Slow trolling with live bait?

[mi327]

I went out on a charter today in South Carolina for Rockfish. Not a kayaking trip but out of a center console on a freshwater lake. Besides live lining with Herring which was effective, though we got allot of short strikes with circle hooks. Though judging from the teeth marks in the fish we think it was Gar hitting the baits. The more interesting this was that we trolled live Herring using small planner boards, and some lines on downrods at a very slow speed (under 1 mph) using the electric trolling motor on the front of the boat. It was very effective even after the live lining bite died off including catching the big fish of the day, a nice fat 28" Rockfish. The only issue we had was the wind starting gusting to 25-28kts and the trolling motor autopilot was struggling to keep the boat on course at the end of the day.

Has anyone ever seen this done in the bay? I know allot of people live line spot or perch but I have never heard of them being used for trolling? All the trolling I know of is pulling artificial lures at lower speeds but never that slow. Might be effective for Kayaking since we can easily go slow speeds silently though running planner boards may not be possible.

[J.A. Veil]

I went out on a charter today in South Carolina for Rockfish. Not a kayaking trip but out of a center console on a freshwater lake. Besides live lining with Herring which was effective, though we got allot of short strikes with circle hooks. Though judging from the teeth marks in the fish we think it was Gar hitting the baits. The more interesting this was that we trolled live Herring using small planner boards, and some lines on downrods at a very slow speed (under 1 mph) using the electric trolling motor on the front of the boat. It was very effective even after the live lining bite died off including catching the big fish of the day, a nice fat 28" Rockfish. The only issue we had was the wind starting gusting to 25-28kts and the trolling motor autopilot was struggling to keep the boat on course at the end of the day.

Has anyone ever seen this done in the bay? I know allot of people live line spot or perch but I have never heard of them being used for trolling? All the trolling I know of is pulling artificial lures at lower speeds but never that slow. Might be effective for Kayaking since we can easily go slow speeds silently though running planner boards may not be possible.

I don't fish live bait very often at home (mostly live minnows when pickerel fishing in the winter -- and this winter I have not really needed them). On occasion, I have trolled the live minnows slowly behind my kayak when moving between spots. I don't do that very often, and don't recall catching anything. But in theory, it should work as long as you are moving slowly enough so the live bait remains alive.

In many tidal situations, either the wind or the tidal current will push a kayak along at 1 mph. Effectively, you are "slow trolling" when you are drifting a bait or lure with the waves or current. That works here too.

[Memory Maker]

You can do that but it’s usually easier to locate fish then drop a live spot ........... many times the spot will not even reach the bottom. Most of the time it will be bit in less than a minute.

[bluefishnc]

I've done it but not on planers or anything like that. What I've done (with decent success) is to rig a live bait (perch with fins clipped or spot) on eqg sinker fish finder type rig. About a 3 to 4 foot leader off the egg sinker works best. I've got a decent 20 foot edge on my side of the Potomac and on an outgoing tide you can drift the outgoing at a knot or so down river. Egg sinker drifts the bottom stirring stuff up and live bait swims behind. Only issue is feeling anykind of bite is tough as the summer bites are usually soft and then when you do hook up it's a pita to get the fish landed if your leader between the sinker and hook is too long. It definitely works though and is a lazy break from trolling or light tackle casting. Also a good way to cull any shorts from your catch as usually only an 18"+ fish is able to take an average sized bait.

[mi327]

Thanks, I think the planer boards made the difference. We were marking allot of fish in the area around and had a few lines at different depths and no bites. When the captain switched to trolling and put the lines out on the planer boards we started catching fish but only on the planer lines. The only thing I can think of is the electric trolling motor was scaring the fish, since the boat had a trolling motor with GPS spot lock on it and it was very windy (blowing 10-15 gusting to 25+) so the motor was constantly running and turning to hold position when live lining that same area. The funny thing is we had success earlier in the morning live lining in another area.