Since the weatherman stuck to his guns on the 2 ft forecast, my brother and I headed “offshore” to enjoy the rarity. 19 ft bayboat w/ 48 gal of fuel. Ran straight to the Comanche…1 1/2 hrs. Drifted a little with squid, no luck. About 2 miles SE of the Com, we started seeing broken weedline w/ lots of flyers, so we start trolling (out of the rodholders w/ two walmart specials (see pics). For the next 3 1/2 hrs in 113 ft, 73.2 degrees we were covered up with dolphin. We had 8 ballyhoo and bags of squid which we put on the blu/wht lure’s double hook (def the lure of the day). They were just hammering the bait, no short strikes…hungry. Had a double on twice, and saw a 5’wahoo which followed a school of peanuts to the boat. We left to head home at 1:00 pm with big grins. The entire trip cost less than $70. Beautiful day w/out a sore back. PS- I wouldn’t want to clean more than 8 dolphin. Go getm
Can you describe to me the how to’s on a spread in a boat that size??? Going down to Fla next weekend and the pelagics are within 20 miles. I’ve never really trolled in my 24’ Actioncraft. How many did you pull ?? four??
Sure, glad to share my “expertise” hahaha! Two bottom fishing rods, 30 lb mono, stuck in the port & starb rod holders. Two trolling lures the grn/wht had wire leader, the blu/wht had mono. Ballyhoo on the “cheater” grn/wht (had the little screw on spring to hold the ballyhoo straight) and on the Blu/wht we hooked two thawed squid by the cap one off each barb of the two barbed hook. They preferred that squid lure (or maybe it was the blu/wht) and let me tell you it was alot cheaper than the ballyhoo. Good luck on your trip.
DrC - well done - those days are few, but so rewarding when you can make it happen.
Red - you could easily run 4 - 6 lines. I used to make due with a 18 ft boat and minimal equipment. Use a planer to get a line or two down (can rope it to a cleat if you need to, do a search). Up top, I just stagger the lines a good bit to manage your turns. In back corner holders I loop a clip with heavy mono (about 1 foot) to the back cleat and clip the corner short lines to that so clip sits one inch past transom, keeps those lines flat and out of way of the med to longer lines. These are short lines, can use heavy rubber bands for this too.
1 down, 2 short and clipped low, 2 or 3 from short to med to long over those depeding on holder setup = 6 lines. Dead hoos don’t swim as much as pogies, so they stay pretty straight!
See what works, better to keep 4 lines fishing than 6 in a nest. Hope you slay em.
Good for y’all!Small boat trolling season is here, it seems.Gonna get the Reel Blessed out there as soon as this weather system moves thru.That Pioneer did almost as good as we did in a McSporty at the 380 Hole yesterday.I run 5-6 lines on a 21ft boat.A t-top with rocket launchers and “kickers” helps.
You can run 5 out of a small bote* easily. If you have a T top or some other area like a leaning post with more rod holders, you could run more.
You can do 5 without outriggers by putting one in the prop wash, two about 2 waves back, one about 4 waves back, and 1 about 6 waves back. The two that are 2 waves back need to be in your gunnel holders furthest spread apart since they will be next to one another. If you have more holders, put all of the above except the one in the wash up in the higher holders and put one lead headed rig on a planner or downrigger and one in the center between the one in the wash and the 2 sitting 2 waves back. Try to keep the spread as close to your stern as possible with a small bote* and you will have less trouble. You can’t go as far back with more than one without outriggers because of how much a small bote changes course. Tangles in a small bote = no fun at all.
You can run 5 out of a small bote* easily. If you have a T top or some other area like a leaning post with more rod holders, you could run more.
You can do 5 without outriggers by putting one in the prop wash, two about 2 waves back, one about 4 waves back, and 1 about 6 waves back. The two that are 2 waves back need to be in your gunnel holders furthest spread apart since they will be next to one another. If you have more holders, put all of the above except the one in the wash up in the higher holders and put one lead headed rig on a planner or downrigger and one in the center between the one in the wash and the 2 sitting 2 waves back. Try to keep the spread as close to your stern as possible with a small bote* and you will have less trouble. You can’t go as far back with more than one without outriggers because of how much a small bote changes course. Tangles in a small bote = no fun at all.
Luke 8:22-25
I agree with Phin, we use small release clips on our short flat lines. This keeps the line low to the water so when you turn, the long lines go over the top and no tangles. We have been trolling bent buts in the gunnel this year, they work similar to very short out riggers.
Run a WAAAY back rod. This rod has been VERY productive for us this year. Get something with big time line capacity and a lever drag. Put it in the t-top and send it way back then some. Set the lever drag below strike. It will be difficult to get it out of the t-top with a fish on if the drag is to tight.
On windy days use chin weights. This will keep the baits from blowing across the spread as much. The more rods you can troll the better you will be. BUT it is better to troll 4 right than 10 wrong. Keep everything staggered if you start tangling take a few out of the spread.
good job guys. comanche holds some fish and there are some killer live bottoms real close that hold monster wahoo and sails. i have a 19 tidewater and i go out there pretty often. i drag 7 lines with no tangles and normally only 2 guys fishing, usually makes for some chineses fire drills and a killer time especially when 3 or 4 rodds go down at once. i usually try not to ever clean up my lines when i have a fish on i either drop em back to stay outside the fish or bring em all close to keep em inside the fish anyways what a killer day and i hope to make it out this weekend if the wind dont blow.
LIL ROD
19 TIDEWATER
115 YAMAHA
I want to thank everyone for the kudos, but especially the advice on small boat trolling. I learned alot and hope to put it to use very soon. I recommend trying the squid lure (see pic). We were able to really turn it around quick when the fish were thick. Without pre-rigged baits, we were able to stay fishing all the time. The wally world ballyhoo we used on the green hoo rig was so rotten when thawed, it would swim itself in half within 15 min. Thanks again, and I hope the wind lays down for everyone this weekend. But be careful…blue water is highly addictive!!! [URL=http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z105/grouper123/lure.jpg]
Do we really need a 48’ footer:question: