In this blog post Scott Fawcett, Anthony Pino & Nick Carullo Talk about Center Console dead bait trolling and the difference that Two strokes & Four strokes make on an Outboard.

Scott Faucet lives in Stuart, Florida. Right now he runs a 31 contender off the chain before that he ran a 54 Willis bone shaker for Joe. That was his primary tournament boat. Even before the Willis, he had a little 40 foot Whitaker that was named Boneshaker. We've added a short summary of a conversation we recently had with Scott on our Podcast. 

"Anthony Pino: How was your switch from the Willis to the Contender? Did you go straight from the Willis to the contender, or did you have another job in between them?

Scott Fawcett: No, I pretty much bought the contender when I was on the Willis and kind of gave Joe a notice. Because we had been together for so long, I mated for him for probably close to 10 years, then I ran the boat for another 10 years for him. So we were family. So I gave him notice and 11 months later, I finally got a job offer that I just couldn't refuse. it was for a guy down in lighthouse point. I ran that boat for maybe two months and became one of the a hundred captains that came and went on that program real fast. But it was the best thing that ever could have happened. The boneshaker program made me go off on my own officially. That was the best choice that I ever could have made.

Anthony Pino:Do you feel like you were getting tired of the program and that’s why you left. 

Scott Fawcett: To be totally honest. The main reason I left that program is because we were so tournament oriented and we redid the boat completely. We stuck with the smaller engines rather than getting the extra 50 horsepower a side, it's not a 30 knot boat. There were so many things that we put money into, but didn't really take the extra step to keep it as a competitive boat. I figured I had a great stretch. It was a good time to step away and just kinda, see what happens.  I needed a tower, I needed a faster boat, we needed trolling valves. So I thought I could go ahead and hop on this 31 contender and compete. I figured it was a great opportunity for me to go ahead and do that. So I mean on an every day calm two to three foot day, you definitely can hang and compete.

But as far as fishing tournaments go, as soon as it starts blowing 20 and it's five and six foot and choppier than that, up sea tack is just horrendous on that thing. I definitely do more dead baiting than the average center console guy. I’m definitely a diehard dead Baiter born again live Baiter, dead heart, dead baiter.

Anthony Pino: How do you like the dead baiting on the center console?

Scott Fawcet: I enjoy it. I tell you it's crazy. When I got that boat, it had two strokes on it and it still saw plenty of teaser fish, but you wouldn't mark them. You go on the bigger boats and you'll get that boomerang 40 or 50 feet down and two seconds later here he is on your dredge and you just wouldn't mark the fish with the two strokes. When I went to the fourth stroke the first day, I'm bottom fishing and I saw a fish finning and we slid over there and it's the first time I've ever been at a fish without turning the engines off. So I sat over there and cast the bait and I heard this obnoxious noise and I quickly ran back there and killed my engines. The noise was coming from my live well pumps. So, you know, just going from the two strokes to the four strokes, I could hear my live Wells. So I started marking fish.

Scott Fawcett: Teaser bites are crazy. I mean, I do a lot of fly fishing with a guy and I mean, you could poke them with a rod. They teased just as well as they do on a bigger Sportfish boat. You're only disadvantaged on the choppy up C tech, but I mean, I make a joke that I want to set the record for tagging more sailfish or tagging the most sailfish without catching any of them will come right up. I mean, you can poke them with a rod tip as close as we tease them. It’s like they're eating right out of your hands.

Anthony Pino: Have you ever actually tagged one without actually hooking it?

Scott Fawcett: no, I don't tag fish. I don't want to say I don't believe in it, but I don't care about carrying a tag on the boat, I do a lot of Fly fishing so I have poked somany of them with my rod. It's ridiculous.

Nick Carullo: I was watching some videos of that fly fishing stuff, man. That's bad as stuf.

Scott Fawcett: Yeah, it's fun. You know, it is a little more intimate on the center console, so I enjoy it. With the four strokes being so quiet these days, I mean, you can literally hear that sale come up and eat. It's like a trout sipping on a dry fly. I really do enjoy the center console."

If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog post you can listen to the full conversation here: EP36