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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Fishing

General Guidelines

Here are some general guidelines for trolling:

• Don’t get slack out there! Lures pick up debris such as eelgrass or kelp bits. Keep an eye on the lures, and if you troll through an area with a lot of floating trash, check the spread. Even the deep-diving lures can be affected, because many times debris will get caught on the line, and slide down the line to the lure.
  
  
• 
  Rizzo dolphins
  (Click for larger image)
  Show others a little respect. On weekends in particular, things can get a bit hectic, so keep an eye out for other people’s lines. It’s still amazing to me that with all the space out there on the ocean, that everyone seems to want to crowd into a small area. If you find yourself in that situation, back away from the crowd. You’ll often find that fishing the edges of the crowds is more productive.
  
  
• While trolling, always keep a watch for signs of breaking fish, kelp paddies, porpoises, local temperature and current breaks. Stop for the kelp paddies, move to breaking fish, follow local current breaks or temp breaks. A temp break of 0.5 degrees can be significant, if the water is uniformly a certain temperature.
  
  
• Actively feeding porpoises can be good indicators of fish. Porpoises that are circling an area, or are on the move, and are diving and surfacing in a frantic manner are on top of baitfish, and they are often accompanied by tuna. Get in front of them, and troll parallel to the school, trying to get the lures to sweep across the front or side of the school.
  
  
• Ultimately, have confidence in what you’re doing, and let the fish tell you what to do. If you aren’t getting any bites, and you think the fish are around, systematically change something: slow down or speed up, or change direction relative to the swell and current. Swap out a lure (color or size) as a last resort. Just be sure to give your change enough time to see if it is working. And change only one thing at a time. If you change too many things, you won’t be able to narrow in on what triggered the strike.
  
  
• Once you start getting hits, swap out the lures in your spread to be as similar as possible to the ones getting the strikes. Starting out, it’s too expensive to have complete duplicate spreads on every color and size combination, so start with matching the size first, then the color.
  
  

• Mark the spot on your GPS immediately. Make a mental note of the direction and speed that you were heading at the time of the strike.
  
  
• 
  A fast two-handed strip can be
  the best the way to go.
  (Click for larger image)
  If you want to get more fish on the troll, keep going for at least another 10 seconds in the same direction. Toss out a few sardines, anchovies or chunks of cut bait as you continue. Or, if you have a frozen chum block, be ready to deploy it in a mesh bag or a bucket. This will help draw the fish to the boat.
  
  
• As you come to a stop, toss in some more bait or chunks, and/or drop in the chum bucket. One fisherman should clear the other trolling lines and teasers as quickly as possible, then break out a VLMD and start casting! A strike should come fairly quickly if the fish are active. If not, try these things:
  
  • If you are not getting any follows, let the fly sink a bit deeper before starting your retrieve.
    
    
  • If you are getting follows, but no takers, retrieve more quickly.
    
    
  • If none of these things works, change to a smaller fly, and if that does not work, try a different color.
• Try to keep at least one fish in the water and active, and/or keep tossing in some bait (but not a lot, just ones or twos). This will help hold the school around the boat. If you are using a meat line, cleat it off when the fish is close, and leave it in the water (but watch out for sharks and seals)
  
  
• After the bite seems to “stop”, keep fishing until the last fish is in the boat. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the last fish to the boat bring a few of his or her buddies in as well, and if you are still fishing when that happens, you’re likely to get a bite. This can sometimes start the bite all over again! So be prepared, and don’t stop fishing until after the last fish is in the boat.
  
  

• After the bite really stops, remember the rule “don’t leave fish to find fish”.
  
  
• The fish are probably somewhere nearby, so put the trolling lines back out, and “box” the area. This can be literally a square trolling pattern, but really means to just keep fishing the same area in a systematic manner. Troll in a gradually increasing spiral away from where you last caught a fish (you did remember to mark the strike area with a GPS waypoint, right?).
  
  
• As you box the area, remember to keep an eye out for all the signs we mentioned earlier – fish working, birds working, paddies and debris, current seams, and water color changes. The fish were in that area for a reason, so it’s your job to see if you can pick up the pattern, and repeat it.