Bought a 2007 23 Regulator last September and been refitting to be able to get offshore. Yesterday was the day…
Ran out to SW Banks at first light. Out of the jetties by 545. NE breeze freshening but sea state was steady NE 2’. Got out to the banks by 745, able to run 30-32mph out. It was wet due to the wind direction, but a fairly smooth ride out. Water temp was 65F but we decided to HST and then slow speed there anyway (I’m new to the game). Caught 6 Bonita from 6-11#, but no meat fish to be found so we pressed further east. Finally found 68-69F in 550’ of water about 8 miles east of the banks, but around no structure or real weed lines (there were some smaller lines out). So we got skunked in any keepers.
Ran back at 130 and made it to Wappoo ramp by 430. Wild ride back at 25-28mph and a weird 3-4’ cross chop, but boat handled it beautifully. I realize this is not as cool of a post as most and with only 2 of us and lots of foulies on, there are no photos (I’ve been reading these for years). But since we made it to the stream, never saw another boat, caught a few, and found warm water, I figure I’d share.
Looking forward to some warmer weather, flatter water and bigger fish but until then, our first go was a resounding success.
Nice job getting her out there. You could have dropped to the bottom at SW Banks in 180 to 200 ft. and brought home some nice triggers and other critters.
What were you pulling? Weight, leader length, bait size, cable/wire, trolling weights/style, what speed were you going This all effects the hydrodynamics of what your pulling and how it presents its self.
What did the bonitas hit, did they come on the slow troll?
How far back were you pulling? 25ft 75ft 150ft 250ft 500ft 750ft Again huge effect on presentation.
How much white water was your boat producing? How clear was the water?
A lot of questions, i know but with answers i could tell you if it was something you were doing. A lot of people who are new dont put enough emphasise on the little details. If you set your spread or lures wrong high speeding your lures can go unseen a couple ft makes a huge difference. Imagine a plain flying in the clouds, its hard to find even though you know its there. Thats your lure in white water and the boat makes enough commotion yo make it hard for fish to key in on vibrations or noise in the white wash. When your lure or spread is set wrong the lure can stay to high in the white wash and go unseen. Or be on the left but the fish was on the right. The deeper your lure runs the more it can be seen from all sides. Speed and sea conditions change the way a lure pulls. Just because you smoked them at 15k last time doesnt mean conditons next time will be good for pulling at 15k. When your not catching switch stuff around, lures, lure distance, trolling speed and always have 1 further back than you want to reel in. Ive highspeed trolled with people whos way way back is the other guys short. I always drop at least 1 way back when its slow for a while and the spread is set close.
If you look at sst charts (sea surface temperatures) you get a better idea of what temps are in the area your heading closer to what your looking for like color breaks, rips, bait etc. The edisto 41004 bouy is the furthest bouy out that i use for info. There is 1 more, the cape bouy i think,out farther on the plateau but its pretty far out and only helps with predicting sea c
Good trip to learn from.There was a few good shots on Rip Charts showing a break down south over Edisto Banks.Anyone go down there? We bailed when I saw the Sailflow prediction at 4 am.
36 ft Yellowfin Yamaha Trip 300
27 ft Seahunt Yamaha Twin 200
Great read! … one step at a time, proud of you, keep it up!.. don’t let anyone keep u down, u learn by experience not by the people that put u down by trying, some people think that by doing it their whole life , that no one else can,… believe in ur self and keep learning it and f””””, the people that put u down for trying, great post!!.. I’ll go out and be ur boat buddy an time, let me know
“Ran back at 130 and made it to Wappoo ramp by 430. Wild ride back at 25-28mph and a weird 3-4’ cross chop, but boat handled it beautifully. I realize this is not as cool of a post as most…”
I’d say that’s pretty cool. Anybody can drive a boat on a flat day. You get your crew home on a stooly day …safely…that’s cool. Catching fish just makes it easier to justify the cost.
Getting back in 3 hours is what that Regulator can do. If the Stream /ledge don’t produce, I troll a couple of cedar plugs for an hour over the banks, on the way in…all kinds of fish in there feeding on the bait attracted to live bottom…especially Kings.
Be safe and enjoy the moment…it can change in a skinny minute.
Thanks everyone. I’ll try and layout our spread(s) and focus while out there. I didn’t want to get into the weeds to much on the first post. This set up was for 2 of us onboard.
Our HST:
2 setups - each w/ 48oz weight, 24’ 400# mono shock cord, 4’ of 480# 49 strand cable to a Wahoo whacker (1 was purple and black 1 was pink and black)
Both on bentbutt roller rods and tiagra 50lrsa reels, 80# braid with topshot of 60# mono
Trolling at 14-19mph (seas state made it impossible to hold steady), zigzagging over the ledge at 65F (we know it was too cold), and 155-200’
Ran this for about an hour and were not having fun with the wind/spray/wave/etc so went to regular troll
Good bit of white water produced, ran the lures back behind it. Likely 150-200’ back. Water was fairly clear, but hard to tell bc it was SUPER overcast all day. Some weedlines, but not many.
Our Normal troll:
5 set ups
1 - blue and white ilander (2 bonita caught)
1 - naked cedar plug (2 bonita caught, 1 addnl hit)
1 - naked ballyhoo (never touched)
1 - green machine (1 bonita caught)
1 - yozuri bonita purple (1 bonita caught)
Mix of TLD30’s and tiagra 50’s for this setup
Each with no additional weight and 15’ 100# mono leader
Trolled at 6-8mph in 150-550’ and 65-70F
We knew we were int he wrong spot once we got there, but wanted to try since it was our first time. I now have a ripcharts account and will make a plan A, plan B and bottom site determination before heading out. Again, we had an absolute blast and put blood on the deck…after getting back we learned we should have kept the bonita for bait…it figures.
My buddy who is an awesome Wahoo fisherman fished the same day as you and didn’t do anything of consequence. Good water pushed way offshore I believe. Keep at it man
For your HST setups, the heavy weights do better running closer to the boat. Really want them in the first wave past the prop wash. If you are only running two, my opinion is that you’d be better served switching to 24oz weights and running them ~ 75yds off the corners. You want both lures to be on the larger size when closer to the boat.