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.
Setup
Step 1 – On the Way Out
Now that you’ve got an idea of where you are going, get the boat on the water, and start driving. On the way out, set up your gear:
- Put out the VLMDs, make a long cast, strip in the line, and hook the fly to the hook-keeper or to a guide. Place the rod in the VLMD, and place the VLMD out of the way in a corner of the cockpit
- Get out the trolling gear, check your drags, and attach the lures. Drags should be set to 25-33% of the line’s breaking strength, as measured off the rod tip, using a scale. Retie or change leaders if needed.
- As you travel, keep an eye out for signs of fish: breaking fish, working birds, kelp paddies, feeding porpoises. Don’t be surprised to find fish on the way out, and follow the rule “Don’t Leave Fish to Find Fish”
- It really pays to have your gear ready to go at a moment’s notice. I’ve been caught several times rigging a rod when a fish hits, and have missed opportunities because of it.
Step 2 – When You Get Close
Put the lines in while you are still some distance away from your spots, and troll in towards them. Because the area is so huge and the fish move so much, there is no requirement to be right on top of “the Spot”. Plus, sometimes heavy boat traffic will cause the fish to move a bit.
How far away to start depends on the situation, but a mile or more is not unreasonable. Again, keep an eye out for signs of fish as you travel.
Step 3 – Set the Spread, Set the Speed
- Pick out your lures:
- As mentioned earlier, the general rule is light colors when it’s light, dark colors when it’s dark, but don’t be afraid to try something else. If you are unsure of what colors to use, you can run a mix, but once you determine what is working, you should swap them all over to the preferred color, if you can.
- Select lure size based on the predominant baitfish.
- You can fish a mix of trolling jigs, plugs, and other lures, but be prepared to switch out to the lure type that is getting bit.
- As mentioned earlier, the general rule is light colors when it’s light, dark colors when it’s dark, but don’t be afraid to try something else. If you are unsure of what colors to use, you can run a mix, but once you determine what is working, you should swap them all over to the preferred color, if you can.
- Setting up the spread is an art. To do it well, you need to spend time on your boat. There is no simple formula which will result in the perfect setup for every boat. Each boat is different, and every lure is a bit different. A guide will know what’s best for their boat, and sometimes that knowledge can transfer to another boat, but often it does not. Here are some concepts and rules of thumb to get you started:
- Larger boats run multiple lines, with the lures set at various distances behind the boat. People tend to set these lines in symmetric patterns. For example, you may hear people talk about the “W” pattern (which is a 5-line pattern, long-short-long-short-long, looking astern and going across the beam of the boat).
- On small boats, you can run multiple lines if you use outriggers / rod riggers / flatline booms, but keep in mind that someone has to clear all of these lines when a fish is hooked up. If you are combining trolling with fly-fishing on a smaller private boat, it is better to only run one or two lines if you can, to avoid rod management Hell.
- If you are going to be fishing in Mexican waters, remember that their regulations only allow one line in the water per fisherman. That may automatically restrict the size of the spread you run.
- Don’t set the lures too far back. Let out enough line to place the lures on the face of the 2nd or 3rd wake, with the outside lures further back (this is to avoid tangles when turning). The starting point may only be 25 – 30 feet back. After that, adjust the distances based on what the fish tell you.
- Also try to place the lures in the lanes of clearer water in the wake. You’ll see the lanes in your wake, between the white water of the prop wash and the wake of the hull. This helps the fish spot your lures.
- In some cases a stinger lure (a single lure set way behind the others) may be effective, but in general, if you hook a fish on a stinger, the school they are with may not come any closer. Try to keep the lures close.
- Once you gain experience trolling, you can add spreader bars, daisy chains, birds, and fender teasers if you want. These can be very effective at attracting fish, but are more work to deal with, and are not always needed. If you are still getting your feet wet learning the ropes, I’d wait a bit
- Planers or downriggers with dredges can also be used if you meter deep fish, and they are not coming up. Again, these are more work to set up and manage, so most people don’t use them unless they have to. Many trolling specialists, however, swear by them. We would recommend staying away from them until you gain some time with the simple stuff.
