What do financial analysts know about fishing? Plenty, if you learn to interpret their advice. For instance, consider the oft-quoted wisdom that says a diversified portfolio maximizes chances for a positive return on investments. Then add up the time, money and effort invested in a day of offshore trolling, and think of your lure pattern as a portfolio of incentives designed to generate weighty dividends (mostly as the result of aggressive takeovers) in the turbulent environment of your wake. No matter where they practice their sport, blue-water anglers throughout the world include on their hit list billfish, dolphin, tuna and wahoo. Despite targeting the same species - or very similar ones, in the case of billfish - six skippers who share their "mixed-bag" trolling spreads with Sport Fishing readers rely on six very different setups when covering water that could produce anything from mahimahi to monster marlin. Big Island Basics"We're blessed with the best sea conditions in the world," says Capt. Gene Vander Hoek, who patrols Hawaii's Kona Coast in the 39-foot Rybovich Sea Genie II. Vander Hoek often deploys lures just minutes out of the harbor on the Big Island's lee side, which offers year-round fishing for blue and striped marlin, shortbill spearfish and a supporting cast of yellowfin tuna, dolphin and wahoo. "We start our pattern with a large lure on the third wave," says Vander Hoek, citing a Joe Palacat Lunger, Marlin Magic Large Ruckus or big Pear as personal preferences. "Another Lunger, regular Pear or Joe Yee Super Plunger rides the fourth wave." Heavy tackle ("130-pound outfits loaded for big bear") gets the nod for flat lines. "These two inside lures tend to draw strikes from blue marlin of all sizes - but we're not surprised when they're hit by a spearfish, wahoo or 150-pound tuna." Smaller lures run from the outriggers on 80-pound tackle. Vander Hoek drags a plunger or small Pear on the sixth wave. "We leave a one-wave space between flat-line and rigger baits. This gives a marlin time to regroup after missing one of the inside offerings and mount an accurate attack on a rigger lure," he says, adding that the short-rigger lure tends to get slammed by all types of blue-water game fish. "The long-rigger bait represents the most versatile member of the spread - and also a sitting duck. Any metal or resin jet- or bullet-head placed on the seventh wave or farther back receives more attention from a wider range of species. It also stands a greater chance of hooking smaller marlin that the inside baits miss," says Vander Hoek. "Instead of tweaking boat speed to match different types of lures, we choose baits that perform best at our preferred trolling speed of 8 knots," says Sea Genie's skipper. Don't hesitate to experiment when fine-tuning your spread. "Look at your pattern as the starting five of a basketball team. If they don't make their shots, you've got other players on the bench - or in the lure box - that can do the job," coaches Vander Hoek. Gulf Coast Grab BagWhen Capt. Brandon Ballay takes the 31 Bertram Aw Heck out of Venice Marina, he looks for the rip line formed where green water meets blue ocean. The sharply defined color change holds floating weeds and debris that attract baitfish. "Bigger fish prowl along the rip, looking for something to eat," says Ballay. "I primarily target edible fish because most of my charter clients want to catch dolphin, wahoo and tuna - and hopefully get a shot at blue marlin," Ballay explains. To cover all bases, Ballay pulls a five-lure spread composed of three surface lures and two diving plugs. Deployed from the center rigger, a large artificial (20 inches including skirt) with a yap-style head rides the seventh wave behind the transom. "That's my marlin catcher," says Ballay. "Then I put my rigger baits - two stub-nose yaps measuring 10 or 12 inches - on the fifth and sixth waves. Lures that size are big enough to attract attention from blue marlin, and small enough to catch a 20-pound dolphin or whatever else may come along." Although he admits that commercially available trolling lures would perform well in his pattern, Ballay prefers custom-made heads from local sources. His tackle of choice for these three slots in the pattern: stand-up rods fitted with Penn International 50SWs and 50- or 80-pound line. Each corner of Aw Heck's transom holds a 50-pound outfit pulling a diving plug such as a Mann's Stretch 30, Halco Trembler or Rapala Magnum; lure choice depends on which model performs best at a particular trolling speed. "Exact placement of the divers isn't critical since they run underwater, but I stagger them inside the rigger lines. That way, if the lures pop out of the water they won't cause tangles," says Ballay. Defining ideal conditions as "a 2-foot chop, just enough to put ripples on the surface," Ballay usually trolls at 7 1/2 to 8 knots. This spread often produces mixed-bag results in a single trolling pass when multiple hookups of tuna and wahoo occur. Key IngredientsOver 30 years' experience in the charter business has helped Capt. Jim Sharpe develop a winning trolling pattern for his home waters in the lower Florida