Evaluating / Improving Your Fish

Evaluating / Improving
Your Fish Catching

What Am I Doing Wrong? ; How many times have you been on a boat where one fisherman excels in catching fish? Are they just lucky, have the HOT rod that day, sitting in the right seat or location, or any numerous unexplained things? As usual, initially, who is going to use which downrigger? From previous experience, and knowing the circumstances, fisherman B opted for the stern rod holder, mentioning, that could possibly change later if the downrigger position proved to excel.

Maybe it is time to try to analyze what is going on. We as human beings seem to get in a rut, by taking the easy path, doing what has worked for us in the past. Maybe it worked great under those conditions, but what if the conditions change (even minutely)? We may have our favorite attractor, or lure and simply dig that one out as our Go To outfit. OK, try it first, but if it does not work, we need to have a Plan B, C or even D.

We need to be very observant to the weather, previous weather, time of the tides, whether it is early morning or sunny afternoon, or overcast and cloudy all day. Are there other boats around us, or at least visible? Are they having any action? Is your speed within the normal limits?

Ideally, we need to be able to evaluate the situation and react accordingly (at that time), and not later, if we are going to come home with a smelly fishbox and dinner. Here we can rationalize why we did not get a bite, or say the other guy just had a lucky day. A guess is he was doing something different (maybe even what appears to be inconsequential) at that time, where the fish liked (or were attracted to) his better than yours. Was he washing his hands prior to setting up? Did he use scent?

One thing we need to do when this happens is to the next day (or at 2 AM the next morning) is to have a briefing with yourself of what happened the previous day and WHY. However it may be best for everyone aboard to be involved as one person's perception might not see all that went on. REALY analyze in depth what those aboard did, and what you did not do. And /or equipment failures could also be important to look at.

Evaluation Time ; OK, let's evaluate a somewhat normal trip ocean salmon fishing trip. Here the skipper has invited 2 of his friends from a fishing club. Both are very experienced salmon fishermen. The day starts at the launch parking lot at 4:30 AM, and on the water heading out across the bar at 5AM. This day another boat also with 2 friends from the same club were also there and they pretty well ran together/or fished within sight of each other all day. They were fishing an area (about 12 miles out) well known to them, where success was not uncommon. Water temperature started at 55 and before the day was over went up to 57 degrees. Water depth was from 207' to 236'.

The boats were outfitted with 2 downriggers, (1 on each rear side) and another rod holder in the center rear, fishing straight off the stern. On the first boat, the skipper used one downrigger, and friend A was using the other. Friend B was using the stern rod holder. Trolling speed was between 2.1 to 2.4 MPH.

Fisherman A started the day using a PRO-TROLL 360 E-Chip 360 flasher that had a water activated light in the center of the flasher. Behind the attractor as a lure he attached a lime green squid Hoochie on about a 2' leader. His downrigger ball started at 65' then moved to 110'.

The skipper was using an Ace-In-The-Hole type attractor (2 inline rotating flashers) attached near the cannonball weight. His lure a Brad's Cut Plug, which was attached directly to his reel's mainline (no attracter). He was using tuna scent in the plug. In use, he was using about 12' of lure setback from the downrigger clip, which placed his lure about 8' behind, and just above the attractors on the ball cord. He started at a downrigger ball depth of 85'.

Fisherman B, fishing off the stern, initially used a 10oz cannonball sinker attached to a small plastic keel that was attached to a Fish Flash attractor. Behind that, was a Brad's Super Cut Plug, filled with Bloody Tuna scent. This did not work out well soon as the lure became attached to friend A's line, as they apparently were too close. OK, go to a lighter 6 oz sinker allowing the center rod's line to be behind, and farther out along with being higher in the water column. This rod's line was at about a 30 degree angle. So by using the chart below and using line counter reels, being 80' out makes his lure about 40' down.

This chart gives some computer driven numbers using the known angle

The day started being overcast, which normally where the fish may be closer to the surface before the sun comes out, so fishing shallow was tried to start with, later everyone onboard was at different depths depending on radio chatter. Fish were caught from 35' down to 110'.

Fisherman A, changed to a Brad's Cut Plug, and added his mix of tuna and garlic into the plug's cavity. He later changed to a Pro Troll bonnet and green label herring. The constant thing was he kept using the lighted 360 rotating Pro-Troll flasher.

One odd thing is that most of the fish he caught were snagged on or near the head. Why? His rod was not a downrigger rod with lots of backbone, but more of a mooching rod (probably 9') with lots of bend over the whole length of the rod, which may havee accounted for that type of hookup.

Fisherman B stayed with the 6 oz sinker and the Fish Flash, but changed over to a commercial Ace Hi salmon plug 5' behind the flasher and line out to 110', or about 60' down. He had one dramatic take down, which involved line peeling off the reel so much that the motor was kicked into neutral, but the fish spit the plug.

Later, after the cloud cover burned off, and the sun came out, Coho moved up, chasing bait and numerous "WILD" fish had to be returned. Fisherman B also then changed to a large clown colored Spi-N-Glo and caught one of them. While fisherman A pulled a Chinook from this 35' water depth with a herring.

During the day, after fisherman A was hooking numerous fish, (most of which were illegal (in Washington State) , being "WILD" and released. It was mentioned by the skipper and fisherman B that, they did not care who actually caught or tagged the fish. However here fisherman A tagged a 20+ # Chinook and a 7-8# Coho, while the skipper tagged and took home another large Chinook, while fisherman B did not have to clean any smelly fish.

One other aspect here was that there was a fleet of about 6 commercial trollers working this same area, so they knew fish were in that area, and they were not there for a Saturday picnic. Initially, there were also about 20 other sport boats fishing that area, which dispersed later in the day.

Fisherman B's use of the large commercial plug proved it could be viable, but needs some modification, (possibly adding a rear hook), as that ONE LARGE Siwash hook did not do the job here.

The somewhat conclusion was fisherman A's use of the 360 flasher AND the flashing light in it, was something that the fish were more attracted to than the normal attractors. And that those willing biters seem to be more attracted to something that they can see from a distance.

Another thing, the skipper needs to evaluate his landing net. It appears he has fished more in the sound than ocean, where the fish are smaller. Hence, 2 things, the net needs to have a larger hoop along with a longer handle by maybe 24".

Derby Day ; Our fishing club was putting on a salmon derby in Puget Sound. I got invited to go on a somewhat new members NEW boat. My boat was in need of some repairs at that time, and I had just been relieved of my job as 24 hour caregiver for my hospice bound wife. Sure, I will go.

OK, I met him at the marina where he was moored, and we headed out. We got around Johnson Point, off Big fish-trap and he wanted to jig. OK, I thought that he knew a little about this area. At that time of the tide, we should have been trolling there. Needless to say we did not even have a hit. Again he picked an area, but this time troll. There were other trollers working a specific water depth, but he did not like being that close, so we were fishing deeper and away from the depressions they liked to frequent. Again we were not having success.

At the end of the day, I realized that he wanted me for my expertise, but never asked, and if he did, did not heed it. He was going off what information he had read on a fishing website, which by the time we were there it was dated info, along with the fact he probably knew salmon fishing in another area, and was trying to impress me.

Bottom Fishing ; On bottom fishing outings, we were jigging for sea bass, using either 3/8 or 1/2 oz. lead head jigs and a curly tail. Here, with the fish near structure, one fisherman kept getting hung up and breaking off the lure. The other fisherman never seemed have that much of a problem.

Close examination, revealed they were using two different types of jig heads. The one that got hung more frequently was a round head jig, while the other was a bullet type jig. More research reveals that the round jig can get wedged in a crevasse more easily where it will only get hung tighter, as compared to the bullet nose jig, with the balance point in the center, and with the longer nose, it can be twitched loose 90 % of the time if it does get hung.

