Trolling is no drag

Trolling baits and lures is one of the most exciting and rewarding of all fishing methods, allowing you to cover great expanses of water and encounter more fish in a day's fishing.

This popular technique is definitely no sit and wait affair, however, with constant vigilance and maintenance of your spread needed to maximise your fishing opportunities.

THE SPREAD
Your "spread" is the arrangement created by the type and number of lures or baits towed behind the boat. Your choice of lures and/or baits for your spread will be influenced by many factors: target species and conditions being the more obvious ones.

However, despite these variances, there are some constants to keep in mind...

WORK THE SPREAD
It is important to monitor or 'work' the lures and baits in your spread. Know their positions, which bait is attached to which rod, and watch the rod tips to check they are running properly, not hooked-up to weed or crossed-over and fouled with another line, especially after the boat turns.

Most trolled lures just hook the fish themselves. Sharp hooks will help ensure you stay connected. But there are many more advanced bait and lure techniques that require a different hook-setting technique, sometimes free-spooling line back to the fish to ensure it swallows the bait properly.

Regardless, it pays to watch both baits and lures while winding them back to the boat and through the spread. When clearing, checking or changing lures and baits, be ready for a strike as you wind the lure to the boat.

These surprise hits on the retrieve, from fish you didn’t know were there, can lead to multiple hookups, especially when you are clearing lines because someone has already hooked a fish. Often, another fish is following that one. A lot of game fish just don't travel alone.

FACE OF THE WAVE BEST
When trolling with skirted game lures let them out so they ride on the face of the wave that follows in your wake, not the back of the wave. This makes them easier for you and the fish to see.

Outriggers will help give you a better spread on your lures and baits, thus helping you to cover more ground and find more fish.

SETTING A SPREAD
(ED: It's common practice to set your lure spread in the following manner behind your boat. Set your trolling speed, commonly 6-8 knots, with the slower speed for skip baits and the faster speed for lures. Some lures like bullet-heads can be run up to 12 knots. Anyway, at your set trolling speed, there will now be a wake pattern behind your boat. Count back to the third wave face behind your boat and set you first lure there. That is known as the Short Flat Line and the lure is run out of the rod holder. Now feed the next lure back to the fifth wave face behind the boat. Put the rod in the rod holder on the opposing side of the boat. This is known as the Long Flat Line. Do the same thing with a lure on the seventh wave face, but run this from the outrigger. This is your Short Rigger. Repeat with a lure on the ninth wave face. This is the Long Rigger. This lure will have a long belly of line so run it on the downwind side of your boat and the lure will run wide in nice clean water and score more fish. Now, if you're game, you can run a fifth lure in your spread right back in the middle of the other four, about half as far again as the long rigger. This long centre lure is known as The Shotgun and it scores a lot of shy fish like big tuna, especially with a lumo-pattern lure set back here. - DL)

USE SAFETY STRAPS ON YOUR REELS
When trolling always use safety straps to connect your rod and reel to the boat. This is in case the rod and reel pop out of the holder under the pulling power of a strike and run, or out of your hands, due to the pressure the fish may exert during a run. This is cheap insurance for a far -too-common scenario for unprepared anglers.

So, remember, effective trolling is a product of making and taking your opportunities. If you miss a hook-up on, say, a billfish using skip baits, more times than not, you’ll have a second or third shot at the fish, so don’t drop your bundle, stay alert and keep on the job. And have fun with working, changing and creating your spreads!

Yours in Fishing
Paul Worsteling