Rough Sea's / Surface Chop

[skip]

Hi All,

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts about trolling during rough weather when the wind has picked up to a Force 3/4 and you've got the a-typical low/mod NE/NW swell and white horses everywhere. Obviously surface scanning for shoals can't be done and the artificial lures may be break in and out of the surf as the waves move along.

So do people who can stand the sea's usually try and drop the lures on a downrigger/planer say 3-5 meters below the surface, still troll them at the surface or feel that you can't catch anything during that kind of weather?

I know during this kind of weather we have never had any luck when trolling at the surface doing say 5 knots. I'm curious to know what technique should be used/recommended.

Skip

[Jonathan]

I believe that a slight suface chop (say up to a F3-4) is actually beneficial to fishing and better than a flat calm. However, I haven't had succesful fishing in anything stronger than that. For example, last Tuesday, when it was blowing around a F5, we went out on a sialing yacht for alungi. We were fishing from around 5:30am till around 2pm and we only got 1 strike & hook-up  - nothing else. Now I'm pretty sure that if it was somewhat calmer we would have had better fishing. IMO, fish stay even closer to the surface in choppier conditions as they are attracted by the "white foam & movement" rather than flat calm ones (even though with the waves we don't see them breaking the surface). My only change in strategy in choppyish conditions is that I move to the next size of lures available so as to make them more visible given the disturbed surface.

[skip]

So you actually go bigger then?

[Jonathan]

Yep, for instance if I am usually using 14cm lures for alungi, as the surface chop increases I move up to 18cm or sometimes even 20cm lures. Same applies for all other fish species but on a relative scale of course. As for weights, I actually decrease the weight that I use, just to the point where the lures aren't constantly breaking the surface.

[skip]

Thanks for info. In relative calm conditions what weights and amount are you using to get the lures down? Are they those barrel type where you wind the line along it?

[Jonathan]

Nope I don't like the "green barrel" type as: 1 - they damage the line by kinking it all over, 2 - they are awkward to release when you a re retrieving a fish, and 3 - they also have a tendency to spin. I use the types with plugs at either end. As for the actual amount of weight, I keep a whole range on board starting from under 100g and moving up to just under half a kilo. The actual weight & sometimes number of weights that I use depends on the type of lure that I am using, the distance that I am keeping it from the boat, the time of the day, the strength of my line (I am a big advocate of going as thin as you can handle - if you're in doubt about this strategy just take a look at the size of the alungi's eyes! ) and rod (my fav for alungi is a 20-30lb as anything heavier takes the fun out of them plus you tire them more with a thinner rod than a stiff one), and the sea state. If you like, we can meet up (my no is 99882615) & I'll gladly show you how I set up for alungi.

[ciappinu]

I completely agree with going as thin as you can. Anything more than 70mm is awaste of time.....if you can fish with a stronger 50mm line its even better. I leanrt that from my long painful experience! Obviosly, I am talking about just the leader. The rest I normally use 120mm for alungi.

[skip]

Waste of time because they see the lure you mean?

[skip]

Was reading this post again, concerning going thin, I reckon the reasoning for this is to reduce line visibility right?? Therefore I reckon the best thing to do is use Braid Spectra which is very thin and then have a flurocarbon leader to give you some stretch in the line, whilst not being visible. It's expensive but it take care of needing to go to small diameter line.

[fin]

Yes i tend to agree with you skip here, pack the back and make the viZ part inviZ at the end.... haha.. ie fluoro is great however clearly with all this prior info we have , thin is the next best option.


FIN