Just a Boat Ride ; Many "fishermen" get in a rut, have caught fish in the past in that area and get complacent, however they are not observant.   Bay Fishing, is one, where the timing of the tides is critical.   Here (in my estimation) the fish, fresh from the ocean, are moving in with the tide, (following bait) or later closer to spawning, and heading upstream, will use the contour of the bottom as guidance. On one side it may be shallow and even oyster beds, which tapers off to a deeper main channel. As the tide moves in, these fish use the sides of the channel as guidance, staying near the bottom (say possibly 26' of water) with 40' in the main channel.   They need that water depth (side slope) as their guidance inland and upriver.

    THEREFORE if you are not in their travel lanes, you will not have much of a chance to catching any.   So here you need to find a water depth (by experimenting) and by using your sonar, maintain the depth that can be more productive.   Here is also the time to swing into a position into the protected side of piling markers, where the fish may be laying resting out of the current.

    Then as the tide approaches a slack high tide, these fish have lost their guidance system, now instead of being near the bottom, they may well move up in the water column.    This is the time to change your tactics, fish shallower along with possibly doing a Zig-Zag pattern of trolling, where you are now covering more water and in a searching mode.   Low slack tide may be somewhat the same, but not that extreme, as usually with the water receding, the volume has also diminished considerably, which narrows your target areas.

    If you still try to troll in a straight line from point A to point B, with no concern for water or lure depth, you will be missing out.   Maybe OK on fishing, but not so good on catching.

     Equipment Failure ; This may not pertain to actual fishing, but it sure can be a detriment to it. Do not make your first outing with your boat one that puts you on BIG water. Do a day lake fishing, to give your boat/motor defects a chance to pop their heads up, maybe later not ruining an outing, but possibly having to go to plan B. One would be if the boat has sat over the winter and has been exposed to salt water, you may have a seized steering cable. Been There- Done That.   We, (my son and I) made a trip to Neah Bay for a Halibut/sea bass trip. At that time I had 20' Tiderunner with a 150 and 9.9 Yamaha, he launched me and pulled away from the launch.   As I was trying to back away from the launch, I could not steer the main motor. He was out of sight by the time I discovered my predicament. The wind was blowing pushing me into come moored commercial boats. Quickly, I dropped the kicker motor in, got it started and managed to motor all the way around to our berth. This boat had hydraulic steering, so we had to be careful not to force the steering wheel otherwise we would pop a oil seal. It took a lot of persuasion to get us on the water the next morning.

    Another, probably more common is to get out trolling, and your kicker motor decides sputter and die. OK start it up, rev it up and go for another 1/2 hour. The salvation on this was the main motor did slow down enough to troll with. The conclusion was the spark plugs were probably fouling on the kicker as they had not been looked at for a long time.

   Won't Stay Hooked ; Then there are those days when, you have numerous take downs, but nothing stays hooked.   What can be happening??    My guess could be a few things, OR a combination.   NUMBER ONE, are your hooks sharp? Maybe even if the are, the hook size could be too small.   They are short striking.   This could be your trolling speed or even the direction of the current.   Here about all you can do is experiment.

OR tie your leaders so that the rear hook is hanging back 4 or 5". I have found that about 90% of the fish taken on these lures will be hooked solidly on the rear hook.

The other thing that could be happening is that YOU are grabbing the rod too soon, and instead of setting the hook, you have actually pulled the bait out of the fish's mouth. Many times the fish will not initially swallow the bait, but mouth it as they try to turn it in their mouth so they swallow it head first.

Most salmon guides will tell you to DO NOT hold onto the rod, but put it in a rod holder AND DO NOT touch it until the rod tip is buried in the water. Here the theory is the fish will be following the lure, mouthed it, but still following, but when she turns away, the hook then becomes imbedded inside the fish's mouth, where the fish now has pretty well hooked itself.