Offshore Trolling - Part Three

To conclude this series on Offshore Trolling, we'll discuss trolling speed and what to look for while you are offshore to put your boat on the fish.


Trolling speed is important, especially if you are targeting a particular species. While you can catch just about any fish at any trolling speed, certain fish prefer striking a bait that is at their preferred speed. In addition, the trolling speed you select will dictate the type of bait you use or the type of rigging you use with your bait. When trolling with live bait, you must troll at much slower speeds than trolling with dead bait or lures. Your trolling speed should be no more than a knot or two. Hook your live bait through the mouth with a circle hook and slow troll. With this setup, you can catch everything from Mackerel to Sailfish. If you are trolling with dead bait, such as ballyhoo, you can set them up with or without a skirt. If you are slow trolling at around 4 to 5 knots, you can catch Spanish and King Mackerel without skirting your bait as the bait will hold together at the slower speed. However, I usually put a couple unskirted ballyhoo and several skirted ballyhoo out to see which is preferred. Mackerel and Dorado prefer the slower trolling speed, but will attack baits at almost any speed. If you hook up a Dorado, don't land the first one right away. Dorado are schooling fish and will continue to stay near a hooked member of their school. Keep the first one on your line in the water near the boat, stop trolling and just let the boat drift while you cast more lines into the school and keep landing the fish. When the school loses interest and moves on, you can continue your troll.


If you prefer faster species, such as Wahoo or Tuna, you will need to either use a skirted ballyhoo, artificial bait or a lure. I like to use a combination of these to first find out what the fish are interested in. Trolling speed should be between 6 to 8 knots. Once you hook up a fish, you will need to slow your speed so you are fighting the fish and not the fish plus the boat. I usually do not completely stop trolling as this will cause your lines to drop and possible become tangled, not to mention you may hook up another fish while you fight the first one. This, however, may not be possible if you hook up an exceptionally large fish. In this case, you should have someone on the boat reel in all of the other lines to prevent tangling with the line that the fish is on.

Trolling from one reef or known fishing location to another can catch fish, but if you want to really catch a lot of fish, you need to look for signs of the presence of schooling fish. Some of the signs are birds hitting and landing on the water (this is a sign of schooling bait), water surface turbulence as fish are hitting bait at the surface, large amounts of flying fish breaking the surface, water color changes indicating an underwater current or change from murky water to clear water, water depth changes, bottom structure on your fish finder that may hold bait or reef fish and water temperature changes. A subtle change of as little as 1 degree in water temperature could mean the difference between a day of trolling with nothing to show for it and boat full of fish.

I hope this series was informative. Get out there and do some trolling. It's a great way to spend the day. The sights and sounds of the ocean is a great way to relieve stress and you can get the added benefit of some great fishing action. Good luck and happy fishing! A bad day of fishing is always better than a good day at work.