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Trolling in the Trash
By Capt Ken Roy
Scattered and broken weed
lines are the bane of offshore fishermen. When I was a kid, I worked
as a deckhand. I worked my butt off many days clearing all 6 lines
then clearing them again and again. Some days, grass is everywhere and
you cannot avoid it. On a tournament day or with a billfish charter
aboard, you can’t say to heck with it and go fish for Snapper. You
have three choices; pull grassed up baits, pull lines and pluck grass
continuously or fish smarter.
Downriggers can sometimes be used to good advantage
to position your lures just below the floating grass. I often use a 4#
ball with a release clip or rubber band on the back eye and trolled on
just enough 80# m! ono to keep it below the grass and short enough to
keep it out of the prop. The ball will collect most of the grass,
leaving very little to slide down to your bait or lure. Trolled close,
you can see the grass wad up on the ball. It is a simple matter to
pull it up and clear it without disturbing your bait. This is much
simpler than using a downrigger and you don’t have a downrigger in
your way when fighting a fish. Some grass gets on your line but it
usually stops at the release clip and can be cleared when you clear
the grass on your ball. Pulling a ten foot hand line sure beats
reeling in every 5 minutes.
Streamlining your knots and terminal gear is a great
way to minimize grass problems. I am always on the look out for clear
barrel ball point pens. A short length of the clear barrel portion
slid down over knots and swivels keeps grass to a minimum. Yes, an
occasional Mac! kerel or other sharp toothed critter cuts you off but
it seems to be a good trade off on really grassy days.
Rigging baits and lures in a manner that sheds weeds
may reduce your hook up ratio drastically. I prefer to use a Bonita
strip in a larger than normal skirt. I use wide gap hooks like the
Mustad Sea Demon rather than the Southern Tuna style hooks because the
wider gap hook penetrates the skirt easier on the strike. By rigging
the hook point slightly inside the cone
of the skirt, the point is protected from grass. The
pointed end of the skirt sheds most of the grass. Bright colored
skirts are easily seen even from the cockpit. You will see any grass
on your bait a lot easier. I have no experience with fake plastic
strips but they should work fine inside a skirt.
A large Jap Feather rigged with a strip or baitfish
can also be rigged inside a skirt. Make sure that the hook is inside
the! cone of the skirt. You should trim the skirt to match the size of
the Jap Feather and baitfish combo. I like to see the tail of the
baitfish kicking behind the skirt.
Any hook forward rigged bait or lure should work
well with a large skirt over the head and hook. These streamlined
lures create very little commotion so trolling them close behind a
large teaser might be in order.
You may sacrifice a few missed hookups when you rig
this way but you can keep more bait in the water more of the time. A
bait out of the water for cleaning gets no strikes. Clean baits get
more strikes. There is a trade.
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