Riverdancing Tobys, Salmon And Lomond (Page 3).

Tobys
Around the beginning of May I increase boat speed, change to trolling 4 tobys, and endeavour to cover as much of the Loch as possible in a day. This is the time that separates the experienced troller from the haphazard lure-dragger. Tobys are exceptional salmon trolling lures, but require special treatment if they are to work to peak effectiveness. At this time I am actively hunting for fish which can be spread out over the whole of the Loch. Summer salmon and grilse are great chasers and in my experience are more likely to be attracted to a lure fished at a speed at which the action of ordinary tobys is lost.
I try to cover as much ground as possible, at as fast a speed as possible while still retaining lure action and must seem extremely antisocial to friends I am quite willing to drum up with earlier in the season. Fish at this time are real prizes, normally between 10 and 20lbs, usually sealiced, and if you get one early in the day you could easily finish with three. Straight from the packet, the action of no two lures will be the same. It follows that they cannot then possibly all work at the same trolling speed, and when one is working properly the action of the others will suffer.

Consequently, I never fish a Toby unless it has been modified in the following manner;

1. Remove the supplied swivel, split rings and treble hook. Throw them in the loch or sooner or later they will cost you a fish.

2. Fit new s.s. split ring and Sharpes ball bearing swivel at head of lure. Add another good quality ordinary swivel to sit on the concave side of the toby to which the cord hook link will be attached.

3. To a partridge outpoint treble of the same size (6) attach a smaller size 8 or 10 trailing treble to sit approx. 12mm behind main treble. I use twisted 10lb b.s. alasticum wire for the attachment which is stiff enough to hold hook firmly in position but flexible enough to allow movement when a fish is hooked. I have landed many fish which are only lip hooked by the trailing treble.

4. Using a fine a drill, drill two sets of adjacent holes, one near the head and one near the tail of the lure as shown, which allow tying in of the hook link.

5. Form a flexible hook link, I use 30lb b.s braided backing cord, and attach to ordinary swivel judging length so that the eye of the large treble lines up with rear of lure as shown. Under no circumstances be tempted to use heavy nylon for the hook link. I have suffered a number of unexplained failures using nylon and would never use it under any circumstancies.

6. Hooks are secured to tail end of the lure using a short 6/8mm length of twin core electrical wiring plastic outer sleeving forming a "collar" which, pushed firmly over the tail of the toby, holds hooks firmly to the toby but breaks away under pressure of taking fish.

7. The flexible hook link is then neatly tied in through the small holes using 3lb b.s. nylon, which also breaks easily when a fish takes.

In the following set of pictures, you can see the steps to modify your Toby.

Click on the picture above to see a slideshow on how to conduct your Toby modifications.

You can save the files here...
Finished modified Toby ready to fish.
Drilled lacing holes to tie in hooklink with 3lb bs nylon.
Braided nylon hooklink laced thro' Toby.
Hooklink attachment at head...
Flying treble attached to main treble...
Hooks detached for clarity.
Result of breakaway mount.
Alternative braided dacron hooklink...
Twin core electrical wiring outer sheathing...

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