to get excited yet until the Buffalo is run beside a standard head of the same weight.


As for the fisherman using them ' well he is over the moon ... in a few days he will send me a video of the Buffalo Head in action so that will be good to see.

You are getting more proof to your pudding mate. Great to see

One of those weather proof bicycle cameras on a diving plane attached to the line of a trolled lure can show you some of these answers. A mate used a similar sort of set up to see what was happening behind his tinnie.

Okay so i had some more news come in over the Buffalo Head ' the commercial fisher who was uisng the Buffalo Head and doing very well was not able to get back out as he also has another job .

He is up Cooktown ( of all places ) drilling ATM .

Any way he rings me to tell me his mate bit the bullet and put on the Buffalo Heads and gave them a proper go ... and yeah he caught and did really well .

I don't know the numbers but it looks like old dogs can learn new tricks lol .

Horrorhead i see your up that way ? do you chase macks ?

They look great

Update 

Buffalo Marines ' Skirted Belly Up Mackerel Wog 

Did you like the commercial version lol

Two new designs also came of the drawing board .

A upright version of the upside down version and a new standard bullet type similar to a chrome brass type .

The new standard lead bullet type weighs in at 65grams but has a much smaller profile to that of a chrome brass trolling head of same weight.

Moulds of this standard trolling head are available to anyone who wants to buy one and make their own .