Trolling distance.

[Jimmyz123]

When you troll, how far back to you run your lines? I know how far back on a boat, but I've never trolled from a Kayak.

I know most of the time the bait is fly lined with no weight, does anyone ever put little egg sinkers on to force the bait down a little?

Thanks for the info in advance.

[mtnbykr2]

Originally Posted by Jimmyz123

When you troll, how far back to you run your lines? I know how far back on a boat, but I've never trolled from a Kayak.

I know most of the time the bait is fly lined with no weight, does anyone ever put little egg sinkers on to force the bait down a little?

Thanks for the info in advance.

I imagine you are talking about trolling a mack in LJ for the YT, I was fortunate enough to spend a day with Jim Sammons there last year and he told me about 60 feet behind you should just about do it, now as far as a bit of weight to get er down in to a strike zone would be ok...
There is also some new braid out with color, I can't remember the post right now, but it was only a couple days ago in here, which if I had known about it before I loaded a new reel with spectra and a top shot, I probably would have opted for that instead. I know there is a formula for x amount of feet out=y amount of feet down, I am sure somebody knows that one...
A friend of mine trolls with a rubber core 16-18 inches above the bait, he catches fish with that rig...food for thought

[Jimmyz123]

You are correct I was referring to trolling a Mac or greenback in La Jolla. I think I remember reading the 60 feet back thing somewhere before. Thank you for the info and it makes perfect sense to me.

Is this the braid you were talking about
http://www.texasbasstackle.com/scrip...p?idproduct=95

I have used the egg sinkers, rubber cores, and all that when fly lining from a boat, but seeing how our Yaks don't go too fast I wouldn't hold back on using some there either.

[mtnbykr2]

no,
that's not it, it is called Power Pro Depth Hunter, it is posted a couple days ago...I don't know if I would load a reel with sinking braid unless I had a rig especially for that line...b

[Matt]

40 to 60' back powerpro to swivel with halibut slider with a 1 to 2 oz torpedo sinker to 6' 20 to 30 lb flouro leader........the search function will answer alot of these questions, not hating just stating.

[Jimmyz123]

Originally Posted by Matt

40 to 60' back powerpro to swivel with halibut slider with a 1 to 2 oz torpedo sinker to 6' 20 to 30 lb flouro leader........the search function will answer alot of these questions, not hating just stating.

Thanks Matt, this is what I have on my bottom rig, I like this setup very much. It's going to be fun to see how well it works on a Yak.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by Jimmyz123

You are correct I was referring to trolling a Mac or greenback in La Jolla.

For macks I like to troll with a 1 ounce egg Carolina rigged with a swivel and then three feet of line. As for distance back I drop it down to the bottom turn a crank or two then troll that distance back. The idea being if I come up on a mark, stop to drop iron on it the bait will slowly sink keeping the line tight until it's right off the bottom right on the mark. When I start back up it travels back up the water column until it's about ten feet under the surface if I'm paddling hard. This way you fish the whole range of depth with the bait and the line is never slack and the bait is never right on the bottom so you get less tangles or hang ups. If the fish are deep with nothing near the surface I'll troll the same thing with a four ounce egg, it will stay deeper and pull under you faster but it's the same deal where the line never goes slack.

Just may take... more then one way to skin that catfish.

Jim

[Jimmyz123]

Originally Posted by Jim Day

For macks I like to troll with a 1 ounce egg Carolina rigged with a swivel and then three feet of line. As for distance back I drop it down to the bottom turn a crank or two then troll that distance back. The idea being if I come up on a mark, stop to drop iron on it the bait will slowly sink keeping the line tight until it's right off the bottom right on the mark. When I start back up it travels back up the water column until it's about ten feet under the surface if I'm paddling hard. This way you fish the whole range of depth with the bait and the line is never slack and the bait is never right on the bottom so you get less tangles or hang ups. If the fish are deep with nothing near the surface I'll troll the same thing with a four ounce egg, it will stay deeper and pull under you faster but it's the same deal where the line never goes slack.

Just may take... more then one way to skin that catfish.

Jim

Thanks for that tip, I may try that this weekend, it makes a lot of sense and like you said the bait is being fished in all levels of the water column. Thank you again.

[Matt]

The only down side to an egg sinker on spectra is that quite often the egg sinker will start to fray the spectra, whereas the plastic sleeve on the halibut slider will not cause the spectra to fray. I'm not saying this always happens but I've seen guys lose fish due to the spectra fraying, and like the old saying goes "your only as strong as your weakest link" in this case knot.



* and no Jim I don't want to have a debate about this hahaha

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by Matt

.;.... and no Jim I don't want to have a debate about this...

What's to debate

Let me tell you a story. A number of years ago I was fishing on a Sportboat at Clemente for White seabass. An old timer broke out long beach 68 with 50 Dacron, tied on a Rockcod ganglion and proceed to hook six live squid on it and sent it down with a 12 ounce sinker though we were only in maybe 60 feet of water. The guys "in the know" got a good laugh out of it but after a while he hooked up and landed a fifty pound white seabass on it. We thought well damn even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, and still laughed, then he sent it back down again and hooked another smaller fish maybe thirty pounds which he landed as well. Well at that point I quit laughing and tied on a rockcod ganglion. I ended up getting a seabass that day fishing like that old fart, and would of gotten a second monster fish if I had just tied that ganion on heavier line.

I now can wrap my head around it and in retrospect I can see why it worked. Those six squid looked like a whole group of them, and with all the blue perch and balcksmith pecking on them it made quite a commotion, that drew those C's to them. I've never fished that way for C-bass again but I sure as hell won't forget it, and I would use it if I thought it would give me an edge in certain situations..

My take is there is a million ways to fish, and at any given time one may work better then some others. The more ways you know the more you can try, and the better your fishing will be down the line because nothing works all the time and little things can sometimes make a huge difference. You mathc the conditions and give the fish what they want. So on that note I'd say your way is just as valid as mine, and for all I know it may be the best thing going in certain situations. I like my way for certain reasons but if I thought yours would work better in some scenario I'd use it with out reservation.

Originally Posted by Matt

The only down side to an egg sinker on spectra is that quite often the egg sinker will start to fray the spectra....

I kinda agree... I don't want the sinker on the spectra either. I tie a topshot of fluorocarbon for that rig, I tie the leader to a swivel slide the sinker on the topshot then tie the topshot to the swivel. So the sinker slides on fluorocarbon topshot, not on the spectra. Sometimes when fish takes off really hard the sinker will slide up to the TP knot splice but I've never had it slide all the way past the splice onto the spectra.

I think the egg is just cleaner,and less prone to tangles but like I already implied there are lots of ways to do this..

Another way I rig it is that sometimes put a hootchie on the egg sinker to add extra flash, but don't ever do that if T's are around because they can hit the hootchie and cut off your rig. I also have friends that don't use the slider or egg but instead just rubber band a sinker to the line, so that it just comes off if you hook a good fish.

Many ways to do it, but like I already said no matter which way you go: for the distance back I like to keep it short of the actual depth in feet so you won't hang up when you stop and jig Iron.

Jim

[Matt]

I knew that bait would work to get you to write a novel Jim! Hahahaha