Roddy Hays

Captain Roddy Hays is a big blue marlin legend and the creator of Legend Lures, the handcrafted trolling heads he designed while fishing Madeira for giant blues in the 1990s. Grander after grander fell to his lures, from Madeira to the Great Barrier Reef. In his In The Spread videos, Hays teaches offshore trolling lure fundamentals for marlin, tuna, and wahoo, including how head shape drives action, how to match lures to conditions, and the single-hook rigging that holds up in a marlin fight.

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Instructor's videos

Roddy Hays is a name that carries weight in big blue marlin fishing, and the lures that carry his legacy are called Legend Lures for a reason. Hays made his mark off Madeira Island in the 1990s, when that stretch of Atlantic earned the nickname Jurassic Park for the sheer size of the blue marlin it produced. Running his boats out of Funchal through that legendary era, Hays was in the thick of some of the most remarkable big blue fishing the sport has ever seen.

Out of that fishing came the lures. Hays designed and handcrafted his own trolling heads to catch the giants he was chasing, and they worked so well they became legendary in their own right. Grander after grander fell to Legend Lures, not just off Madeira but as far away as the Great Barrier Reef. The original models, with names like Andromeda, Dracula, and Frankenstein, are still sought after by collectors and fishermen today.

What makes Hays such a valuable teacher is that he understands trolling lures from the perspective of the man who builds them and fishes them at the highest level. He can explain how head shape drives a lure's action and bubble trail, why a long head, cupped face, slant, plunger, tube, or bullet each has its place, and how to match a lure to the target species, the sea state, the boat speed, and the spread you are running. He knows what raises a blue marlin and what raises a wahoo instead.

He is equally precise about rigging, which he argues matters even more than lure choice. Two seemingly identical setups can produce very different results, and Hays shows the single-hook rigging, hook and leader selection, and crimping technique that build a connection strong enough to survive a sustained marlin fight.

In his In The Spread videos, Hays breaks down offshore trolling lure fundamentals for marlin, tuna, and wahoo, and demonstrates step by step how to rig them right. Learn lures from the man whose name became the standard, and your spread will never be the same.