No Love Trolling

[Skidsteer]

Just started fishing for rockfish this past fall and did pretty well trolling.

This year - nada, although I have been catching fish casting around shoreline rocks.

If you guys that are catching fish could give me a jump start I'd appreciate it:

Please let me know what water depth you guys are trolling successfully and at what depth your lures are running.

Thanks.

[Mark]

Skidster,

If you were catching tem last fall trolling I suspect your depth this year is not an issue.

I think they are just not numerous in the typical kayak haunts yet.

Maybe this week...

[Skidsteer]

Thanks,

May see you guys Wednesday. Been busy at work but I may join you for a couple hours in the morning.

[Mark]

Great.

Hope you can join us.

[J.A. Veil]

I started trolling from my kayak in the Severn last spring. When I had good success, I kept it up all summer and fall. I probably caught more keeper sized stripers last year trolling light rods in the Severn than I had all my other years of fishing combined using all my fishing methods (both kayak and boat).

First off, there is not just one way to catch fish trolling. Lots of guys do it differently than me and are very successful too. But here is what has worked for me.

1) I use all spinning rods (from ultralight for perch in the summer, to medium rods for stripers in the spring and fall).

2) I troll 4 lines at a time.

3) I try to have different lures on each line until one lure demonstrates its preferred performance that day. Some guys troll only hard plastic plugs with multiple sets of treble hooks. I don't like treble hooks and rarely use plugs. Occasionally I will try one X-Rap or RattLTrap in the spread. Spring and fall, I prefer to use 3" to 5" paddletail soft plastics. I try to have at least one 5" Storm shad and one 4.5" Saltwater Sally or the equivalent. For my other rods, I may try a 4.5" paddletail in a different color or a smaller 3" 12 Fathoms Fat Sam mullet. During the summer, I may drop out the larger lures and pull several lines with 4" Gulps or small spinnerbaits. During the summer, I often trolled up perch and stripers on the same trip (the perch hit the smaller lures and the stripers hit the larger lures).

4) Some of the other guys troll in deeper water along the channel edges. I prefer trolling in shallow water parallel to the shorelines. I want to have enough depth so that my lures do not hit bottom or snag on sunken branches. I prefer depths from 4' to 10', but have caught decent fish in 2' or 15'. I trolled my spring routes 4 times during April and had no bites. Last Friday I visited some of those same spots and found fish there. As Mark notes, the fish are delayed in reaching their late spring positions this year.

5) This time of year, I have a few specific target areas. I get there, then troll back and forth over the same relatively short stretches to see if I get hits, and then note where I got the hits. With that knowledge, I can adjust my target zone for that day. Later in the summer and fall, I troll certain long stretches of shorelines (1-2 miles) to see where along that stretch the fish may be that day.

This is the pattern I used 15-20 times last year in the Severn. I also used it in Kent Narrows and other spots in Eastern Bay.

[daolai]

John - great write up and very helpful as I am learning the whole kayak trolling as well - what range are your jig heads on you plastics?

[J.A. Veil]

John - great write up and very helpful as I am learning the whole kayak trolling as well - what range are your jig heads on you plastics?

I size the jigheads depending on the depth where I am trolling and the target species. When using the smaller soft plastics (Fat Sam mullets or Gulps), I often use 1/4-oz to 3/4-oz. For the larger paddletails, I use 1/2-oz to 1.5-oz (when using anything heavier than 1 oz, I need to stay out of depths lower than 5 ft.) Yak Fish and Jeff Little put up a very informative video about Alan's trolling techniques. Judging from his recent huge striper catches on the flats, his techniques work quite well too.

Some of our other members have made good posts about how they troll near the mouth of the South River, the Thomas Point Flats, the Susquehanna Flats, and other spots. Come On Fish has made a series of informative and entertaining videos of his trolling and catching at a variety of Virginia locations. Each of us has somewhat different techniques and preferred lures. But the key points are finding sections of water bodies where you expect your target species can be found and dragging the right lures through those waters at depths and speeds that look attractive to the fish. That is a great simplification (and the devil is in the details). Trolling success improves with practice and by watching how others go about it.

[kevinfry]

John....You don't troll tony's or drone spoons at all?

[J.A. Veil]

John....You don't troll tony's or drone spoons at all?

I have never tried trolling spoons from my kayak. There is no reason not to do it -- I just never developed that habit.

[kevinfry]

for shallow water trolling where rockfish are the target, a silver tony spoon with white feathers is easily one of my top producers. Of course, if I am looking for trout as well as rockfish, I generally leave the spoon in the box.
Gold or chartruese spoons have been good for me with redfish, too. I think a troller really is well served by having a couple and using them regularly.