Offshore Trolling - Part Two

Last time, we talked about the potential and equipment required to go offshore trolling in a relatively small boat. The main thin to take away from that discussion is 'the smaller the boat, the more critical you need to be of the weather and conditions before you head out'. A 20-foot boat is capable of making the trip 10, 20, 30 or even 40 miles offshore, but there are less days every year with the right conditions to permit an offshore excursion in your small boat than there is in a 50-foot sport fisher. That being said, my wife and I have been caught offshore when a storm took us by surprise and we experienced 9 to 11 foot waves. It was unpleasant to say the least, but if you know how to handle your boat in rough conditions, you should have no problem getting back in safely. The key here is 'know your boat', and head back into shore before the weather turns on you, but if you get caught don't panic, take your time, angle your boat to absorb the waves the best you can, and head for the nearest port or shoreline.

Trolling is a great way to fish, have fun, and catch some really huge fish. Almost any trolling technique that you can use on a large boat can be used as effectively on a small boat. And you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your entire day of trolling cost you less in fuel than 1-hour of trolling on that 50-foot sport fisher. When I lived in Central Florida, I spent most of my time fishing out of Port Canaveral. After years of fishing this region, I knew the best spots plus I had marked many spots that weren't on the local fishing charts. On many occasions, I caught more fish than the big boys. On one outing in particular, I took 3 friends fishing to a point near Pelican Flats where we immediately started hooking up Dorado (also known as Dolphin Fish or Mahi-Mahi). We landed 35 Dorado ranging in size from 12 lbs to a 55 lb Bull Dorado. We decided to head back in early and on our way back, one of the local sport fishers pulled up next to me and after seeing the fish, asked me to point them in the right direction to catch fish since they were coming up empty and had several folks on board that were paying a lot of money to go fishing.

Some of the equipment that you should consider adding to your boat if you have not done so already are outriggers, downriggers and enough rod holders to place a good spread of lines in the water behind the boat. You should size your outriggers to your boat. As an example, I mounted two 15-foot outriggers to my 20-foot boat. Outriggers mainly come in two varieties, aluminum and fiberglass. I prefer aluminum because they have less give than fiberglass, so I get a faster hook set when a fish hits, but this is personal preference. I also mounted one downrigger to the starboard aft portion of the boat. A downrigger is great way to position a bait at a particular depth in order to catch any deep swimming fish that may pass under the boat. This is my Wahoo killer as I have caught most of my Wahoo from this downrigger with a ballyhoo/chartreuse skirt combo rig. You should run at least 4 lines in order to give a spread that will attract attention. Two lines are run from the back of the boat and one line from each of the two outriggers. Another option togive you a more efficient spread is to run one line from the downrigger 40 to 60 feet under the surface, two lines flat out the back of the boat 100 to 200 feet behind the boat, one or two lines from each of the two outriggers (you can run two lines from each outrigger by attaching an extra clip on the outrigger cord half way up the outrigger) and another line setup with an umbrella rig straight out the back of the boat, but closer than the two flat lines at the back. This type of spread gives you the optimum opportunity to attract fish to your boat and by using the umbrella rig gives them the illusion of schooling bait chasing smaller bait, which entices the larger predators to strike.
When setting up your rigs, use light to medium weight (30 to 40 lb) line with comparable wire leader since many fish that you will attract while trolling have very sharp teeth and will cut right through normal leader material. Also, change up the types of rigs and the colors until you start catching fish. Then you can change all your rigs to the type of rig that most of the fish are hitting. I usually setup the downrigger with my standard Wahoo killer described above, one rig with an artificial lure, one with a bare ballyhoo and the rest with ballyhoo and various colors of sea witch skirts.


Next time, we will finish up the Offshore Trolling series with trolling speed and things to look for that will help to find the fish.