Holy HELL those are expensive. I guess losing one is no different than losing a 9 lure umbrella rig on the lake. I’m going to need some mad tips on where and what to get trolling wise before spring. I’d like to stock up on small increments for the next 4 months. I’ve ONLY bottom fished my whole life. I’ve been trolling a handful of times but never running the rig myself. I definitely plan to do my fair share of trolling in 2016. Anyone with tips on what I need, please offer. I have some rigs for ballyhoo with skirts etc and understand how to hook them up and what-not. But what wire or cable as I’m
Reading is necessary. Links like Paul posted are perfect. More info the better. I’ll be making a log to keep up with and make sure I’m ready come April.
Thanks,
Mike
If you’ve got the skirts and know how to rig ballyhoo, you’re a good part of the way there. Get one of those Hot Spots maps or something similar, and drag ballyhoo once you hear about the dolphin showing up. You can still catch wahoo on mono with decent success, though you’ll lose them more often. You might also find a sailfish or something else that is more likely to hit a ballyhoo than a plug on wire/cable.
I think I would get a season of dolphin fishing under my belt before specifically targeting wahoo, just because you will be able to catch significantly more fish each trip. More fish = more practice, and probably a better chance that you’ll stick with it. I don’t think I would have stuck with trolling if I started with wahoo trips. Lots of money and time invested, and it’s tough to really get into them if you are just getting started. Hell, it can be tough getting into them if you have a few seasons under your belt! Cut your teeth on dolphin or kings, where the reward (from a nu
quote: You can catch a tremendous amount of fish with cheap skirts on ballyhoo and a general knowledge of the areas to fish.
You dang sure can !! Cheap plastic skirts and Sea Witches with ballyhoo or split tail mullet have probably caught more fish than any lure.
Some general rules I’ve learned…your results may vary… I’ve caught most of my wahoo between 150 and 250’ deep. Wahoo tend to run and feed deep, so large planers, trolling weights, or down riggers are usually necessary to get into the bite zone. I’ve never caught many on the surface. Wahoo like dark colors best. Purple, black, dark red…and they like a fast moving bait. Pull it at least 8 or 10 kts. Or faster. Most boats won’t run fast enough in the ocean to outrun a wahoo, or even a dolphin.
Natural baits such as ballyhoo won’t last long at high speed, they wash out fast, which is when the big lures are nice to have. You can pull them at 15 or 20 kts.
My old charter boat would only run 20 kts wide open with a load in her, so it took a couple 3 hours to get to good fishing grounds. We always put out a couple of trolling rods as soon as we cleared the sea buoy and pulled lures all the way out at 20 kts. It gave the clients something to focus on besides the 3 hour ride, and they caught a surprising amount of fish. Kings, dolphin, wahoo, spanish, tuna, all will hit a fast bait with good action. Never know.
Holy HELL those are expensive. I guess losing one is no different than losing a 9 lure umbrella rig on the lake. I’m going to need some mad tips on where and what to get trolling wise before spring. I’d like to stock up on small increments for the next 4 months. I’ve ONLY bottom fished my whole life. I’ve been trolling a handful of times but never running the rig myself. I definitely plan to do my fair share of trolling in 2016. Anyone with tips on what I need, please offer. I have some rigs for ballyhoo with skirts etc and understand how to hook them up and what-not. But what wire or cable as I’m
Reading is necessary. Links like Paul posted are perfect. More info the better. I’ll be making a log to keep up with and make sure I’m ready come April.
Thanks,
Mike
If you’ve got the skirts and know how to rig ballyhoo, you’re a good part of the way there. Get one of those Hot Spots maps or something similar, and drag ballyhoo once you hear about the dolphin showing up. You can still catch wahoo on mono with decent success, though you’ll lose them more often. You might also find a sailfish or something else that is more likely to hit a ballyhoo than a plug on wire/cable.
I think I would get a season of dolphin fishing under my belt before specifically targeting wahoo, just because you will be able to catch significantly more fish each trip. More fish = more practice, and probably a better chance that you’ll stick with it. I don’t think I would have stuck with trolling if I started with wahoo trips. Lots of money and time invested, and it’s tough to really get into them if you are just g
quote: You can catch a tremendous amount of fish with cheap skirts on ballyhoo and a general knowledge of the areas to fish.