Keys, where the Florida Straits host blue and white marlin, sailfish and the ubiquitous pelagic trio of tuna, dolphin and wahoo. "If you devote all day to trolling for blue marlin, you may not raise a billfish," says Sharpe, explaining why he likes to see his anglers hook dolphin and tuna while still keeping open the possibility of raising a marlin behind Sea Boots, a 43-foot Torres. "My two outrigger baits run about 150 and 200 feet back. I tell my mate that if he can see the baits, they're too close," jokes Sharpe, who uses 30-pound outfits in the rigger positions. Single-hook ballyhoo/lure combinations work well here: "Lures like my Sea Boots Kona protect ballyhoo, so baits last longer and I can troll faster without washing them out," Sharpe adds. One corner of the transom sports a Penn Fathom-Master downrigger and 30- or 50-pound outfit with a double-hook ballyhoo/ Sea Boots Kona running 50 feet deep. Sharpe sets the downrigger offering far enough back so it will surface near the rigger baits if the release gets tripped. "We usually catch wahoo, dolphin or tuna on the deep-troll, but if a sailfish strikes without getting hooked, it often follows the bait to the surface and eats one of the ballyhoo on the riggers. The single-hook ballyhoo tends to hold sails better," he says. A 30-pound rod in the other corner keeps a naked ballyhoo skipping about 50 feet back. Deployed on 80-pound tackle and clipped to a center rigger, a large marlin lure occupies the center of the pattern, 75 feet from the transom. Several 10- and 20-pound spinning rigs stand ready to cast ballyhoo chunks should Sea Boots happen to locate floating boards harboring schoolie dolphin. Sharpe normally trolls at about 6 1/2 knots but may bump up the speed to 7 1/2 knots in calm seas. Caribbean Catch-All"On any given day we can expect to catch blue marlin, sailfish, yellowfin and blackfin tuna, dolphin and wahoo," says Capt. Gerard "Frothy" De Silva when asked about blue-water possibilities in Tobago. De Silva's pet five-lure pattern includes a variety of hooked offerings to attract predatory attention from all species mentioned above, plus two teasers to keep interested but undecided window-shoppers in the spread. A Mold Craft Fender teaser darts convincingly under the wake's first wave while a hookless Mold Craft Wide Range or Hooker, tied off to the opposite corner, smokes on the second wave behind the 31 Bertram Hard Play II. "I run two large lures on 80-pound flat lines close to the transom: a Marlin Magic Large Ruckus on the third wave and a Mold Craft Wide Range or Hooker on the fourth," says De Silva. "Marlin usually strike one of these - but you know how fish are. Sometimes they come up under a large lure then fall back and eat a smaller lure in the spread." Using a pair of 50-pound outfits and small Pakulas enhanced with ballyhoo or flying fish, De Silva places his short-rigger offering on the fifth wave and the long-rigger bait six waves back. "The Pakulas draw strikes from marlin, and they work equally well for tuna, wahoo and dolphin. I run smaller baits in the last three positions of my spread because tuna particularly favor baits farther back," says De Silva. A small Mold Craft Hooker/ballyhoo combo rides shotgun on 30-pound tackle, bringing up the rear on the seventh or eighth wave. "The stinger's very good for sailfish, but anything could hit it. This year we caught a 450-pound marlin on that little Hooker to win a tournament," De Silva says proudly. "I use this spread on an everyday basis when searching for all-around variety," says De Silva. "When targeting tuna, wahoo and dolphin in shallower water, I switch to lighter tackle and smaller lures. A downrigger also works well for wahoo and tuna. Ballyhoo behind a purple/black, red/black or red/white Sea Witch makes an excellent wahoo bait on the downrigger. If I know big tuna are in the area, my downrigger bait's a Tournament Tackle Ilander with flying fish or ballyhoo." De Silva trolls dead baits at a steady 7 1/2 knots, but at times he rigs Calcutta Bullyhoo in place of the real McCoy and covers more area at speeds up to 8 1/2 knots. Canyon CompanionCapt. Tom Byrne has been running private boats out of Cape May, New Jersey for over a dozen years. As skipper of the 44 Striker Insure, he's helped his team place near the top in competitions at Cape May Marlin and Tuna Club and South Jersey Marina. "We make 25 to 30 canyon trips per year," says Byrne. "Here in the Northeast, we don't get enough of a concentration of any particular species to warrant putting out a spread targeting only one type of fish - unless we're fishing a marlin tournament. On an average day in peak season [July through September], we'll see five or more white marlin and we can pick at dolphin and tuna all day while waiting for billfish to appear." Two bridge teasers form the foundation for Byrne's tight, 10-point spread. On the right, a plastic-squid daisy chain splashes on the first wave. Sometimes Byrne sets out a string of Ilanders with a hookless ballyhoo at the end. "The Ilanders stay under in windy conditions and seem to attract fish better on slow days," he says. His other teaser, a dredge rigged with as many as a dozen mullet or ballyhoo, rides on a short leash just off the left corner. "It's a productive tool," Byrne says of the dredge. "Some guys up here put one on each side of the spread. I don't want to spend that much time rigging, so I only pull one." A swimming mullet or ballyhoo - on 30-pound tackle, line clipped to the transom and positioned just behind the dredge - tempts fish coming up to investigate the commotion. The right flat line, also 30-pound and clipped to the transom, holds a skipping ballyhoo beside the daisy-chain teaser. Concerning placement of the rigger baits, Byrne maintains a sober approach: no staggering. Two 30-pound outfits occupy the short-rigger slots, each with skipping ballyhoo on the third wave. Both long-rigger baits, on 50-pound gear, are placed on the fifth wave. If skipping ballyhoo, either naked or wearing Sea Witch skirts, fail to generate strikes, Byrne may put swimming ballyhoo on the long riggers to spice things up. "Most local skippers fish a shotgun bait far down the middle, but I prefer a 50-pound rod rigged with a medium ballyhoo/Ilander placed at about the sixth wave, just a hair behind the long-rigger baits," Byrne explains. "We also fish an 80-pound outfit from the rocket launcher on the chair, with a big swimming mullet on a 10/0 hook placed very close to the boat. Most of the blue marlin we raise come up on the teasers rather than farther back in the spread, so we keep the 80 close at hand in case we have to feed the mullet to a big fish." Byrne usually trolls between 5 and 6 knots, but when action slows, plastics go out in place of natural baits. "Then we troll at 7 or 8 knots to cover more territory and find fish. Once we locate fish, we switch back to our tried-and-true dead-bait pattern," he says. Rolling ElevensThe springtime arrival of warming Gulf Stream currents off Oregon Inlet, North Carolina, triggers a veritable blue-water free-for-all that lasts until early fall. "We get shots at blue and white marlin, sailfish, spearfish, yellowfin and blackfin tuna, dolphin, wahoo and on rare occasions, bigeye tuna," says Capt. Billy Maxwell. "The mixed-bag spread is important to my style of fishing. I may have six guys on a charter, each hoping to catch a different species. Some want tuna, some want dolphin, others want billfish. But heading offshore isn't like going to Burger King: You can't always have it your way," says Maxwell. "By putting out 11 offerings, I increase chances of hooking a variety of fish and pleasing my clients." Maxwell's pattern takes full advantage of the 17-foot beam aboard the Tuna Fever, a 56-foot custom-built Carolina hull by Buddy Kennedy. An Ilander daisy chain and a Pakula Rat ("I like the way it smokes," Maxwell says) perform bridge-teaser duty; these are placed 45 to 50 feet back of the transom. Just ahead of the Ilander chain, a naked ballyhoo skips 35 feet back on a 50-pound flat line. Since blue marlin tend to zero in on the Pakula, Maxwell positions an 80-pound flat line with an Ilander/horse ballyhoo combo ahead of the single-lure teaser. Daisy chains of six plastic squid ending with hooked, naked ballyhoo sputter along on each side of the spread as short-rigger baits, 50 feet back. "Dolphin seem to be especially attracted to the daisy chains," Maxwell says. "I use brightly colored squid, like pink or green." Tuna, wahoo and an occasional kingfish often grab the Sea Witch/ballyhoo bait swimming deep under the spread, held there with a planer on a wire-line rig that rests in a transom rod holder to the inside of the 50-pound flat line. Maxwell normally uses a #8 to #12 planer, a Penn 10/0 reel and .035-inch Monel wire; he says a pink Sea Witch makes this bait more visible to the fish. The planer rig is set far enough back to rise near the short-rigger baits when tripped. Deployed from an 80-pound rig in the bridge belly rail, a bar festooned with 10 plastic squid - the "straggler" packing a hook - kicks up a fuss 60 feet back. "Nothing creates more tangles and headaches than a spreader bar in the pattern, but it's worth the effort because it raises fish," says Maxwell, justifying the contraption in the middle of his spread. The shotgun and long-rigger baits ride as far back as 500 feet. "Tuna often get shy and won't attack baits near the boat," Maxwell says. "Also, baits that far back stay out of the prop wash and remain more visible." Keeping these three baits parallel to each other increases chances of multiple hookups on tuna and dolphin. Maxwell finds that his mixed-bag spread produces best results when trolled at 6 to 6 1/2 knots. Following the advice of these experienced skippers will prove a lot more rewarding than relying on pot luck to catch a potpourri of blue-water species. But be warned: Mixed-bag patterns can lead to mixed emotions if the "wrong" fish crashes the party at an inopportune time. "We once raised a 300-pound blue marlin that missed a bait twice," recalls Ballay. "As it circled around for another shot, a 70-pound wahoo streaked in and snatched the bait. The marlin was looking for something to eat, but we didn't have anything to throw at him."