I had my first real go at trolling my BBL ProJet yesterday. I fished solo out of Jupiter Inlet (Florida) in my 23.5' CC. Due to no crew and short period waves, I elected to pull only 3 lines and not bring the outriggers.
Based on Capt. Miller's writings about Super ProJet being his near constant selection for 5th line (shotgun) I decided to put my projet in the water to get a real sense of how it would troll for me. I also selected two other high confidence lures (a pink mylar feather chasing a squid chain and a small Moldcraft chugger with a bird). I ran the project furthest back down the middle, with the others fished from the forward (angled out slightly) rod holders that are normally used for the rods being run in the outriggers.
My Projet is rigged with a 7/0 or 8/0 southern tuna hook, semi-stiff on heavy cable with about 9' of 200-300lb clear mono leader. I was fishing in heavy scattered sargassum weed, that hadn't quite yet managed to form up into nice lines.
My biggest disappointment with the lure was how poorly it shed weed -- it fouled more than the other two combined. Of course, part of why I like the other two is their ability to shed weed. I was, however, quite pleased with the slight side to side shimmy/wiggled the Projet showed on the dive portion of its trolling cycle.
The only fish I caught, a moderately size little tunny (locally bonita) came at the end of the day on the Projet. So this is now a "proven" and "bloodied" lure in my collection. So it will see trolling time again, but perhaps only when I need a larger shotgun lure, like when pulling a full spread of my larger lures. I pull quite a few smaller lures for the local blackfin tuna and dolphin.
