Fishing Techniques:

A Trolling Primer - Part II

This is Part II of a two-part series covering basic offshore trolling techniques. In this part, we cover how to use all of the stuff you bought as a result of reading Part I...Click HERE if you need to read Part I.

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In Our Last Episode...

Finding

Setup

Fishing

Conclusion

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Finding

As mentioned earlier, finding fish is the biggest problem you will face offshore. In this article, I am going to describe a basic process that will get you in the right ballpark. There are lots of variations to this process, and as you fish more offshore, you will eventually develop your own routine. But in the meantime, here is a starting point:

Step 1- Review fishing reports

To give you an idea of the type of detail available from "For Fee" sites, click HERE to see excerpts from some of the 976-Bite reports for August 2, 2008 (there were additional reports posted all evening, up until 11:55pm). Reprinted by permission from 976-Bite:

Start with collecting fishing report information from friends you trust, guides and appropriate websites. I am a big fan of pay-to-play websites. They do a good job of filtering the noise out, and giving you actual coordinates of where the fish are. Our favorite for San Diego is 976-Bite, but there are several others.

Augment this with reports from public websites, such as BTBFF.COM, Bloody Decks, Senor Tuna, and AllCoast. The pay-to-play sites are usually more consistent, but you can get close with public sites, if you know whose reports to believe. Plus, they occasionally have gems that the for-fee sites miss. But that’s not often.

Take some time to go back a few days in time, and see if there are any directional patterns that you can detect in the reports. Are the fish moving North? South? How many miles/day?

Step 2 - Review on-line water conditions and weather

Here are some examples of SST and Chlorophyll maps, courtesy of Terrafin. Maps reprinted by permission.

SST Chart - Note blank areas denoting overcast areas
(Click for larger image)


Chlorophyll Chart
(Click for larger image)

Take a look at Sea Surface Temperature (SST) maps. Again, we find the for-fee sites to be consistently better than the for-free sites, but the difference is diminishing. Our favorite for Southern California is Terrafin, which is a for-fee site. Another popular site is TempBreak.com (which is for-free).

Use these maps to look for warm water currents. You can see these as distinctive patterns on an SST. A word of warning, however: when there is a heavy marine layer, these maps are often incomplete. You may have to look several days in the past to find a good image, which of course, may not be that useful.

Chlorophyll charts can also be used in a manner similar to SSTs. These charts indicate the presence or absense of algae, which can be a good indicator of fertile water. Again, you are looking for edges. When a zone of warm water coincides with a sharp chlorophyll change, it is very likely that baitfish will also be found in that area.

Weather reports can also be very useful in predicting where the fish will be. Storms in the south with big swells in the summer months can push warm water into an area. North / Northeast winds in the fall can bring cold water into an area and shut down the bite. The National Weather Service Website is as good as any.

Also review swell information from the various offshore buoys. Look out for short period (under 10 second) swells of 3 or more feet. These can result in a very rough ride. Swells below 3 feet, and/or spaced out at over 10 seconds, are generally not anything to worry about. As swell size increases, if the period increases as well, it can still be fishable, just a bit more of a rollercoaster ride (up/down). The NOAA Weather Buoy Website provide the information most common used.

Step 3 - Pick Out Some Spots

Take the above data, and pick out a few places to fish. Temperature breaks near, or leading between, offshore banks are usually good places to start, especially if there are reports of fish in the area. Take into account the direction the fish are moving, and try to predict where they will be when you hit the water.

Try to pick your spots out in a logical order, keeping in mind that they will probably wind up being be miles apart. If possible, you usually want to be running East-Northeast in the afternoon, to avoid the usual wind-chop and swell, which comes from the West-Northwest. If you have to run due North, you are going to be running right into the swell or taking the wind-chop broadside, which can make for a wet, wet ride home.

Step 4 – Pick Out Some Times

It is generally accepted that peak feeding activity occurs around the tide changes, from an hour or two before, to an hour or so after the change. Why? No one knows for sure. It certainly doesn’t make any sense that fish 50 miles offshore would care about the tide change. But many very experienced anglers feel this is the case. Try to plan your day to be in the prime areas at the prime times.

Some Other Thoughts

Don’t forget, if you got this information on-line, there are probably hundreds of people who have the same data. If you have to go on the weekend, don’t expect to be alone! However, you can often turn the crowds to your advantage. If it’s so busy that boat traffic is disturbing the fish, prospecting along the edge of a crowded area can often be much more effective than fishing in the middle of the herd.