You dang sure can !! Cheap plastic skirts and Sea Witches with ballyhoo or split tail mullet have probably caught more fish than any lure.
Some general rules I’ve learned…your results may vary… I’ve caught most of my wahoo between 150 and 250’ deep. Wahoo tend to run and feed deep, so large planers, trolling weights, or down riggers are usually necessary to get into the bite zone. I’ve never caught many on the surface. Wahoo like dark colors best. Purple, black, dark red…and they like a fast moving bait. Pull it at least 8 or 10 kts. Or faster. Most boats won’t run fast enough in the ocean to outrun a wahoo, or even a dolphin.
Natural baits such as ballyhoo won’t last long at high speed, they wash out fast, which is when the big lures are nice to have. You can pull them at 15 or 20 kts.
My old charter boat would only run 20 kts wide open with a load in her, so it took a couple 3 hours to get to good fishing grounds. We always put out a couple of trolling rods as soon as we cleared the sea buoy and pulled lures all the way out at 20 kts. It gave the clients something to focus on besides the 3 hour ride, and they caught a surprising amount of fish. Kings, dolphin, wahoo, spanish, tuna, all will hit a fast bait with good action. Never know.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Swamp Worshiper
Down riggers are something I don’t have and don’t know that I’ll invest in until I get big into
Keep an eye on craigslist for used offshore gear. I bought a giant Tupperware box of plugs, skirts and tons of other tackle for $90. Well over a couple hundred if I bought everything new.
Was having a conversation with a guy recently about the upcoming dolphin season and he said that boats sometimes would wait near the jetties around 4:30-5 AM until the sporties and charters went by and they’d just jump in about a 1/2 mile behind them and follow them to the fishing grounds. When they set out their spread, you set out your spread (assuming the charter Capt had better info on where to fish). He said that as long as you kept your distance, the charter Capts were fine with it.
Just wondering what people’s thoughts are on this?
Is this common practice or is it one of those “yeh, a lot of people follow the charter captains, but they just don’t tell people that they’re doing so”.
Was having a conversation with a guy recently about the upcoming dolphin season and he said that boats sometimes would wait near the jetties around 4:30-5 AM until the sporties and charters went by and they’d just jump in about a 1/2 mile behind them and follow them to the fishing grounds. When they set out their spread, you set out your spread (assuming the charter Capt had better info on where to fish). He said that as long as you kept your distance, the charter Capts were fine with it.
Just wondering what people’s thoughts are on this?
Is this common practice or is it one of those “yeh, a lot of people follow the charter captains, but they just don’t tell people that they’re doing so”.
2014 Key West 203DFS
1987 Landau
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone “hanging out at the jetties” waiting on charter boats, but I have seen boats following them out…I think that is usually just because there are typically 3 directions to go. South, straight out and North. Now, trolling around out there, I see and hear boats following the bigger boats all the time.
quote:Just wondering what people's thoughts are on this?
Is this common practice or is it one of those "yeh, a lot of people follow the charter captains, but they just don't tell people that they're doing so"
Charter Capts. know when they are being followed:wink:
I ran a charter boat out of Savannah for quite a few years and that happened on a regular basis. We called them the mosquito fleet and they would often follow us out in the morning, and back home in the afternoon. Too stupid to find their own way I reckon. Didn’t usually bother me unless they got too close.
One day my mate Kathy and I were running a long overnight charter to the stream. We left real early and picked up a mosquito at the sea buoy. It was a little Mako, about 17’ and it fell in about a mile behind us and followed us out. I ran out about 30 miles and still had my mosquito. Kathy asked me to stop and talk to him, so I stopped, and he stopped and started fishing, about 1/4 mile away. He wouldn’t get any closer. So I started running again. He picked up and started following me again. I ran another 30 miles with him a mile behind me all the way. I stopped again to try to talk, he started fishing and wouldn’t let me get close.
Miss Kathy and I were discussing his fuel capacity. She said we ought to go tell him where we were going, I was saying the heck with his dumb azz. Women won. She blew the horn and shot a flare and finally got him to come up to us. We were about 60 miles offshore. Asked him where he was going and he said he was following us to the “snapper banks”. She told him that the snapper banks were 30 miles behind us and his dumb azz couldn’t possibly have enough fuel to get home again.
He was in a quandry. Asked how far it was to shore, asked where shore was. I gave him the course and distance back to Wassaw. He didn’t have a LORA