Trolling questions....

[2stroke1971]

I am new to trolling, but not fishing.
Trying for some rock fish on the Chesapeake bay. I have a few questions.

I was looking at some depth charts for lures and they talk about a 30 foot mono leader. Huh? A 30 FOOT leader?! so....after reeling that goes hand over hand? Sounds like a pain in the backside to store and deploy.

So in the most basic sense...lets say I want to put out a single mojo, say 20 oz. No leader needed right? No drop weight, its plenty heavy right? Put it on the end of a heavy swivel and let it out right? Seems obvious, but Ive found no clear guide to the basics anywhere.

Say I want to run a large spoon at 20 or 30 feet. (Or any light lure) Currently, I use a drop weight, inline....Hook the weight to my swivel, and then Ive got about 10 feet of mono after the weight and I hook that to the light lure. Make any sense?

I have a couple of umbrellas. The heaviest one is 4 oz...so unless I have a heavy mojo or something in the middle, I need a drop weight for that also right?

I have seen alot of folks coming in with TWO parachutes neatly stored on each of the 38 rods they have hanging off a 20 foot boat...what is that about? Sure, I know that you can put out two lures at once...Ive tried a heavy mojo and paired it up with a lighter lure, using the mojo for the drop weight so to speak...but what is the way to rig two equally weighted lures like that?

Im not looking to use spreaders, planers, etc.... Four rods is all I care to put out.
Any advice or ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dingbat]

Re: Trolling questions....

I am new to trolling, but not fishing.
Trying for some rock fish on the Chesapeake bay. I have a few questions.

I was looking at some depth charts for lures and they talk about a 30 foot mono leader. Huh? A 30 FOOT leader?! so....after reeling that goes hand over hand? Sounds like a pain in the backside to store and deploy.

The only 30' leader I use is on a spoon rig. On everything else, I run 3 "pulls" (3 x 6') on the long bait and 2 "pulls" (2 x 6') on my short baits if pulling tandems.

So in the most basic sense...lets say I want to put out a single mojo, say 20 oz. No leader needed right? No drop weight, its plenty heavy right? Put it on the end of a heavy swivel and let it out right? Seems obvious, but Ive found no clear guide to the basics anywhere.

I run a min, 6', typically 12' leader on my mojos. Anyone who has been hit in the head with a 20 oz. weight while boating a fish recognizes the need for the longer leaders to get the angler, and the weight, a safe distance away from the action at the back of the boat.

Say I want to run a large spoon at 20 or 30 feet. (Or any light lure) Currently, I use a drop weight, inline....Hook the weight to my swivel, and then Ive got about 10 feet of mono after the weight and I hook that to the light lure. Make any sense?

Spoon Rig: Spoon, Coastlock snap, 15' of leader, in-line swivel, 15' of leader, Coastlock snap. I run a spoon 300' back with a 2-4 oz. in-line. In the spring, if the spoon does not draw the attention of passing gulls, your fishing it too deep.

I have a couple of umbrellas. The heaviest one is 4 oz...so unless I have a heavy mojo or something in the middle, I need a drop weight for that also right?

I run umbrellas several different ways. It all depends on where the fish are in the water column. I like to run tandem 2 oz. parachute off opposing arms w/o additional weight. Fish that 175-200' back.

I have seen alot of folks coming in with TWO parachutes neatly stored on each of the 38 rods they have hanging off a 20 foot boat...what is that about? Sure, I know that you can put out two lures at once...

The fish in the Spring are high in the water and very spooking. The ability to run the baits up top and away from the boat is a big advantage and thus the prevalent use of planer boards. My board lines are 130' long each. I'll fish 4-6 lines off each board which allows me to cover an area 200' wide with a single pass.

I typically fish 12-16 rods depending on my motivation level. During tournaments, I may fish as many as 25 rods.

Ive tried a heavy mojo and paired it up with a lighter lure, using the mojo for the drop weight so to speak...but what is the way to rig two equally weighted lures like that?

Put the mojos way in the spring. I run two umbrellas on my deep rods (30' and 35') otherwise the rest of the baits are spread out from right below the surface to ~20' deep.

 

[G-Daddy]

Re: Trolling questions....

We fished this past Sunday with 9 rods. We used a 4 oz umbrella off each corner and tandems outside them. We staggered the lures from 50' of line to 150'. The tandems had 5' and 10' leaders and had 4 oz and 2 oz jig heads. We caught 3 rockfish in 4 hours of trolling mid bay in 65' of water. One on each of the corner umbrellas at 75' and 90' behind the boat and one on a tandem back 150'.

 

[thurps]

Re: Trolling questions....

If I had to go through all that to catch a few rockfish, I'de quit fishing. My fishing day consists of going out to 60'/100' water, finding some structure, throwing a chunk of painted rebar with a hook on it over the side, jig for an hour or two, then take my 10 rockfish and maybe a ling cod back to the cleaning station.
Happy hooking. K.

 

[G-Daddy]

Re: Trolling questions....

If I had to go through all that to catch a few rockfish, I'de quit fishing. My fishing day consists of going out to 60'/100' water, finding some structure, throwing a chunk of painted rebar with a hook on it over the side, jig for an hour or two, then take my 10 rockfish and maybe a ling cod back to the cleaning station.
Happy hooking. K.

Chesapeake Bay Rockfish are what you would call Striped Bass.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Trolling questions....

If I had to go through all that to catch a few rockfish, I'de quit fishing. My fishing day consists of going out to 60'/100' water, finding some structure, throwing a chunk of painted rebar with a hook on it over the side, jig for an hour or two, then take my 10 rockfish and maybe a ling cod back to the cleaning station.
Happy hooking. K.

If all I caught was rockfish and ling cod I'd give up fishing altogether.

 

[thurps]

Re: Trolling questions....

Hay Dingbat; There is the occasional salmon, CA. halibut, pacific halibut and albacore but, to be perfectly honest, sometimes it takes three or four hours.

Kelley

 

[dingbat]

Re: Trolling questions....

Hay Dingbat; There is the occasional salmon, CA. halibut, pacific halibut and albacore but, to be perfectly honest, sometimes it takes three or four hours.

Kelley

With all the pelagic and inshore game fish we have available to us it rather hard to get excited about bottom fishing.

 

[thurps]

Re: Trolling questions....

. No Bluefish here.

K.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Trolling questions....

. No Bluefish here.

K.

We call bluefish rats. They are everywhere and most prevalent when you're trying to catch something else.

I have fished with a friend out of SD a couple of times and it's not the same. Being in close proximity to the Gulf Stream, we have four kinds of Tuna, White and Blue Marlin, Wahoo and Makos within easy reach. Inshore we have Red and Black Drum, Sea Trout, Cobia, Striper, Bluefish, Flounder and a host of other fish at our feet. In late summer, we even have Tarpon turn up here and there.

 

[thurps]

Re: Trolling questions....

We call bluefish rats. They are everywhere and most prevalent when you're trying to catch something else.

I have fished with a friend out of SD a couple of times and it's not the same. Being in close proximity to the Gulf Stream, we have four kinds of Tuna, White and Blue Marlin, Wahoo and Makos within easy reach. Inshore we have Red and Black Drum, Sea Trout, Cobia, Striper, Bluefish, Flounder and a host of other fish at our feet. In late summer, we even have Tarpon turn up here and there.

Ok, you win. Haven't caught a billfish since I lived in So CA many moons ago. Was also fun picking up the occasional Thresher or Bonito shark.

Kelley

p.s.
There was a Mako and some Durado caught off Eureka, CA a couple of years ago. very rare in these waters.