NNAC member needs tutor?

[lrc]

O.K. folks, gotta stop being proud and ask for an assist from those of you that have had good luck recently.

We've been out in this beautiful weather the last two days trolling with four lines out. Rigged with umbrellas and daisy chains with 10' of flourocarbine leader, 16-20 oz of in line weight and even with no weight, depending upon water depth. Also, running with single lures with added weight and no weights.

We've not had a single strike for 5 hours a day of trolling. Our territory has been 59A, 62 and even tried north to Point Lookout.

Third Child, we were parallel to you when you had your strikes.

We're not seeing any baitfish and the Rock we have seen on the finder are sparse.

Birds were heavy at 59A on Monday, no birds yesterday.

Earlier this month we had great luck chumming for the 18-24" Rock at the NN Reef.

Either we're seriously off in our technique or we've been awfully unlucky.

Help from successful TFT'ers and NNAC members would be appreciated. I'd like to try again this week with this great weather but my fishing mates and I are questioning whether it's worth the fuel burn.

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice.

[rappahanockman]

Don't give up IRC! The main thing is you need to be in the vicinity of bait
to get some hot action going. Also,I have had 95% of my larger fish hit
lures which are within 5ft. of the bottom. I suggest a Mojo/umbrella combo
for a sure fire fish catcher!

[lrc]

It seems like when we do spot fish, they are between 25' deep and the bottom, thus the heavy in line weights we've been dragging.

We're using in line sinkers instead of planars and we're using the typical chartruese and white teasers and lures.

Yee Gads, this is driving us crazy with no strikes.

Even when we were in the thick of birds at 59A on Monday, no strikes.

[TIE ONE ON]

I Think This Is A Job For Big Jimmy.:)

[SEAWOLFF]

Are you you using mono or braided line on your reels? We use all braid and the weight you mentioned is considered medium when using braid. Your deep rig should be a 32-48oz.
Mojo 3-4 ft. off a 3way. with 12 ft. of 80-100 mono back to your lure (umbrella, Tomic, Bunker spoon). This set-up is dropped 60 ft. from the rod tip. Next set-up should be a 24oz. inline with 10 ft. leader to the lure (as you are doing). This will be dropped 85 ft. from the rod tip. Then the same set up with 16 oz. 120 ft. back. Last you use 0-8 oz. inline with the same set-up 160 ft. back. You can use a stretch 25 or 30 on the last set-up if you do let it go to about 200 ft. This spread should cover the water column. If one of these get more hits than the others duplicate it and try to get them seperated as far as possible.

Note; Florocarbon is a complete waist of money when trolling for big Rockfish. They are not shy of anything when they decide to eat. Example they will attack a sassy shad attatched to a stainless steel bar. For my leader between the inline and umbrella I use 125 lb. mono with crimped 165 lb. swivels. This large diameter mono is easy on the hands and is much easier to untangle.

If you need more specifics feel free to ask.

[lrc]

Seawolf,

Thanks for the tips. I am using Penn 330 LD's rigged with Power Pro 65 lb. braided line (mono backer). I'm putting the in line sinkers off the braid, before the fluoro. The flouro is 80 lb test.

We have staggered our drop backs with the lighter weights dropped back farther and we've had no tangles with 4 lines.

Next time out in my boat, I'm going to drop the outriggers down and run 6 lines to try to increase our chances.

One thing I noticed, you're running heavier weights than we are on the closest lines and running only 60' back if I understand correctly. That might be a change we would make.

I have run into trouble with the Daisy hitting bottom in 40 ft of water. Mostly we've been in 60-90 ft around 62 and 59A.

[jrocket567]

I have run into trouble with the Daisy hitting bottom in 40 ft of water. Mostly we've been in 60-90 ft around 62 and 59A.

I may be misunderstanding you, but you want that thing on the bottom; If its not bouncing the bottom, youve either gotta add a little more line, more weight, or slow down.

Drop the inline off of the daisy chain, and snap a big mojo onto the bottom of it.

Brings up a point- how fast have you been trolling? Rockfish are fat and lazy, and wont chase baits like a bluefish. I do my best to not exceed 3kts, and aim for 2-2.5 (and will slow down if needed). They are also usually hugging the bottom, which demands the large weights and the mojos bouncing the bottom.

I'll be out Friday and Saturday, give me a shout, I'm usually on 68.
Jay
"KwikRelease"

[lrc]

Thanks JRocket,

Seems when I've been hitting bottom with the Daisy I'm picking up large amounts of grass.

We have varied our speed, usually running 3.4 knots all the way down to 2.5 knots.

We've been trying to keep the lures off the bottom.

Sounds like we're not deep enough.

[SEAWOLFF]

A 48 oz. let out 60 ft. will not drag bottom at normal trolling speed in 38 ft. of water. We try never to let our rigs touch the bottom. When you hit bottom all kinds of problems can arise (weeds, hangs, lures and hooks get tangled). When we drop our lines we thumb them and never let them crash to the bottom. Sometimes they will hit bottom when we make a tight turn or when we have to slow down. If it does these lines come in and are checked. I know as a fact that there are many folks trolling out there that don't stand a chance of catching a fish because their lines are fouled or tangled. It takes work but it pays off. I run the exact spred I described earlier except I run 2 sets one set off each side 8 rods total. Last year we caught over 600 rockfish over 34". This year we are already around 80 and have only fished 4 days.

[lrc]

Seawolf,

Nice boat you have there. I have a Carolina Classic 25 with volvo jackshaft diesel. The last two days we've been out on a 25 GW. We rotate our boats.

I've never named my boat since new in 2004. Oh well....

My Lee Jr. outriggers are only set up for one line each but are capable of more than that. We've usually got 3 to 4 people on board, sometimes only two.

We're going to take your advice and set up heavier weights all around. The daisy seems most susceptible to hitting bottom so far. As you said, when we do hit bottom it junks up the lures.

I'm off the Great Wiccomico close to the 200 bridge (Wiccomico Bluffs). Where do you dock? We may give you a holler if we go tomorrow or Friday if you're out.

I don't have radar for spotting the distant birds so it's eye range only.