- Larger boats run multiple lines, with the lures set at various distances behind the boat. People tend to set these lines in symmetric patterns. For example, you may hear people talk about the “W” pattern (which is a 5-line pattern, long-short-long-short-long, looking astern and going across the beam of the boat).
- Picking the right speed is also an art, and depends on the boat, water conditions, and lures:
- Look for most trolling jigs to occasionally come to the surface and leave a bubble trail (“smoke”). They should not tumble or jump out of the water, and they should not be constantly smoking unless the lure manufacturer says they were designed to do that. Plugs will cause a tell-tale vibration/throbbing of the rod tip when set properly.
- Sometimes it is difficult to combine different lures in the spread. The optimal speed for one lure may be too fast (or too slow) for the other. In these situations, fine-tuning the length of line out, or using flatline clips to bring the line angles down can sometimes make them work better together. Shortening up a line will make a lure run higher, letting more line out, or using a flatline clip will make them run lower.
- There is also usually an optimal range of engine RPMs for your boat to troll in. When your engine runs in this RPM band, the hull and engine vibration combine to produce a harmonic that does not put off the fish. In an ideal world, this engine setting would also produce a hull speed in the range that the target species want. Sometimes it does not.
You want to try to avoid putting the boat in a position where it is pushing a lot of water, and struggling as if it is not quite on plane (this is also better for gas mileage). Longer hulls have more leeway in this respect, because longer hulls can run at higher displacement (not planing) speeds than shorter hulls. In my boat, the normal tuna trolling speed of 7 - 8 knots is just a bit below planing speed. This is a problem, because at that speed Toy Boat 2 is wallowing in that gray zone. One of the things that is appealing about using Fred Archer’s small spreader bars is the fact that I can troll them a t the optimal speed /RPM for fuel efficiency in my boat – 4-5 knots. Sometimes changing the motor or trim tab positions can radically change the wake and vibration level, making the spread more enticing.
Here are some example wakes from three very different boats, all running about the same speed:
Note the differences in the amount of turbulence and foam
- Six to eight knots is a reasonable starting point for most tunas, dorado and yellowtail when using conventional trolling jigs and plugs. For bonito, barracuda and yellowtail I’ve had better luck at slower speeds, in the 4 – 6 knot range.
As mentioned earlier, small bait spreader bars should be run at slower speeds.
- Your speed will change as you go against or with the current and wind, up or down swell, or run in the trough. You need to constantly monitor the lures in order to make sure they are running correctly. And if you get a strike, make sure you note the speed and direction you are heading at the time of the strike.
- Trolling is one application where a paddle-wheel speedometer makes more sense than a GPS. Paddlewheel speedometers monitor actual water speed, not Speed-Over-Ground (SOG), so they can give you a more consistent picture of water speed, which is what the fish are experiencing. For example, suppose you have a current running south at 2 knots. If your GPS says you are going 8 knots SOG due north, your lures are actually running at (8 + 2) = 10 knots. Conversely, if you are running due south at 8 knots SOG, your lures are actually only going through the water at (8 – 2) = 6 knots.
- Look for most trolling jigs to occasionally come to the surface and leave a bubble trail (“smoke”). They should not tumble or jump out of the water, and they should not be constantly smoking unless the lure manufacturer says they were designed to do that. Plugs will cause a tell-tale vibration/throbbing of the rod tip when set properly.
- Picking a good direction can be important. Many times fish run down-swell, so if you run directly up or down-swell, the fish may go right by on either side of you. Trolling in the trough may intercept more fish, even if it is a bit more uncomfortable. Changing angles as you cross swells also causes the lures to speed up / slow down, which can sometimes trigger a strike.
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